San Francisco's City Lights Employees Join Union, Bookstore Recognizes It

Updated 5:00 p.m. Monday

City Lights management has officially recognized its first employee union, confirmed Stacey Lewis, vice president and director of publicity, marketing and sales at the world-famous independent bookstore and publishing house.

The move paves the way for booksellers and other eligible employees, who formed City Lights Workers Union, to begin collective bargaining with representation from Industrial Workers of the World, Local 660.

“I feel happy that we are now one step closer to bargaining for a better, more equitable workplace,” said Joan Toledo, 35, a worker organizer at City Lights. “I imagine that all my co-workers feel the same way because, who doesn’t want to work in a better workplace?”

In a statement, City Lights said managers will work with union representatives to create a “more sustainable future” for staffers.

Original Story

Workers at the celebrated City Lights Booksellers & Publishers in San Francisco have chosen to unionize, KQED has learned.

Most of the 16 or so eligible employees recently signed union-authorization cards and joined the Industrial Workers of the World Local 660. The labor organization, established in 1905, represents nearly 9,000 workers across North America.

Booksellers at City Lights told KQED that some of the top goals for workers are raising “abysmal” pay, establishing a formal process to address grievances and increasing job security for part-time workers.

“What we want more than anything is for City Lights to be a sustainable, thriving community,” said Decca Muldowney, 34, who makes San Francisco’s minimum wage of $18.07 per hour. “We think that the union is a way to protect City Lights for the future and to help further the original radical vision of the bookstore and the publishing house.”

City Lights was co-founded in 1953 by acclaimed poet and activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti as a literary meeting place. The cultural institution, perhaps best known for first publishing Allen Ginsburg’s Howl and Other Poems and its ensuing battle for freedom of speech with the state, was named a historic landmark in 2001.

Workers have the right to start their own unions or join one. But if their employer refuses to recognize it as their representative for collective bargaining, workers may turn to the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election and certify the vote results.

Recent polls suggest most Americans approve of unions. But only 10% (PDF) of wage and salaried workers in the U.S. were members last year, down from 20% in 1983, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Still, Noah Ross, a delegate with the IWW said union interest is high among bookstores, nonprofits and businesses in the Bay Area.

“We are at a moment in labor at large where people want more voice in their contracts. They want a seat at the table in negotiating how they are treated at their workplace,” said Ross, who previously worked at Moe’s Books in Berkeley, which also joined the IWW.

City Lights bargaining collectively would be “huge for the larger bookstore union wave we’ve seen and also for Labor,” he added.

Previous efforts to unionize workers at the bookstore fizzled, said Muldowney, a writer and freelance journalist who previously worked at The Daily Beast.

But this time, a months-long effort to organize has led to workers asking management to voluntarily recognize their union, with a decision expected by next Tuesday at noon.

“We do intend to recognize this union,” City Lights Executive Director Elaine Katzenberger wrote in an email to KQED.

“City Lights has always been actively engaged in the project of creating and evolving a fulfilling, equitable, and humane workplace. This is a key to our institutional philosophy, and it has informed our practice from the beginning,” said Katzenberger. “If unionization can provide us with new tools for helping us to better achieve these ideals, we absolutely welcome them.”