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Sephora's Kamloops location is its first ever to unionize, and it can think one of its newest employees for that.

Richard Friess wasn't on the job long before realizing he and his coworkers needed to find representation if they wanted to earn what they felt was a fair wage.

The thirty-year-old started working at the cosmetic store at Aberdeen Mall part-time about four months ago while returning to university to get his teaching degree.

Although he's worked for unions before, he didn't know how to actually start one. In July, he started asking questions.

Friess reached out to the B.C. Federation of Labour and they referred him to the union they'd eventually sign on with.

"There was a lot of staff support," he said.

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The B.C. Labour Relations Board approved the application to unionize Sephora last week, on Sept. 7.

"This isn't anti-Sephora, this is pro-worker," he said. "I'm not doing this for me, I have a backup career, but I see people working full-time making very little money."

Kamloops Sephora employees' new union, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1518, still has to negotiate its contract. That could take at least six months.

Union managing director Parm Kahlon said Local 1518 negotiates "aggressively" to have contracts completed quickly, but it varies by employer.

The union claimed in a news release the Sephora union drive highlights a "growing movement" of unionizing retail workers.

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Friess said his co-workers range in age from roughly 19 to 40, and while he didn't want to speak for them, he noticed consistent complaints from others when he started. Most of staff concerns are related to salary and benefits.

"Not everybody that works in retail is a high school student, and even if everyone was, that doesn't mean their labour has any less value," he said. "We're all a root canal away from not being able to afford rent."

But the efforts to get a unified voice for the retail workers wasn't done without resistance.

Immediately after filing with the B.C. labour board on Sept. 1, regional management showed up at the store, then the corporate head of human resources, Friess said.

"I won't say they were saying unions are bad because I wasn't in those conversations, but more just trying to find out who was involved," he told iNFOnews.ca. 

The company sent its own documentation to staff to explain what they should expect from unions, but Friess had some concerns Sephora might be sowing doubt among employees. 

"In my distribution of information to people, I tried to be transparent. I tried to reiterate that we don't know what changes we could see, we just know we could have a voice," he said.

For him, being the first North American store under the multi-national company to unionize is nothing more than consolation. He's more interested in getting employees fair compensation for himself and his coworkers.

To start the process, Friess had to seek signatures from employees on "virtual union cards," in order to gauge staff interest.

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If 45 to 55 per cent of staff sign them, it then goes to an official vote among workers. With more than 55%, the application would be automatically approved.

The labour relations board then notifies the employer of the union application after its sent to the provincial regulator.

Friess wouldn't say how many employees signed the interest cards as the negotiations with Sephora are just getting underway.

Sephora has not responded to a request for comment from iNFOnews.ca.

— This story was updated at 9:54 a.m., Sept. 14, 2022, to correctly spell Richard Friess' name.

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