Union dispute bubbles up at Harvard Book Store
Nd Complaint comes two months after management canceled 2nd location
unionized staff at the harvard Book store have filed an unfair labor charge against the owners of the Cambridge institution and launched a public campaign for higher pay, just two months after the business scrapped plans for a second location in the prudential Center.
it’s the latest in a growing wave of union activism at colleges, coffee shops, and other small businesses around greater Boston as workers push for higher pay and protections after the pandemic.
The roughly 30 workers at the store — which sits across the street from harvard’s brickwalled Yard, but is not affiliated with the university — allege that management, and Book store owner John henry, have refused to bargain with them in good faith and disclose financial information about spending on the store’s abandoned Back Bay expansion. (henry also owns The Boston globe.)
in an e-mail to the globe, partowner Jeff mayersohn disputes those claims, saying the workers are paid well above industry standards — indeed nearly all the store’s gross profits are spent on pay — and that the company has shared all documents it has with the union. The scuttled Back Bay store, he said, was being funded separately and had no impact on worker pay.
The national Labor Relations Board has not yet assessed the complaint, which is a fairly common tactic used by unions in labor disputes.
Three Book store employees told the globe that management in recent bargaining sessions declined to institute raises for union workers — all of whom make below $20 an hour — beyond annual cost-of-living raises in their contract. They requested a $22.50 hourly wage floor, and were denied. (minimum wage in massachusetts is $15 an hour.)
“We have asked how hBs could afford two years of rent on an empty 29,000 square foot retail space, but cannot afford to pay us a living wage,” the harvard Book store union wrote in an ongoing petition. “We are still waiting for answers. We are still waiting for a living wage.”
in an e-mail Thursday, mayersohn added that the Book store is suffering “operating losses” as-is, which are “entirely subsidized by ownership.” Workers negotiated a new contract in 2022 which included annual 50-cent-per-hour raises, and currently earn “50 percent more than the industry benchmark (as a percentage of store revenue).”
“most other bookstores would be forced to close their doors at this point,” he wrote, noting that the store already shared available financial information with the union.
The pru location, mayersohn wrote, was an effort to balance the books, to leverage the business’ existing infrastructure to bring in more sales and reduce losses. he and henry said in February that they were not opening the prudential location because of “considerable” economic challenges after the pandemic.
“it was an attempt to make the business sustainable,” he wrote. “once we realized that this particular project was not going to accomplish this goal, we canceled it.”
henry first bought into the harvard Book store in december 2021. his arrival was soon followed by the living wage campaign, the Book store union’s first public effort since it launched and affiliated with the united Auto Workers in 1993.
Rachel schneck, an 11-year employee at the Book store, said she and many other workers there believed the prudential location would usher in higher wages and improved conditions for employees — the fulfillment of the henrys’ promise to support and invest in the Book store after several financially challenging years.
They said that they began hiring for jobs, expanding web services, and planning the design of the upcoming pru storefront for over a year, while maintaining operations at the massachusetts Avenue location. in the meantime, the size of the staff shrunk considerably and wages increased only slightly.
“The Book store is a cultural center, an icon of Boston and Cambridge,” schneck said. “The people who run it want to stay and build their careers, and the store suffers when we can’t maintain that level of staffing and expertise.”