(Bloomberg) -- Barnes & Noble Inc. employees at a four-story Manhattan bookstore voted overwhelmingly to unionize, expanding a new labor foothold at the longtime union-free brand.

Workers voted 76-to-2 in favor of joining the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, according to a spokesperson for the US National Labor Relations Board, which conducted the election Wednesday. RWDSU, an affiliate of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, also prevailed in a vote last month among Barnes & Noble Education Inc. staff on Rutgers University’s campus in New Jersey, and another UFCW chapter won a May vote at a Barnes & Noble location in Massachusetts.

If the union’s Manhattan win is formally certified by the labor board, the company will be required to collectively bargain over working conditions for the newly-unionized group, whose store is located in Union Square.

Earlier: Barnes & Noble Union Drive Reaches Four-Story Manhattan Site 

In an emailed statement, RWDSU’s president Stuart Appelbaum said the Manhattan employees had “set an example for Barnes & Noble workers across the country.” 

“Workers at this store not only organized and won their union voice, but they did so with management literally above their heads in the corporate headquarters, which is housed just above the store in the same building,” Appelbaum said.

In an emailed statement, Barnes & Noble signaled it would not contest the union’s win. “We look forward to the new contract with the Union Square Booksellers,” the retailer said.

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