Powell's Books Staff Strikes
September 8, 2023 10:07 AM Subscribe
All of Powell's 500 employees engaged in a one-day strike on Labor Day. Powell's announced via Instagram that it will close all its locations for the day "due to the lack of staffing." Portlanders are concerned: the post garnered hundreds of comments and nearly 4,000 likes in a day. The current conflict dates to the beginning of the pandemic, when Powell's laid off most of its staff. Many workers were rehired after the union contract's six-month recall period expired, and though they retained their prior compensation levels they lost tenure benefits like accrued paid leave. The store's employees have been represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) since 2000.
But that's the thing! They rely on that goodwill in hopes people will be like, "Shame on those workers. Powell's is an institution!"
IIRC, doesn't The Strand (another beloved bookstore) also treat their employees poorly?
posted by Kitteh at 10:26 AM on September 8, 2023 [13 favorites]
IIRC, doesn't The Strand (another beloved bookstore) also treat their employees poorly?
posted by Kitteh at 10:26 AM on September 8, 2023 [13 favorites]
IIRC, doesn't The Strand (another beloved bookstore) also treat their employees poorly?
There's a graphic novel about this:
On The Books: A Graphic Tale of Working Woes at NYC's Strand Bookstore by Greg Farrell.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:42 AM on September 8, 2023 [11 favorites]
There's a graphic novel about this:
On The Books: A Graphic Tale of Working Woes at NYC's Strand Bookstore by Greg Farrell.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:42 AM on September 8, 2023 [11 favorites]
Make no mistake - Powell's is both an institution and a place that should treat its workers right. I'm just disappointed because afternoons wandering Powell's loom large in my memories of Portland.
I'd go visit a friend, we'd wander the shelves and grab a bunch of books. We'd shuffle down the street to Bridgeport Brewing (before the awful renovation) and sit out on the track side loading dock with a pizza and pitcher of cask conditioned IPA. We'd have a couple of those while reading and shooting the shit as you can only really do when you're in your early 20's and want to wile away a lazy day.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:43 AM on September 8, 2023 [14 favorites]
I'd go visit a friend, we'd wander the shelves and grab a bunch of books. We'd shuffle down the street to Bridgeport Brewing (before the awful renovation) and sit out on the track side loading dock with a pizza and pitcher of cask conditioned IPA. We'd have a couple of those while reading and shooting the shit as you can only really do when you're in your early 20's and want to wile away a lazy day.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:43 AM on September 8, 2023 [14 favorites]
Even Ben & Jerry's fought back against their employees' attempt to unionize in the late 90s just the same as any other corporation (this was before the acquisition by multinational conglomerate Unilever). And it's been long clear that Starbucks' reputation for social responsibility was always just cost-effective image marketing.
Capitalism.
posted by AlSweigart at 10:59 AM on September 8, 2023 [15 favorites]
Capitalism.
posted by AlSweigart at 10:59 AM on September 8, 2023 [15 favorites]
Good for them, and I'm sorry they had to do it. I'd heard a bit about their issues with Powell's and wrote an email to let Powell's know they'd been getting my electronic business on an assumption they were dealing fairly with the union. Guess I'm fully going over to Bookshop.org until I hear things have changed for the better.
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:40 AM on September 8, 2023 [7 favorites]
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:40 AM on September 8, 2023 [7 favorites]
A close friend was part of the unionization effort that was recognized in 2000, and the current situation does not surprise me at all. Emily Powell is definitely a chip off her dad's "your retail workforce is expendable" block.
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 12:06 PM on September 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by joseph_elmhurst at 12:06 PM on September 8, 2023 [4 favorites]
Not Powell's! Is there truly nothing gold that can last and be pure? *grumble*
Powells employs people, and makes profit from paying employees less than their labor generates them. They cannot be good guys.
Federations and Syndicates do not suffer from this particular issue.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:55 PM on September 8, 2023 [7 favorites]
Powells employs people, and makes profit from paying employees less than their labor generates them. They cannot be good guys.
