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PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)
Sun Dec 13, 2020, 02:35 PM Dec 2020

Bookshop Santa Cruz Employees Consider Forming Union

M.J. Jenkins, a bookseller at Bookshop Santa Cruz, didn’t take the decision to start organizing a union lightly.

“I was nervous, because unionizing can be seen as just a bunch of agitators. But that’s not what we’re going for at all,” says Jenkins, who’s worked at the bookstore for a little more than a year and makes $15.75 an hour.

Jenkins and some of her colleagues have submitted a mission statement about their intent to unionize to Bookshop owner Casey Coonerty Protti. According to a post on IndyBay.org, there will be a protest outside Bookshop on Pacific Avenue Friday, Dec. 11, at 5pm. Jenkins says she and her fellow organizers are focused on advocating for themselves in hopes of getting health care and a securing a livable wage—which, for Santa Cruz, they calculated to be $17.90.

Entry-level Bookshop employees currently start at a $15.50 hourly wage. For the first time, the store also has temporary workers, who are making $14 an hour for the holiday season, but they are not fully trained booksellers, Protti says. She adds that the majority of workers make more than $17.75 an hour.

Read the rest at: https://goodtimes.sc/santa-cruz-news/bookshop-santa-cruz-workers-forming-union/
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Bookshop Santa Cruz Employees Consider Forming Union (Original Post) PoliticAverse Dec 2020 OP
Hmmm, this is a fairly small, family run bookstore- hope they can survive unionization and COVID Fiendish Thingy Dec 2020 #1
I live in Santa Cruz county, proud of this development. Alex4Martinez Dec 2020 #2

Fiendish Thingy

(18,827 posts)
1. Hmmm, this is a fairly small, family run bookstore- hope they can survive unionization and COVID
Sun Dec 13, 2020, 03:25 PM
Dec 2020

I believe it is the only remaining independent bookseller in the county, might be the only bookstore period.

The family that owns the store is big in Santa Cruz- the founder’s son is the current mayor IIRC.

Alex4Martinez

(2,936 posts)
2. I live in Santa Cruz county, proud of this development.
Tue Dec 15, 2020, 12:26 PM
Dec 2020

It costs a lot to live here, even in the tiniest shared studio apartment.

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