Workers at sex-toy chain Good Vibes have unanimously ratified their first union contract after their February 2024 vote to unionize.
The three-year contract includes wage increases for all 25 employees across the chain’s eight stores in Northern California, improvements in vacation and sick time, protections against unjust discipline or employment termination, and stronger health and safety protocols to protect both staff and customers.
The seven stores of Good Vibes, formerly known as Good Vibrations, include its flagship store on Valencia Street in the Mission District, two others in San Francisco, two in Santa Cruz, and one each in Berkeley, Oakland, Palo Alto and Santa Cruz. The company has two other stores in Massachusetts.
Jim Araby, the strategic campaign director at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 5, which the Good Vibes Union is affiliated with, called this new contact a “powerful step forward.”
Araby pointed out that the contract is also a result of collaboration between workers and the brand’s owners, Joel and Casey Kaminsky. The company’s 26 workers at the time voted 24-2 to unionize on Feb. 23, 2024.
“This contract proves that community-rooted businesses and unions can work together to build fairer, safer, and more sustainable workplaces,” Araby said in a statement.
Carol Queen, a sexologist at Good Vibes and a management team-level staffer, said for the past year, the administrative and management staffers regularly met with members of the UFCW Local 5 and the bargaining committee to collectively come to an agreement on the contract.
“We look forward to continuing to work together to serve our local community and fulfill our mission of spreading sex positivity and access to safe, high-quality products and accurate sex information,” Queen wrote in an email.
Employees at other local businesses have had a more difficult time getting contracts. Tartine workers, for example, voted to form a union in March 2021, and have yet to get a contract, citing that the company, like many others, didn’t “take the negotiations seriously,” was “uncooperative,” and “dragged out the process.” Tartine’s management at the time did not comment on the unionization.
Sarah Wilder, a bargaining committee member at Good Vibes, said the workers are all proud to reach such an agreement with the company.
“We love where we work,” Wilder said. “And this contract shows that we can have both a progressive mission and a strong union.”
👏🏿 THAT is something worth celebrating.
Odds are, they will be out of business soon… just like Anchor Steam.
Anchor closed because Sapporo bought a brand they didn’t know how to market, and a factory that couldn’t brew the beer they wanted to make, not because the workforce was unionized. Even Sapporo blamed Covid-19 and changes to the marketplace for closing, not unionization.
Donna, yeah there was also a food supermarket on 24th St. that closed some years back, right after the staff unionized. In a low-margin business, unions are the kiss of death.