GC Unionization in Chicago

Just a few months since the late-May unionization of the Manhattan Guitar Center retail outlet, employees at a Guitar Center store in Chicago have now voted to form the company's second-ever retail union. This is another significant win for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), which was unable to unionize two additional New York stores earlier this summer. The new bargaining unit in Chicago will seek to improve wages and to change the store's sales commission structure.

In June, amid vocal disagreement between management and pro-union employees, two attempts to unionize Guitar Center stores in Brooklyn and Queens were either unsuccessful or called off.

RWDSU is claiming that Guitar Center's management not only made frequent “anti-union” comments at employee meetings, but even went so far as to suggest to Chicago workers that winning a robust union contract could lead management to consider shuttering their entire store. (Guitar Center claims the accusation is "positively untrue.")