Image from The Strand Workers Union’s Instagram
The Strand Workers Union went on strike over the weekend, walking out on Saturday over demands for better pay. The union, which represents around 100 unionized workers as part of UAW Local 2179, has been in contract negotiations for months, and their old contract finally expired on November 28th. The bargaining process has reached some agreements on emergency time off and vacation request policies, but an overwhelming majority of members still voted to authorize a strike.
The union shared a video from their first day on the picket line, which features some extremely cool parody Goosebumps covers:
The wage increase is the union’s biggest demand in negotiations, since the current base pay for workers is minimum wage, which Aaron Eisenberg of the UAW told The Gothamist is “far from enough for workers in the city.” The union is also asking that management drop its proposal to lower the number of paid time off for some employees, from nine days to seven days for workers who have been at the store for less than three years.
Andrew Stando, who is on the union’s bargaining committee, told NYU’s Washington Square News, “On the whole, conditions are not too bad, but the problem is I want to stay here for a long time — which is why I want to be paid enough to make that a viable option.”
The relationship between the Strand’s management and labor has been tense for the last few years, and the relationship with owner Nancy Bass Wyden has been particularly fraught. During the pandemic lockdown, the Strand fired staff en masse and then came under fire for their use of PPP loans and for Bass Wyden’s stock investments, which included shares of Amazon. Bass Wyden’s husband is Ron Wyden, the senator from Oregon, and one prominent sign on the picket line quotes the Senator, who once said, “We can’t continue to have workers earning starvation wages.”
And while Bass Wyden has kept the store in business during some tough times, there seems to be a pervasive sense that she doesn’t get it. In a piece from 2021, Vulture shared a telling anecdote that illustrates the feeling among staff that “she’s not one of them”:
Legend has it that 20-odd years ago, a hotshot actor was walking around the Strand. Bass Wyden, who was then the co-owner with her father, clocked him as someone and started asking her employees if they could identify him. “Holden Caulfield,” a staff member with a particularly dry sense of humor told her. Bass Wyden then turned around and told everyone she could find that the one and only Holden Caulfield was shopping in her store.
Management and the union are due back at the negotiating table today, but there are plenty of ways you can support the strike. Don’t cross the picket line, of course, and get your books elsewhere.
And if you can’t get out in person, the union is asking supporters to email the owner and the COO with your messages of solidarity and that management meets the union’s demands.
In the meantime, keep an eye on the union’s Instagram for further updates!
