NLRB Says Guitar Center Was No Bargain

November 14, 2016  
By Steven Wishnia and Neal Tepel

Chicago, IL – The Guitar Center chain of music-equipment stores illegally refused to bargain in good faith with workers in Chicago, Las Vegas, and New York, a National Labor Relation Board administrative law judge held Nov. 7.

Company officials “engaged in numerous tactics designed to delay negotiations,” Charles J. Muhl said. Trying to avoid giving a first contract to workers at the three stores who had voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union in 2013 and 2014, they took months to respond to the union’s wage proposals and never made a counterproposal on health insurance “during the entirety of bargaining.” Muhl recommended that the NLRB order Guitar Center to “bargain in good faith” with the union at the three stores. “This decision will only make the union campaign at Guitar Center stronger,” RWDSU retail organizing director Phil Andrews said. The union gained another victory in its efforts to organize the 260-store chain in March, when workers at a store in Pittsburgh voted for RWDSU representation. Read more