Workers at several Bay Area locations of the adult company Good Vibrations have filed for a union election to determine whether workers will officially unionize, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union announced.

UFCW Local 5 said workers at the sex-positive adult retailers were motivated to organize after the COVID-19 pandemic “exacerbated” on-the-job safety issues. Now workers are asking for better wages, job security and improved health and safety practices, according to the union.

No one at Good Vibrations corporate offices or its parent company Barnaby Ltd. could be reached immediately for comment.

If the union election results in workers deciding to unionize, Good Vibrations stores in Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, Palo Alto, and Santa Cruz will be affected, along with the adult entertainment store Camouflage in Santa Cruz, according to Jim Araby, spokesperson for UFCW Local 5.

Araby said Good Vibrations workers needed at least 30 percent of them to sign union authorization cards in order to spur a union election and they received well over 50 percent.

“We filed with the National Labor Relations Board today,” Araby said Friday. “Typically, between six and eight weeks after you file for an election, the election is scheduled. And then that’s the day the workers get to vote for the union.”

Once certified, contract negotiations begin, Araby said.

In 2016, workers at Babeland, another adult retailer owned by Barnaby Ltd., unionized in New York and secured a contract that provided health benefits, wage increases and safety and security protocols, according to UFCW Local 5.

Araby said Babeland’s successful unionizing in New York could bode well for workers at Good Vibrations.

UFCW said it is the largest private sector union in the United States, representing 1.2 million workers.

Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.