Employee for employee, Powell's on-line sales beat Amazon.com by $20,000, according to an article in the April 17 issue of Forbes magazine.  "At $1.6 billion a year, Amazon has sales of $213,000 per employee--compared with $232,000 for Powell's online business with a staff of just 43," wrote author Adam Penenberg.

Penenberg placed Powell's annual sales at $50 million, and noted that if Amazon operated on the same margin as powells.com, it would have ended last year with $80 million in profit rather than its actual $720 million loss.

Reaching out to the far-flung customers of powells.com, 263 Powell's employees signed an ad that appeared in the April 24 issue of The Nation, one of the country's most literate and widely read progressive magazines.

The ad asks readers to support them in their efforts to secure a first contract that will reward their commitment to the store with a living wage, protect their voice in decision-making on the job, and include a "fair share" or union shop clause.

The workers also aimed for on-line customers with a boycott pledge list recently sent out via e-mail, which has already netted numerous signatures.The pledge asks signers to boycott Powell's if the workers ask them to--and "make Powell's Books their bookstore of choice" should they sign the union contract.

Negotiations for a first contract between Powell's and the more than 400 workers represented by ILWU Local 5 began Sept. 14. The two sides remain far apart. Management's latest proposal includes significant take-aways, eliminating the paid lunch and the profit-sharing plan.

It does not include a fair share provision or adequate wage increases. Bargaining sessions are scheduled for Friday, April 21, and all day Monday, April 24, but it seems unlikely that the two sides will reach agreement before the ILWU International Convention comes to Portland May 1.

mer: opeiu29/afl-cio