June 24, 2025, 1:53pm
The books world is has been full of labor action in the last few years, most recently with Quirk Books voting to form a union with the NewsGuild and Abrams Books winning their vote to form a union with the UAW.
Bookstores have especially been at the forefront of this push to organize. On May Day I went to an event at Verso’s offices featuring unionized booksellers talking about their work and their organizing. One fact jumped out at me: over 40% of all bookstores in New York City are unionized, which is four times the nation average.
That 40% is likely about to be even higher with the news that The Center for Fiction just won voluntary union recognition.
How did bookstores in New York get to such a high union density? I spoke to five bookstore workers in NYC about their experiences organizing, how COVID changed the perceptions of their work, and how they find inspiration in each others’ struggles.
Thanks to Aaron, Pilar, Henri, Joe, and Maritza for taking the time to talk to me. Their responses, which were so in depth and thoughtful, have been edited for length and clarity.
Aaron Lascano, shop steward, writer, game designer, and Senior Bookseller at Barnes & Noble Union Square, RWDSU
Maria Pilar Beddall, bookseller at Book Culture, with RWDSU
Henri Seguin, bookseller at The Center for Fiction, RWDSU
Joe Gross, poet and Lead Visual Merchandiser at The Strand, UAW Local 2179
Maritza Montañez, improviser and buyer at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn, RWDSU
Why a union? What drew you to organizing?
AARON: I wanted to organize a union at Barnes & Noble because every single one of my coworkers deserved to be treated and paid better … workers at other companies like Amazon and Starbucks had begun their own union campaigns to win better pay and working conditions. They showed us the path forward—the only way to regain power in the workplace and to bring your employer to the bargaining table is to unionize.
HENRI: I had been asking around about a union because I came from Elliot Bay Books in Seattle. (Editor’s note: They started their own union!) Elliot Bay had this really wonderful structure they had started during COVID and fought for during that crazy time. So they were just total seasoned veterans of union work and the benefits that it brought to the space … So I came in [to The Center for Fiction] very eager and with some backgrounds in that work.
And then getting into the Center, it was lot different than I expected. It’s not just a bookstore, it’s also a cafe, and it’s also a nonprofit. And so although it’s a small organization, I saw a lot of the same issues as at Elliott Bay … And then there was a big renegotiating of contracts at the end of the year. A lot of shuffling around that—you know, I can’t totally speak to everyone’s experience—but my own, I was told one thing and then didn’t get that in terms of pay … It was a big upset and we started discussing how to fix this, and how the Center can work in the long term, because it just didn’t feel, without the union, like it had longevity in the system. So we saw [the union] as a tonic to fix these structural issues.
PILAR: We need unions, we have always needed unions, without them we have no real chance of a better, more just future.
MARITZA: Most of my extended family has spent decades in physically demanding jobs, and many of their hardest jobs as migrant or seasonal farm workers offered the fewest protections. I took their stories to heart and cared about worker rights sort of implicitly. I didn’t anticipate organizing myself, but working in retail changed me a lot and made me more comfortable talking to people, including my coworkers. Eventually it became clear that we wanted similar things from our jobs, and that it would be safest to advocate for ourselves with formal union protections.
JOE: In short, non-union life is no kind of life.
What were the early conversations with your coworkers like?
AARON: I think I talked a lot about a union as stability. A union contract sets pay and certain policies clearly, meaning you’re no longer at the whims of management. You can bargain out policies to protect people in case of layoffs or store closure (which we did), you can bargain for more safety training and a clear banning policy (which we did). Without a union, we felt like bookselling wasn’t a job you could depend on for more than a year.
JOE: We talked about precarity. We talked about being the lowest paid unionized booksellers in the city, which had become common knowledge inside and outside the shop as people who worked or applied to work at other shops filtered through. …We talked about how many of us worked two jobs or picked up freelance assignments to make ends meet. A bargaining committee member who wanted to continue working at The Strand but couldn’t afford to left the store early in negotiations and returned home—we talked about that.
MARITZA: Our earliest conversations were casual in tone, validating, and a huge relief. One of my coworkers got a handful of BIPOC booksellers she trusted from both stores to join a Zoom after her last day at the store, and we essentially had a three-hour venting session as our first meeting. After that, our meetings got much more structured but it felt very much like we were looking out for one another and trying to make meetings as easy as possible to attend.
Why do you think so many bookshops are organizing recently?
PILAR: Because we need to! The threat of Bezos, and the more existential threats posed by capitalism and the government mean that the interests of booksellers and the literal work of book selling is more important than ever. And probably in the face of Trump and everything else, owners and bosses seem much less formidable.
