‘A Lot Of Value In What We Do’: Massapequa Barnes & Noble Union Organizer Tells The Story Of A Union Vote

MASSAPEQUA, NY — Last week, the Massapequa Park Barnes & Noble staff voted to unionize. It was the first Barnes & Noble staff on Long Island to do so, following union drives in New York City and Illinois, and the vote set the stage for collective bargaining between a 16-person staff and the bookseller that Forbes has called “the largest retail bookseller in the United States.”

At the center of that unionization effort is Sam Migliore, a senior bookseller at the Massapequa Park store who told Patch she has worked there for just over three years. A Seaford resident, Migliore has almost a decade of retail experience at locations in and around Massapequa Park.

So, why did the staff try to unionize?

Jack Caffey, local president of the RWDSU local 1102 — the union with which Massapequa’s Barnes & Noble staff are affiliated — said Monday that it was a combination of scheduling difficulties, lack of room for development and wages.

For her part, Migliore said the scheduling issues have become more difficult as the store’s headcount has gone down.

“It’s something that has kind of gotten worse as time went on. Part of the issue was...the fact that we've slowly lost a lot of staff and we're not a very big store,” Migliore said. “It's really difficult to plan anything because we don't really know what our schedule is going to look like…And it's really difficult to get time off, because we don't have enough people to really fill that time. Sometimes you have to request off a couple of months in advance to get a weekend day [off]. It has been really difficult with that.”

In total, Migliore said the staff at the Massapequa Park location is 16 people.

“It’s a really small store, although we definitely could use more people,” the St. Anthony’s high school graduate said.

The other issue Migliore and Caffey identified was a perceived lack of upward mobility, which Migliore said came to a head last Summer when staff from other stores started coming to Massapequa to pick up unfilled shifts.

“They had worked for the company for about the same amount of time, if not less, than some of us in our store, and they would be in positions higher than we are,” Migliore said. “And these people would come in and assume that we were also higher positions than we actually were.”

Ultimately, the bookseller said, the problem was simple.

“We were doing the work of that higher position, but not getting the pay for it. I think that was the primary issue,” Migliore said.

The combination of scheduling difficulties and a lack of growth opportunities created an environment Migliore said was “sometimes, I think, demoralizing.”

“People in my store do really love their jobs. They do love working with books and working with the customers, but it makes it really frustrating, and sometimes, I think, demoralizing, to put that love in and then not have it given back,” she said.

Not helping matters was the fact that many of the staff at the Massapequa location took jobs at Barnes & Noble to find work in a job market that didn’t offer careers in the fields they had studied in college, Migliore said.

A School of Visual Arts graduate with a cartoonist’s background, Migliore said that combination — feeling “stuck” in the same role at the same company, but also feeling stuck without outside prospects — was “not really helpful.”

“There are a lot of us who work here who have college degrees — which is not say that there's anything wrong with not having one — but there are a lot of us who are here, partly, because we did struggle to find work in the field that we graduated from,” Migliore said. “The economy is really hard right now, the job market is really hard right now. So, getting a job like this because you kind of were stuck, [not] getting stuff in your own field, and then feeling stuck in this job because there's also not really a sense of mobility there, is not really helpful.”

Migliore said another part of the impetus to unionize came after seeing a successful unionization effort at New York City’s Union Square Barnes & Noble last year, a development that “started conversations” at the store she said, “was my local Barnes & Noble, growing up.”

As for why it was important to unionize a store like this one, Migliore said the role retail work plays — referring to the industry as a "service for people" — makes it pivotal.

“The fact that retail jobs are so devalued is exactly why this is so important. There is a lot of value in what we do…A lot of retail work — not just Barnes & Noble, but also grocery stores, your local CVS, any store that has people working these jobs — that is a service for people in society. And without that, there is a lot of stuff that people wouldn't really be able to do that I know people enjoy,” Migliore said. “I think it's also [that] these jobs used to be valid career paths. There's a lot of people who work in management [at Barnes & Noble] now [who have] been doing this their whole life, because it was a valid career path and it was something that was attainable to build a life with. And it's not like that anymore, and I think that's not really right.”

In a statement Tuesday, a Barnes & Noble spokesperson said discussions with the fledgling booksellers’ union would begin shortly.

“We can confirm that the Massapequa store did vote to unionize,” the spokesperson said. “Discussions will start shortly and we look forward to a collaborative bargaining relationship and to working together toward an agreement.”

Tuesday, Caffey said the important part of those discussions was that employees could “have a seat at a table.”

“Regardless of what the issues are, they’ll be able to voice their opinions and negotiate with the company where you don’t get to do so in a non-union setting,” Caffey said.

For Migliore, those discussions could enable her to keep doing a job that has been a source of joy with a group of coworkers she’s quite fond of.

“I have always loved helping people. I also love books, I’ve always been a reader, ever since I was very young. And this was my local Barnes & Noble growing up,” Migliore said. “I love helping people find things, I love helping people find their new favorite books, and I love working with my coworkers. I think that's a good way to sum it up.”