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Bob's workers in N.Y., N.H. vote to join union

Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, December 12, 2011

MANCHESTER, Conn. - Salespeople at four more Bob's Discount Furniture stores in New Hampshire and New York have voted to join the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union. Associates at three Connecticut stores voted to join two months ago.
     According to a UFCW release, sales associates at Bob's stores in Manchester, N.H., and Glendale, Freeport and Farmingdale, N.Y., voted in favor of unionization in recent weeks.
     They join employees at Bob's stores in Manchester, Orange and Stamford, Conn., who voted for union representation this summer.
     In addition, hourly office, warehouse and café employees at the Farmingdale store are awaiting scheduling of an election, and sales associates and certain hourly employees at Bob's in North Plainfield, N.J., were set to vote Dec. 9, the UFCW said. Results were not available by press time.
     Ted English, CEO of Manchester, Conn.-based Bob's, did not return a call seeking comment. The UFCW release did not say if a date has been set for collective bargaining.
     Bob's sales associates and other employees "are calling for fair commission formulas, affordable health care options and improved working conditions," the union said. "Currently, floor sales associates are paid strictly on commission, without any base wages."
     The union also said the retailer recently changed its commission formula in a way that hurt longtime employees and is requiring employees to pay more for health insurance premiums.
     Ajay Borzoni, field director for UFCW Local 888 in East Rutherford, N.J., said existing salespeople had been grandfathered in at a 7% commission rate when Bob's was acquired by a private equity firm in 2005, while new hires received 5%. Under the new formula, everyone is getting 5%, he said.
     He also said Bob's employees pay $175 a week in health insurance premiums for the employee-plus-family plan.
     Bob's is No. 15 on Furniture/Today's most recent Top 100 with estimated 2010 sales of $584.6 million at 40 stores in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. In May, it opened its first two Washington, D.C.-area stores.

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Four more Bob's Discount Furniture Stores vote in union

Dec 5, 2011

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