To: Robert Buchsbaum, CEO of Blick Art Materials

Stand With Blick and Utrecht Workers

Hi! We stand with the employees of Utrecht and Blick Art Materials in New York City who are negotiating a union contract with your company. We support them in securing:

1. A Living Wage
2. Regularly Scheduled Raises
3. Sustainable Scheduling

Why is this important?

We work at Utrecht Art Supply on 13th Street in New York City. In addition to being dedicated employees, we are artists who are passionate about art and take pride in providing quality service to our customers. As artists, we have the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary to provide our customers with a high level of expertise.

Despite the knowledge we bring to the job and the hard work we put in every day, most of us make less than $10 per hour. On top of that, last year Utrecht was bought by competitor Blick Art Materials. Without any notice, Blick unilaterally slashed our hours. We tried talking to corporate about the impact this would have on many of our lives, but they simply refused to do anything about it.

That’s why we decided to come together and unionize with the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU). We know that by standing together we can make real change.

In January we filed for a union election in order to force the company to recognize our union and negotiate a legally binding contract.

Under the instruction of their high paid lawyers and consultants, Blick immediately launched a sophisticated campaign aimed at convincing us to vote against our own interests. We were subjected to mandatory meetings filled with misinformation and emotional appeals from the CEO.

In spite of it all, on March 4th, our store voted to unionize with the RWDSU. Now the company is legally required to sit down and negotiate with us.

We’ve already won immediate improvements such as increased weekly hours. We hope to secure this improvement and win more in contract negotiations.

We are calling on the company to provide:
• Living Wage: Pay us wages we can live on
• Raises: Provide guaranteed, regularly scheduled raises
• Schedules: Provide advance notice of our schedules and ensure proper staffing levels

As we negotiate a contract with Blick, we know that winning the best contract we can won’t happen alone. That’s why we’re asking for your support. Tell Blick you stand with us and will support us in our fight to win a good contract!