Among the thousands of stores in New York's low-income neighborhoods, labor unions have virtually no presence, except in a few supermarkets. But 95 workers at a chain of 10 Footco sneaker stores have formed a union. Footco's employees ? almost all of them are immigrants ? used some unusual pressure tactics to form a union. They worked with a community group that threatened to boycott Footco's stores, and they filed a complaint claiming minimum-wage and overtime violations.
See "In Modern Rarity, Workers Form Union at Small Chain", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, February 5, 2006