Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Bookmans Workers in Flagstaff, Tucson Ratify First Union Contract

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Workers at Bookmans Entertainment Exchange in Flagstaff, Arizona, have ratified their first union contract. Staff at two other locations in Tucson also are covered by the deal.

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99 notes that these are the first booksellers in the state with a collective bargaining agreement. The contract includes guaranteed wage increases and department premiums, paid holiday and vacation, paid sick leave and bereavement leave, health insurance for both part-time and full-time employees, a 401(k) plan with an employer match, a progressive discipline and grievance procedure, and the establishment of an employee safety committee.

“I feel hopeful for the future, excitement, and I’m so proud of my coworkers,” said Tony Taurman, an electronics buyer at Bookmans Flagstaff. “It seems today that people are expected to go about life without their community, but in starting a union I learned that you don’t have to. And in fact, we can’t. We have to stand together if we want to change things for the better.”