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B&H Photo’s Store Employees Looking to Unionize

Chris Gampat
No Comments
02/01/2016
2 Mins read

Last Updated on 02/01/2016 by Chris Gampat

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Image by Eden, Janine and Jim

Months back, B&H Photo’s warehouse workers protested for the right to unionize against what they felt were an oppressive management. They also protested unsafe working conditions. But yesterday, a number of store employees organized to protest working conditions in the store. According to a press release from the Laundry Workers Center, “B&H store workers will hold a protest and deliver a letter to management demanding an end to dangerous, discriminatory and abusive workplace conditions inside the flagship store of B&H Photo Video, the largest non-chain photo store in the United States.”

The store, for those of you who don’t know, has many layers to it. There is the main floor for video, audio, televisions, etc. The second floor holds all the camera gear, computer gear, etc. But below all of this is a warehouse system where many people work to support the customer service reps–which is partially done with the Trolley system that the store has become so well known for.

B&H Photo is one of the biggest retailers of cameras in the world, with folks from all over buying from them. Details from the press release are after the jump.

This comes after the historic and successful unionization fight by more than 200 B&H warehouse workers last year. In November, 2015, B&H warehouse workers voted 200-88 to join the United Steel Workers in order to protect them from dangerous and discriminatory conditions inside B&H’s two Brooklyn warehouses. They organized this campaign with leadership training from the Laundry Workers Center.

Rally and letter delivery at B&H Photo Video
3 PM on Sunday January 31
34th Street-Hudson Yards Subway Station

B&H store employees report a slew of illegal workplace violations, including racial discrimination, verbal and physical abuse, and humiliating treatment. Many employees also report experiencing physical injuries due to the lack of workplace safety and insufficient training.

The B&H store workers are organizing with support from the Laundry Workers Center, which provides leadership training to low-wage workers. Mahoma Lopez, co-director of the Laundry Workers Center says: “This campaign was inspired by the B&H warehouse workers struggle, and it is a continuation of the energy of these workers and their demand for respect and dignified working conditions.”

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About Laundry Workers Center: LWC addresses the need for community-based leadership development geared toward improving the living and working conditions of workers in the laundry and food service industries, as well as their families. Our work aims to combat abuses such as landlord negligence, wage theft, and hazardous and exploitative working conditions, all of which are endemic in low-income communities in New York City and New Jersey.

About the B&H Warehouse Workers Struggle:
NEW YORK TIMES: Workers at B&H Photo Video, Citing Hazards, Move to Unionize

AL JAZEERA: Photo retailer B&H faces unwanted exposure over worker safety
https://america.aljazeera.com/multimedia/2015/10/bh-workers-claim-discrimination-unsafe-standards1.html

b&h photo employees store unionize warehouse workers
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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