20 Mar 2000
PORTLAND - Fifty employees at Powell’s bookstore refused to work yesterday, expressing frustration with dragging contract negotiations between management and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
The newly formed local, which represents the 400 bookstore and warehouse workers employed by Powell’s Books, has been in negotiations with management since mid-September.
The walkout yesterday was one of several the union has organized in recent months, but it was the first to last all day. It involved roughly one-third of the staff for the downtown flagship store, Powell’s City of Books, as well as workers at the company’s Internet processing center and warehouse.
Two days earlier, union pickets blocked shipments at the Internet facility, forcing the company to postpone mailings.
In an unfair-labor complaint filed Friday, the union claims the company has clamped down on its attendance and lunch-break policies and prevented workers from exercising their union rights.
