On March 19, workers at Shelf Life Books in Richmond, Va., announced they have officially unionized with UFCW Local 400, making them the first booksellers in Richmond to form a union.
After every eligible worker at the store signed union authorization cards in support of the effort, the owners chose to voluntarily recognize the union. The union covers five employees at the store and negotiations with management on a first union contract are in progress.
The workers’ organizing committee released the following statement:
“We’re proud to be the first booksellers in Richmond to unionize. As we look forward to negotiating our first union contract, we won’t be starting from scratch thanks to the work of our union siblings at Politics and Prose and Solid State Books, who have negotiated groundbreaking contracts that inspired us to unionize in the first place.”
