San Francisco's City Lights Bookstore may—by my count—become the 12th workplace1 in the Bay Area under the banner of IWW in short order, as the workers there announced their intention to affiliate with the Wobblies last week. My understanding is City Lights is something of a cultural cornerstone—according to Wikipedia, it's even listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark—and so unionizing it would be a major win for the IWW. Although it's not an explicit commitment, City Lights has suggested they will voluntarily recognize the union.
A successful unionization here would be a continuation of Bay Area IWW's momentum in the region in a few ways. City Lights would be their third bookstore unionization in the area—they've previously unionized Moe's Books in Berkeley and a Copperfield's Books location in Petaluma—and start the new year strong after an impressive set of unionizations last year. In addition to the aforementioned Copperfield's union, in 2023 Bay Area unionized three Peets Coffee locations, the Berkeley Ecology Center, and salvage-center Urban Ore.
A familiar tune emerges for why the unionization is happening now: low pay and a perceived lack of care from City Lights. In a story on the union with Publishers Weekly, CLWU organizer Joan Toledo notes that some employees work on minimum wage ($18.07/hr); she is quoted here as saying the store has “strikingly low pay, despite working at one of the most famous independent bookstores in the world. She also adds the store has “no grievance process of any kind” which is obviously problematic.
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Covering 15 total locations.
Congratulations to the IWW on its latest victory in the Bay Area!