Politics And Prose Workers Succeed In Becoming DC's First Unionized Bookstore

WASHINGTON, DC — Employees at D.C.’s Politics and Prose bookstore won in their attempt to unionize and get recognized under a collective bargaining agreement, the bookstore and collective bargaining team announced Monday.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 will serve as the collective bargaining agent for 54 employees across the bookstore's three locations in D.C. Politics and Prose is the first bookstore in D.C. to become unionized.

The owners of Politics and Prose and UFCW Local 400 said in a joint statement Monday that they are committed to working together “collegially and constructively” to negotiate a contract for unionized employees.

“As stewards of a local, independent business with a 37-year legacy of progressive management and mission, we’ve valued collaborating with employees to solve problems and address needs, and we look forward to working with the union in the same spirit,” Politics and Prose owners Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine said in a statement.

Employees at Politics and Prose hope to gain higher wages, a standardized pay scale, and improved scheduling from the new union, DCist reported Monday.

“We are proud to join the growing movement of booksellers and baristas across the country who have unionized their workplaces,” the Politics and Prose organizing committee said in its own statement. “We look forward to negotiating our first contract and welcoming more bookstore workers in DC and beyond into our union family.”

As other bookstores in D.C., like Olsson’s Books and Records, Chapters, Common Concerns and Lambda Rising, closed down over the past couple decades, Politics and Prose was able to expand to two new locations.

The original Politics and Prose store opened in 1984 on Connecticut Avenue in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of D.C. The other locations are at The Wharf and Union Market. Among the three locations, Politics and Prose has more than 100 employees.

The United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 represents 35,000 members working in the grocery, retail, health care, food processing, service and other industries in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.