WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 28, 2023) – Today, workers at Solid State Books have announced plans to unionize with United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400 Union.
The workers organizing committee released the following statement regarding the effort:
“We are the workers of Solid State Books and we are excited to announce we have decided to form a union!
“We are unionizing because we love our work, our customers, and the broader H street community. With a collective voice, we know we can make Solid State Books the best workplace it can be.
“We are all in this together. Every eligible worker supports our effort. We call on management to immediately recognize our union so we can begin collectively negotiating our first contract.”
After every eligible worker at the store signed union authorization cards in support of the effort, the workers presented the cards to management last week and requested the owners voluntarily recognize the union. The group also filed for a union election through the National Labor Relations Board on Friday, so in the event that management fails to voluntarily recognize the union, officials from the NLRB will oversee a formal union election. The union would cover seven employees at the store located at 600 H Street NE.
The booksellers at Solid State Books are not alone in unionizing. In September, booksellers and baristas at Politics and Prose became the first bookstore workers in the District of Columbia to unionize and ratify a union contract.
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United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 is led by President Mark Federici and represents 35,000 members working in the grocery, retail, health care, food processing, service and other industries in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. www.ufcw400.org