Workers at the Brunswick Staples in Cook’s Corner want to form a union, demanding higher pay, better benefits and more hours.
All 12 of the store’s employees, excluding management, signed and submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board on June 27 requesting to form a union. It’s the only Staples retail store whose workers have petitioned to unionize, according to NLRB data.
Staples has 997 retail stores in the U.S., including 10 in Maine, and more than 34,000 workers, according to its website.
One Brunswick Staples worker, who declined to be identified fearing retribution, said pay ranges from $15-$18 an hour.
“McDonald’s is starting at $18.50. Walmart is starting at $19,” the worker said. “I could go down the street to Five Guys and get a $2 (an hour) raise.”
Maine’s minimum wage is $13.80 an hour. Lawmakers want to raise it to $15 an hour starting Jan. 1, but Gov. Janet Mills opposes the move.
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Eric Hensel, general manager of the Brunswick Staples, declined to comment on the workers’ unionization efforts. Multiple messages to Staples’ corporate representatives were not returned. Portland-based labor attorney David Strock, of Littler Mendelson, was listed as Staples’ legal representative; he did not return a phone message. Littler Mendelson describes itself as “the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management.”
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