Months after unionization, negotiations between the Labyrinth Books Union employees and the store’s owners continue to stall as disagreements over terms have prevented a finalized contract. A meeting set for Tuesday was unexpectedly canceled by the union‘s bargaining committee due to “unforeseen personal circumstances,” after a previous round of negotiations over the summer left them unsatisfied with the results. With no date set, negotiations will be in flux for the foreseeable future.
Labyrinth workers officially unionized on Jan. 10, 2024, when the employees, store owners, and the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) all signed a voluntary recognition agreement. Although negotiations seemed ready to start, on Aug. 8, the Labyrinth Books Union filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board. Employees wrote that the owners were not bargaining in good faith.
“Our Employer’s unwillingness to meet at the bargaining table on a regular basis — lately delaying for months at a time — has needlessly drawn out the contract negotiation process,” said a signed statement posted to the union’s Instagram account.
“The issue at hand is that we unionized in December, we were voluntarily recognized by the employer in January, and in the eight months since then, we have only met at the table twice to negotiate,” Labyrinth employee Theo Jame told The Daily Princetonian in an interview. “Both of those times … for two hours or less.”
The owners of Labyrinth, Dorothea von Moltke and Cliff Simms, disagreed with this characterization.
“The owners of Labyrinth have been meeting regularly with the union’s bargaining committee,” they wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’
“While owner Cliff Simms did request to postpone one meeting on July 2 due to an eye injury and subsequent operation, negotiations are ongoing. Given that the parties were aware of Cliff’s health issue, the accusation of bad faith negotiations are hard to understand. We remain eager to come to an agreement,” they added. The discussion was rescheduled to Aug. 29.
While previous union negotiation sessions were made open to the public at Princeton Public Library, the Aug. 29 meeting initially held a virtual option. However, the virtual meeting was closed a few minutes into the session. Jame noted that the party including management and the mediator also had concerns about filming the negotiations.
After their negotiations concluded, von Moltke wrote to the ‘Prince’ that “we are hopeful that we are making progress toward a competitive and sustainable contract. In order to expedite the process, we invited a federal mediator which we believe was instrumental in the progress we made.”
Von Moltke also provided an update on the status of negotiations, writing to the ‘Prince,’ “We have offered a starting wage of $17 an hour and yearly raises for the next 3 years. In addition, we are offering health and vision insurance, vacation and sick pay, and overtime pay as well as a 401(k) personal retirement benefit.”
After the most recent discussion, Labyrinth employees still feel that progress needs to be made.
“There were still many points of our contract that they had not acknowledged, and in their counter proposals that they presented with us that day, they did not concede any points,” Jame told the ‘Prince.’ “We felt that we arrived at 10:00 a.m. ready for a full day of negotiations, and we only had two hours at the table where pretty minimal movement was made, and there was still a lot of resistance from them.”
Elise Agnor, another employee, also said she would like to see changes within the negotiation process in the future. “The biggest frustration that we have going forward is their unwillingness to hold open bargaining sessions as we had in the past,” she said.
Both Agnor and Jame noted that they would like to see future discussions held as open bargaining sessions available to the public at the Princeton Public Library.
Yet management had a different view about open bargaining. Simms wrote, “We have always agreed to open bargaining sessions in which any employee from Labyrinth can attend. What we have never agreed to is public bargaining where anybody is permitted to attend.”
Discussions between management and the union coincide with other notable changes for the bookstore. As of this semester, Labyrinth is no longer the main provider of course books for Princeton students. Students now purchase their books through an online retailer called eCampus. The change in provider ends a 17-year partnership between Labyrinth and the University.
However, employees haven’t seen a significant change in business so far.
“I don’t think we can speak to exact numbers. Based on my own personal experience in the store, I think that it has still been quite busy with the start of the semester and the influx of students coming into town,” Jame said.
At the same time, the store has seen recent staff turnover. According to Jame and another Labyrinth employee, Elise Agnor, approximately five to seven employees have left the bookstore out the 20 who initially filed the NLRB complaint, but Labyrinth has only hired one new employee since the recognition of the union.
“Without [Labyrinth employees], the store would not function. It would not be as special as it is. So we just wanted to be recognized for that and treated accordingly,” said Jame.
Isabella Dail is a staff News writer and head editor for The Prospect for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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