Borders strikers win tentative agreement
By Sue Davis
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 876,
which represents the workers at the flagship Borders Bookstore
in Ann Arbor, Mich., announced it had reached a tentative
agreement on Dec. 30. That ends a nearly two-month strike and
national boycott that followed months of contract negotiations.
No details about the agreement were announced. (Detroit Free
Press, Jan. 1)
"We have made more gains in actual negotiations with Borders
in the last week than we achieved in the last year of futile
meetings," wrote an unidentified worker on the web log at
www.borders union.com. "They have made many concessions that
over excruciatingly long meetings they would not make in the
past. This contract is not Nirvana, but it's a good start."
This is the first contract for the 60 workers, who have been
represented by UFCW since December 2002. A vote to ratify the
agreement will be held shortly.
"We are all so very pleased with the outcome of this
struggle," said Victoria Collins, secretary-treasurer of UFCW
Local 876. "The spirit, dedication and courage of these Borders
strikers was very admirable. This effort, which took the
extraordinary efforts of its workers, and the supporters from
all corners of the state made this possible."
Workers in the Minneapolis store, who were not on strike,
are still negotiating with Borders over a union contract. UFCW
Local 876 represents more than 23,000 workers in supermarkets,
meat packing plants and healthcare units nationwide.
Reprinted from the Jan. 15, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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