Federations and Syndicates do not suffer from this particular issue.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:55 PM on September 8, 2023 [7 favorites]
The kind of person who'd do this is just a crap kind of person:
Booksellers with decades at the company were forced to reapply for their jobs, and enroll in training and probationary new-hire programs...Workers also lost seniority perks like vacation time, including bookseller Nicholas Yandell, a poet and novelist who started at Powell’s in 2013. His benefits were reset in October 2020, when he was rehired. “If things were as they should be at 10 years, I would expand into a new set of benefits this September—you get an extensively larger amount of time off per year.”
...The union says that other companies, like uniform and food service supplier Aramark, simply extended the length of their employee recall clauses (the time period in which an employer must, when reinstating an an eliminated position, offer to rehire), and Powell’s could’ve done the same.
And it's not just "liberal" institutions like Powell's Books. Environmental groups like the Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife and the Public Interest Network, Sierra Club and others, have fought and stalled negotiations *for years* after their workers unionized.
posted by mediareport at 2:59 PM on September 8, 2023 [9 favorites]
Booksellers with decades at the company were forced to reapply for their jobs, and enroll in training and probationary new-hire programs...Workers also lost seniority perks like vacation time, including bookseller Nicholas Yandell, a poet and novelist who started at Powell’s in 2013. His benefits were reset in October 2020, when he was rehired. “If things were as they should be at 10 years, I would expand into a new set of benefits this September—you get an extensively larger amount of time off per year.”
...The union says that other companies, like uniform and food service supplier Aramark, simply extended the length of their employee recall clauses (the time period in which an employer must, when reinstating an an eliminated position, offer to rehire), and Powell’s could’ve done the same.
And it's not just "liberal" institutions like Powell's Books. Environmental groups like the Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife and the Public Interest Network, Sierra Club and others, have fought and stalled negotiations *for years* after their workers unionized.
posted by mediareport at 2:59 PM on September 8, 2023 [9 favorites]
Other than bookshop.org are there alternatives that people would recommend for getting books online, through legitimately independent booksellers?
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:53 PM on September 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:53 PM on September 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
If they were repped by the UFCW, these workers would have more clout. The ILWU has more important battles than book store workers, even though Local 5 includes nonprofit workers, veterinary workers, early childhood educators, etc..
posted by Ideefixe at 4:13 PM on September 8, 2023
posted by Ideefixe at 4:13 PM on September 8, 2023
Guy who sold the Sonics to OKC is all I will ever need to know about Howard Schultz.
posted by Windopaene at 4:59 PM on September 8, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 4:59 PM on September 8, 2023 [6 favorites]
Other than bookshop.org are there alternatives that people would recommend for getting books online, through legitimately independent booksellers?
You might want to take a look at Kepler's, based in Menlo Park, CA (they have a living wage surcharge to support their employees):
Kepler's went through a planned transition in 2012 during which the business was re-started in a hybrid business model that includes Kepler's Books, a community-financed bookstore set up as a social purpose corporation, and Kepler's Literary Foundation, a nonprofit events organization. Kepler's vision is to continuously innovate to create a model next-generation community bookstore that can be a sustainable cultural institution.
posted by JDC8 at 5:24 PM on September 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
You might want to take a look at Kepler's, based in Menlo Park, CA (they have a living wage surcharge to support their employees):
Kepler's went through a planned transition in 2012 during which the business was re-started in a hybrid business model that includes Kepler's Books, a community-financed bookstore set up as a social purpose corporation, and Kepler's Literary Foundation, a nonprofit events organization. Kepler's vision is to continuously innovate to create a model next-generation community bookstore that can be a sustainable cultural institution.
posted by JDC8 at 5:24 PM on September 8, 2023 [5 favorites]
In other local labor news, Portland now has its first unionized strip club.
posted by chrchr at 5:49 PM on September 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by chrchr at 5:49 PM on September 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
For anyone living in Australia, I recommend Rabble Books & Games which does mail order online. (I am not associated with them at all except as a customer.)
