LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A group of booksellers at Half Price Books' Hurstbourne Parkway store voted Friday to unionize, according to UFCW Local 227, the union organizing the workers.
The tally of the election, in which 18 rank-and-file store employees were eligible to vote, was not immediately available. But the company acknowledged the union's victory in a statement Monday.
In statement posted by UFCW 227, workers said they look forward to negotiating a labor contract with Half Price Books and wish to address issues like pay and staffing levels at the store.
"We deserve a seat at the table, and a place for our ideas not only to be heard, but for us to negotiate their implementation," Mary Condon, a bookseller at the store, said in the statement. "l look forward to our voices together being a positive change at Half Price Books."
"Half Price Books will recognize the newly formed union at our Hurstbourne store and will begin the process of working with union representatives," Kathy Doyle Thomas, president of Half Price Books, said in a statement.
The store is one of two Louisville locations for Dallas, Texas-based Half Price Books, which describes itself as "America's largest family-owned bookstore" with more than 120 stores.
It's the latest in a recent uptick in local organizing in the retail and restaurant industries. Earlier this month, about 200 Heine Brothers' Coffee workers voted to join an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union.
Two Louisville-area Starbucks stores voted to unionize earlier this year, with the results at a third store awaiting confirmation.