JOE: My longtime friend since elementary school, Aaron Lascano, was working at Barnes & Noble Union Square and helping to negotiate his bargaining unit’s first contract while I was assisting with Strand workers’ contract renegotiations, and of course we spoke to each other about our various victories and defeats until eventually we got members of our bargaining committees into a room together and began trading information. We showed up for each other’s rallies and pickets where we could, and RWDSU research…confirmed our suspicions that Strand workers were earning less than any other unionized booksellers in the city.
The big takeaway from their reporting, though, was that upwards of 40% of all book shops in NYC were unionized, which is extremely high for any industry and opens a world of possibility in terms of contract alignment, the creation of industry-wide standards, and a base from which to organize related industries.
AARON: I think that part of it has to do with the types of workers that bookstores draw. There are plenty of students working at my shop, but there are also a lot of working artists (writers, actors, etc.), as well as people who have previously held unionized jobs as mail carriers, truck drivers, and teachers … We also are kind of in a bookstore resurgence–in NYC, B&N is really coming back, but the smaller stores are seeing it too. So we’re working harder days, moving more product and talking to more people, and we’re not seeing our pay rise with the rise in sales and work unless we unionize.
HENRI: Bookstores and the larger literary world is an industry of passion and personal interest. It’s very easy to gloss over a lot of issues because you’re sharing your love of literature, and of books, and you have a community of like-minded people around you.
But the thing about COVID is that it really stripped us down to “oh, no, it’s a service industry job.” It’s minimum wage, you’re under the heel of a lot of pressures, and you don’t have a lot of agency when it came down to it… you’re doing something you love, but you’re not treated in a loving manner.
MARITZA: It almost feels cliche to say, but I really do think the pandemic pushed a lot of people to act on their values. The economy and our industry shut down and stripped away some of the biggest perks that come with bookselling and left a lot of booksellers with just the toughest parts of our jobs. I think a lot of us had similar experiences: we lost the higher paying jobs and gigs that subsidized our low bookseller wages, and we either risked our health for low wages or got laid off by employers who received PPP loans. Many of my newer coworkers came from other industries that also got shaken up by the pandemic and were surprised by conditions so many booksellers accepted as industry standards, and that really reframed our expectations as well.
JOE: And we read. Anyone who reads history knows the only reason any workers anywhere have any sort of rights is because past workers formed unions, and radical, militant ones at that.
What was the most surprising aspect of the organizing process for you?
AARON: I was most surprised by how quickly people were willing to step up. Bargaining took about a year and half, and in that time, we had a lot of different people volunteer their time to help run the union. Even as new people got hired at B&N, they’d immediately get involved by coming to bargaining and making time to meet with the committee. Keeping any shop organized is difficult and time consuming, and it can only be done if workers step up to make it happen.
JOE: Organizing tests whether you’ll show up for something that’s possible but not yet probable, and every one of my comrades did.
MARITZA: I was anxious about talking to people who might think bookselling is too easy a job to organize, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many workers in other industries immediately understand that bookselling is worth unionizing. More and more people agree that workers benefit from unions regardless of what industry they work in.
What has been inspiring about the process?
HENRI: It’s been really encouraging to see the different workers and my colleagues step up in really encouraging ways. You know someone through their function at work, but the union work has really broadened that perspective. I’ve seen my colleagues and now my friends stay up late,wake up super early, plan all sorts of sort of contingencies and write drafts letters. And to see that work was a reflection of our commitment to The Center and its mission, it just makes the workspace feel a lot more purpose driven and inviting.
AARON: I’ve been inspired by the progress we’ve made as a unionized industry. In NYC, the RWDSU now covers B&N, McNally Jackson, Book Culture, and Greenlight. I’ve started organizing meetings with shop stewards from those stores and also Strand (covered by the UAW), so we can begin having conversations about building a new standard. I firmly believe that, if unions are to really make headway and regain power in this country, they need to provide a robust vision for working people. It can’t just be about raises, it has to be about reclaiming power, reclaiming dignity, reclaiming time from our jobs. And to get there, to really get contracts that can change people’s lives, unions have to link arms and act in concert with one another. We have to bargain together, picket together, and strike together. We have to re-learn what solidarity means and how to effectively perform solidarity.
JOE: So many people showed up for us when our negotiations stalled and we went on strike: the patrons who boycotted the store, comrades from Alamo Drafthouse, Cinema Village, and Nitehawk Cinemas who are currently negotiating their own contracts, comrades from UAW Region 9A and UAWD, comrades from the RWDSU, and socialist elected officials from across the city including Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander. I’m grateful, and I think people are realizing the existential importance of organizing outside traditional political structures, and unions are key to providing alternative avenues of engagement.
