Dear EWOC,
I first started organizing with the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee in the summer of 2020. Me and my coworkers at an independent bookstore decided to organize to protect our health and safety, and to negotiate better working conditions, wages, and job security.
I worked in the warehouse — a job that requires a lot of physical, repetitive labor, such as lifting forty-pound boxes full of books and wrapping dozens, sometimes hundreds, of packages per day. While our family-owned workplace claimed to be a pillar of the community, our jobs started to feel more and more like working for an Amazon fulfillment center. When the pandemic began, the amount of work required of us had increased tenfold, while the store became severely understaffed. Yet we were paid below the living wage and had no employer-provided health insurance nor paid time off for part-time workers.
EWOC organizers walked us through all the steps of organizing, training us on how to talk to our coworkers and create a successful public campaign. We were able to find a parent union and, despite our bosses’ union-busting campaign, won the NLRB election and have since negotiated many wins for our coworkers in bargaining.
Very few bookstores and publishing houses are unionized in the United States. Yet in the last two years, we’ve seen a tremendous increase in the number of unionized workplaces within this industry. Every successful campaign inspires other workers to demand better working conditions, improving our industry as a whole. The success of our campaign led to workers across the country reaching out to us to help them organize their own workplaces. After advising on several successful workplace issue campaigns, I decided to join EWOC as an external organizer and help others fight for a more equitable and safe working environment.
This month EWOC is trying to raise $5,000 from monthly donors. As a grassroots, volunteer-led organization, EWOC needs your support to continue building a powerful and sustainable labor movement across all industries.
Thank you for your continued support!
Solidarity,
Ksenia, an EWOC Organizer