They pay their staff fairly AND
they host drag queen story times for children;
they organised sending face masks to a remote Aboriginal community during COVID;
they have a scheme where you can donate $5 or more and they add all the money up and give free $35 book vouchers to anyone who asks for one because they're in hardship.
"Who can request them? Anyone can request a voucher, if you have a need for one! We don't require an explanation. Two key groups of people that might request a voucher are:
(1) First Nations people, who shouldn't always have to pay for knowledge shared on stolen lands; and
(2) anyone who wouldn't otherwise be able to easily afford a book, including single mums, people on low income, young people without a wage.
If you want a book but can't afford it, this voucher is for you! Please get in touch on social media, email or in-store and we will pass one along to you."
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:09 PM on September 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
They pay their staff fairly AND
they host drag queen story times for children;
they organised sending face masks to a remote Aboriginal community during COVID;
they have a scheme where you can donate $5 or more and they add all the money up and give free $35 book vouchers to anyone who asks for one because they're in hardship.
"Who can request them? Anyone can request a voucher, if you have a need for one! We don't require an explanation. Two key groups of people that might request a voucher are:
(1) First Nations people, who shouldn't always have to pay for knowledge shared on stolen lands; and
(2) anyone who wouldn't otherwise be able to easily afford a book, including single mums, people on low income, young people without a wage.
If you want a book but can't afford it, this voucher is for you! Please get in touch on social media, email or in-store and we will pass one along to you."
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:09 PM on September 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Other than bookshop.org are there alternatives that people would recommend for getting books online, through legitimately independent booksellers?
Until I learned that Abebooks was owned by Amazon, that was my alternative. Recently I gave Alibris a run (it’s an old-timey Web 1.0 front end for a pile of independent bookstores, like Abebooks). I was after four different Star Wars comic collections, and was able to source them from four different vendors. Two were new, two were used, one came from a public library. One of the vendors had some trouble getting the volume to me, but was very sweet during our email exchange.
It would have been a snap to source these books via Amazon or Abebooks. But then I wouldn’t have gotten the one from the Omaha Public Library. And I would have missed the nice emails from Doozers Books.
posted by notyou at 6:05 AM on September 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
Until I learned that Abebooks was owned by Amazon, that was my alternative. Recently I gave Alibris a run (it’s an old-timey Web 1.0 front end for a pile of independent bookstores, like Abebooks). I was after four different Star Wars comic collections, and was able to source them from four different vendors. Two were new, two were used, one came from a public library. One of the vendors had some trouble getting the volume to me, but was very sweet during our email exchange.
It would have been a snap to source these books via Amazon or Abebooks. But then I wouldn’t have gotten the one from the Omaha Public Library. And I would have missed the nice emails from Doozers Books.
posted by notyou at 6:05 AM on September 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
We have a delightful indie bookstore here in Kingston, Novel Idea. I like to throw my money at them instead of Amazon when I can, but rumors are reaching me that the owner doesn't pay his staff living wages either. And if that is the case, I can promise that if I or any other patron who cared about these things were to bring it up, we'd get the "But Novel Idea is a lovely bookstore! How dare you malign the owner!"
posted by Kitteh at 6:47 AM on September 9, 2023
posted by Kitteh at 6:47 AM on September 9, 2023
Mod note: Several comments and responses removed. This thread is about a bookstore in Portland, Oregon, so bringing up the ceo of Starbucks and equating him to being a Nazi is a massive derail. Please do not continue this line of conversation and in general, avoid calling someone a Nazi who is not a Nazi, as it usually wrecks the conversation.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:10 AM on September 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 8:10 AM on September 9, 2023 [6 favorites]
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posted by drewbage1847 at 10:10 AM on September 8, 2023 [4 favorites]