Employees at Solid State Books in Washington, D.C., approved a strong three-year agreement earlier this summer. The contract that covers the seven UFCW Local 400 members at the chain’s H Street location includes specific wording to protect them from job loss due to the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
No artificial ingredients: Book sellers Ruth Orundiarumo, Hector Castillo Abreu, Sophia Lipman, and Shop Steward Ben Lieberman strike a power pose after the ratification.
The clause, supplied by staff in the UFCW International’s National Bargaining Department, states that AI may enhance the work performed by bargaining unit employees but cannot replace or displace human labor.
It reads: “No bargaining unit employee shall be terminated, laid off, demoted, or suffer a reduction in regularly scheduled hours as a result of the introduction, implementation, or expansion of any AI Technologies.
“The parties recognize that video surveillance or other electronic monitoring may be conducted for a variety of mission support purposes, including but not limited to safety and internal security reasons. The Employer agrees to respect and protect employee privacy when utilizing video surveillance or other electronic monitoring in carrying out its mission (e.g., positioning cameras in areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy).”
Additionally, the agreement includes guaranteed annual pay increases, recall language for laid-off workers, more flexible scheduling processes, and increased minimum staffing levels at the District’s black-owned independent bookstore, which also has a Logan Circle location.
The staff of Solid State Books unionized with UFCW Local 400 in 2023 and ratified their first contract a few months later. They were the second unionized bookstore in the District of Columbia to ratify a collective bargaining agreement, after Politics and Prose workers did so in 2022.