Last modified on Wed 28 Jul 2021 00.59 EDT
Newtown bookstore Better Read Than Dead was devoid of customers and the majority of its workers on Monday morning, but it wasnât strictly the result of Sydneyâs ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. Instead, this disruption marked a fresh escalation in a dispute between the inner west institution and its recently unionised workforce. On Tuesday night, the bookstoreâs staff reached an in-principle agreement with management which the union described as âa landmark agreement with historic conditions in the retail sectorâ â but not before the clash had reverberated across Australiaâs literary community.
Last week, Better Read Than Dead staff voted unanimously to begin protected industrial action, the peak of an almost year-long organising effort by the storeâs workforce and their union to seek an enterprise bargaining agreement with the storeâs management. First, they placed a ban on handling cash transactions or updating the storeâs King Street shopfront display. Last Wednesday, they refused to process website orders or pick returns (removing unsold books from the shelf to be sent back to the publisher for refunding).