Unions should not be siloed in singular shops. They are political vehicles, and the most obvious ones at that.
MARITZA: It’s been inspiring to recognize that we’re part of a larger labor movement. The organizer who worked most closely with us at Greenlight also worked with Amazon workers in Bessemer, and that was humbling for me.
I am sappy so the things that most inspire me are hearing my coworkers advocate for each other or praise each others’ work. I also love little and tangible things, like so many of my coworkers got new and long-overdue glasses after our first contract because the company agreed to a vision plan for part-timers, and that felt like a small but important and immediately actionable win.
Do you have any advice for others who are thinking about forming a union?
MARITZA: My advice is to do it! And more specifically: make space for your coworkers to talk. Not everyone is comfortable complaining about work, especially at work– give your coworkers a safe place to talk, maybe on Zoom or some bar where their complaints won’t be overheard by the wrong people at the wrong time. Then give people some grace while you find common ground.
Very practically, I’d recommend researching similar workplaces that have unions and find a contact there to start walking you through what you need to do (and stress that you want to be discreet). If you’re in an industry that hasn’t historically had many unions, think about what the day-to-day of your work looks like, and see if there are parallels in another industry.
AARON: Before I started my own journey, all I could think about was how much better my coworkers deserved. I knew that we could and would win this campaign, that we could and would improve our lives. But I didn’t anticipate how our campaign would ripple outwards. The militancy of the B&N campaign, which involved actions including delegations, practice pickets, and a couple of walkouts, made conditions more favorable for other union campaigns to push back against their bosses. We rallied and picketed with Strand, took note of the concessions their bosses made to them, and then the concessions our bosses made to us were noted by other bookstores that were re-negotiating their contracts. The work that we did at B&N Union Square, B&N Park Slope, B&N Upper West Side, Strand, etc., didn’t just improve our individual stores. It helped improve the lives of hundreds of workers around NYC.
JOE: Talk about the shit that sucks. Don’t get any lofty ideas to start with; just complain to and commiserate with each other about every little and big way your job drains you and disrespects you and you’ll find that Baldwin quote about Dostoevsky proven true: your pain and heartache aren’t unprecedented in the history of the world and you share the path toward their alleviation.
And never, under any circumstances, accept a tiered contract.
PILAR: Do it, talk to each other, ask questions, reach out to members, and remember that no one has ever relinquished power willingly, even for things as small as better hours, or more holiday time.
Since we’re all book people here: What are you reading right now?
AARON: I am reading Roberto Bolaño’s Savage Detectives. I’m Latino, and I’ve been spending more time reading and thinking about Latino history, politics, and culture. I think Bolaño does an incredible job at capturing the fallout of American-backed coups and American imperialism in Latin America.
PILAR: Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez.
JOE: Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur, which is a novel of ardent ennui that follows the forays of the October Revolution into the expanse of the Russian steppe and the people navigating that horizon, the space between the joining of a fight that was always going on whether they acknowledged it or not and the future they hope to win from it.
MARITZA: I’m currently reading Miriam Toews’ A Truce That Is Not Peace and Oyinkan Braithwaite’s Cursed Daughters.
HENRI: One that I adored is this very strange book called One or Two by H.D. Everett. It’s [published] by Mandylion Press who highlight lost feminist and female writers, and this book is about a woman who, in order to lose weight, exorcises her body, and then that exorcised clump of weight that she loses gains sentience and haunts her. And it’s also probably the most beautiful book binding I’ve seen in a long time. It’s an absolutely gorgeous little book.
And finally, what does solidarity mean to you?
AARON: Solidarity is altruism, faith, strength … You engage this fight not knowing where it will go, not knowing that you’ll succeed, but knowing that you have a moral obligation to stand with fellow workers… it begins with the basic understanding that our fight is one fight, and that an injury to any worker is an injury to every worker.
HENRI: For me, solidarity is just very simply showing up when things get hard. Especially just across the nation, there’s been a lot of examples of moments where showing up is the hardest thing to do, but it is the most important thing. And I’ve seen it at The Center, which is really wonderful. I’ve seen workers who are at their limits reach out for help and people lift them up… it’s kind of banal, but I think that’s it’s very at its core it’s just showing up when it’s hard.
JOE: Solidarity is a full and complete commitment to causes that nominally are not your own because you realize that every human cause is of mortal importance when you live in the same time and space and can only affect a real reduction in suffering by collectively exerting the power of all peoples. Either everyone has unalienable rights or no one does.
MARITZA: For me, solidarity means mutual support, a willingness to take risks for one another and protect one another, and a feeling of investment in each other’s well-being.
PILAR: Solidarity means remembering that we are not alone in the struggle, that victories have been won before and will be won again, as long as we fight together.