Sex Shop Workers Unionize...

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Sex Shop Workers Unionize...

Sex Shop Workers Welcome the Protections of a Retail Union

One of the country’s largest retail unions represents workers in department stores, grocery stores and bakeries.

 

 

Now, it has a new category: sex shop workers.

 

Last week, 25 employees of Babeland, an adult toy store with three locations in New York City, voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, the group said on Monday. The move, workers said, would help them address a number of wage and training issues, as well as some concerns related more specifically to the nature of adult retail work and to a handful of transgender employees.

 

“This is the only adult sex shop that is organized,” Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the retail union, said in an interview on Monday. “And I think that’s significant.”

 

The employees said there were many reasons why they had wanted to unionize: more transparency around hiring, promotion and disciplinary decisions, and support for airing grievances and navigating workplace disputes.

 

The vote for unionizing, which took place on Friday, was 21 to 4, the union said.

 

“It’s a sign of how much we love this place,” said Lena Solow, who said she had worked at Babeland for three years. “We want it to be the best place it can be.”

 

Babeland sells a variety of sex toys, accessories and books, and the workers proudly consider themselves sex educators. But that also makes them a target for invasive questions and even harassment, they said.

 

“People don’t go into the Gap and ask what shirt fits you best,” added Phoenix Casino, who has worked at Babeland for two years.

 

The employees have advocated better training and support from management to deal with problematic customers. They had pushed for caller ID, for example, to help weed out the threatening phone calls workers said they received on a daily basis. Two of the three stores now have caller ID, Babeland said.

 

The store also said that it had “developed a list of new trainings” based on staff feedback that would focus on how to handle difficult customers.

 

“For a year we have been working on this very issue, making Babeland a better pace to work,” she said. In March, for example, the company raised the starting minimum wage to $14 from $12 for New York City employees. New York’s current minimum wage is $9.

 

“I guess it was a little bit too late for the staff,” Ms. Cavanah said.

 

The Seattle location was not part of Friday’s vote.

 

Mx. Casino, who identifies as transgender and uses the pronouns them and they instead of he or she, and others said they also wanted management to address issues for employees who identified as transgender or otherwise gender-nonconforming.

 

When Massima Desire clocks in and out of her shift, she cringes when she sees the name that pops up on the screen.

 

While her co-workers call her Massima, the company uses her legal name in its computer system, she said. Getting Babeland to respect her gender identity was just one of the reasons she voted to unionize.

 

“That’s a question of dignity, and that’s what we’re going to be negotiating,” Mr. Appelbaum, the retail union president, said.

 

Ms. Cavanah said that Babeland called employees by the names and pronouns they identified with. She said she was unaware of any issues with clocking in.

 

In recent months, transgender issues have taken center stage in a national debate over civil rights. This month, the Obama administration released a letter forbidding public schools from forcing students to use bathrooms that did not match their gender identity. The directive came during a heated debate in North Carolina over a state law that restricts access to bathrooms, locker rooms and changing rooms.

 

“More and more transgender folks are coming out on the job and coming out earlier, and so that by necessity means there’s more and more work to be done on these issues,” said Hayden Mora, a former labor organizer and a managing partner at the Parallax Group, a consulting firm with a specialty in transgender workplace issues. “Many employers and many folks in management have not yet done the work that’s crucial and necessary.”

 

Correction: May 23, 2016
An earlier version of this article, using information from the union, misstated the vote count that allowed Babeland employees to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. It was 21 to 4, not 24 to 1.

 

Correction: May 24, 2016
An earlier version of this article misstated the results of employees’ request for caller ID at Babeland stores to help weed out threatening phone calls. Two of the three stores now have caller ID; the push was not unsuccessful.

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/24/business/sex-shop-workers-welcome-the-protections-of-a-retail-union.html?_r=0