Workers at the Half Price Books store in Dublin have approved their first contract by a vote of 14 to 0, concluding an organizing campaign that began when store employees, who had concerns around pay and staffing issues, overcame a concerted anti-union campaign by the company to win a union representation election in late 2024.

Highlights of the new three-year agreement include across-the-board pay increases, higher wage rates, holiday premium pay, and strong language around just-cause discipline, grievance procedure, and scheduling rights.

The company’s business model is to buy used books from the public and to resell them at a profit. Despite management’s claim to the contrary during the organizing campaign, it’s a profitable enterprise that has failed to adequately compensate the employees who make it work, according to the store’s booksellers.

Emily Tsunanov, a bookseller and bargaining committee member who has been at the store for the most part of six years, says that workers at the store are “ecstatic” about the contract and the wage increases and job security that it provides.

“For nearly two years of bargaining we stuck it out, consolidated around each other, and came out the other side with a foundational contract that we can build on,” said Tsunanov. “Almost everybody stayed throughout the process and that’s how we got it done. The company realized that we were not going away.”

The company continued to stall the process at the bargaining table, particularly around economics, Tsunanov explained. Finally frustrated by the stonewalling, employees decided to act, leafletting customers outside of their store on three occasions.

“We simply asked our customers to encourage the company to deal with us fairly and give us the settlement that we deserve. Management was clearly surprised that we would take this step, and on one occasion, even called the police. A month later, we had our contract,” said Tsunanov.

The Dublin store victory is part of a nation-wide UFCW Half Price Books campaign that has resulted in organizing wins in Wichita Kansas, Louisville, Kentucky, and in Greenwood, Indiana where workers, along with those at four Minnesota stores have previously ratified their first contracts. The company operates more than 100 stores nation-wide.