People Like Us

“People like you, we don’t like,” the man from the real estate management company said to me.

Picket Line at the Strand and Evolving Labor Tactics

Our picket was one of the many 99 pickets planned throughout the day to show solidarity among New York’s working people and protest the policies of owners like our own Nancy Bass Wyden who get rich off the labor of employees they fail to compensate fairly.

Why the Strand Struggle Matters: Two-Tier Systems, Retail, and the Future of Organized Labor

The Strand’s ownership, like the auto industry’s, is claiming that times are tough, especially for bookstores, and it’s an easy argument to make in the age of Amazon and recession. But it doesn’t add up.

Old, Rare and New

Cartoonist and Strand Employee Greg Farrell captures the central dilemma of low wage work in NYC…

A Case for Our Staff

There are those of us who have worked at Strand for years and others who have been here for only a handful of months, but we stand together in our mutual love for reading and our willingness to share that love with the wider public.

Who We Are

We are workers at the Strand, an independent Manhattan bookstore that has been a vibrant part of the New York community since it opened its doors in 1927.

A Decade of Labor Relations at the Strand

When I reached the required 1 year of employment, I went straight to the Local and told them I wanted to be a shop steward. With so many vacancies & a dearth of interest, I was appointed shop steward almost immediately. Thus began my life as a labor agitator.

At the Strand Bookstore, a Retail Labor Struggle in the Age of Amazon and Occupy

“They’re counting on the fact that if we get lower wages we’ll just go find another job. But we want to protect the interests of the working class.”
—Strand employee, Chris McCallion