Barnes & Noble Education Workers Seek to Unionize, Extending Organizing Wave
- New Jersey workers petition for college chain’s first union
- Move would extend a series of organizing wins since 2021
Used books for sale inside a Barnes & Noble Education location.
Photographer: Bing Guan/BloombergBarnes & Noble Education Inc. employees at a New Jersey store are petitioning to make theirs the company’s first unionized location, extending a wave of organizing in the US retail sector.
Workers say they’ve signed up most of the roughly 70 employees at the store on Rutgers University’s campus. After announcing their organizing campaign to local management, they plan to submit a filing Thursday asking the US National Labor Relations Board to conduct a unionization election. Employees are petitioning to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which currently represents retail workers at Macy’s Inc., H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB and, most recently, Recreational Equipment Inc., where it first secured a foothold last year in New York City.