Jan 27 2023
HarperCollins Publishers and the union representing some 250 striking employees have agreed to enter into federal mediation, the first sign of a possible settlement since the work stoppage began in early November.
“We are excited to have this opportunity to continue bargaining with HarperCollins and hope they finally are ready to put a fair offer on the table,” Olga Brudastova, president of Local 2110 UAW, said in a statement Thursday. “We have been on strike for over two months at this point. It is time for us to resolve any outstanding differences and attempt to reset our relationship.”
HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, issued a statement saying it hoped that meeting with an outside mediator would provide “a path forward.” The publisher had not met with union negotiators in months.
Jan 18 2023
As the HarperCollins labor dispute rolls into a new year, the company's unionized employee strike is now the longest in the union's more than 80-year history at the top publisher. Since the initial employee walkout on November 10, the dispute has caught the attention of all publishing sectors, with many anticipating the outcome as a test case for how labor unions could change business operations. But for many publishing industry veterans, whether that change is positive or negative remains to be seen.
Indeed, some smaller independent publishers—mostly outside of New York City—are concerned that the public nature of the strike, with wage demands made public, is raising unrealistic financial expectations. Smaller publishing operations can't afford to match wages at the Big Five publishing companies. Moreover, despite the double-digit profit margins that the publicly-traded publishers have posted in recent years, publishing is generally a low margin business. Sales gains during the initial years of the COVID-19 outbreak notwithstanding, the industry typically has marginal growth in annual sales, and “flat is the new up” has long been an unofficial business slogan. A lengthy, very public strike only adds to the industry's challenges, with many agents and authors wanting the dispute to be resolved quickly and immediately so the industry can get back to business...
Jan 17 2023
Today, my first novel is being published. It’s the culmination of seven years of work and, uh, a large number of years of dreaming of writing a novel. Publication day for a debut novel can be a little overwhelming, I’m told—you’ve got all those TV news producers begging you for interviews. (They haven’t called me yet, but I assume they will soon.) Overall, though, pub day ought to be a time of joy, if slightly nervous joy: A thing you made, and care deeply about, is finally making its way into the world!
But for me, and for a lot of other authors this winter, publication day is feeling a little bittersweet. That’s because we’re being published by HarperCollins.
About 200 HarperCollins publishing employees, primarily younger assistants and associates, have been on strike since November. Their demands are not outlandish and reflect the issues facing junior employees across publishing: They want the company’s minimum starting salary increased from $45,000 to $50,000. They want the publisher to address diversity issues at the company. They also want to ensure all eligible employees are in the union.
Jan 17 2023
When Wednesday arrives, 200-odd members of the HarperCollins union will have been on strike for 50 days, the latest action in an industry that has in recent years seen workers call for (and sometimes win) higher pay, amidst a broader push for racial equity within publishing.
The demands of the HarperCollins union, part of Local 2110 of the UAW, are simple: higher pay for entry-level employees, a greater commitment to diversifying its workforce, and an end to the union's status as an open shop, which currently bars the union from collecting dues from all employees who are eligible to join. HarperCollins, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, is the only one of the "Big Five" publishers whose workers are represented by a union, some form of which has been in place since the 1970s. (Some things never change: In 1977, the last time the union went on strike, workers held signs reading, "Editors can't eat prestige.")
Unlike the union's strikes in the '70s, which ended after a few weeks, management today seems determined to wait out the striking workers. Recently, we spoke with Laura Harshberger, the union chair and a senior production editor with HarperCollins's children’s books division, on what the union wants, how the strike has impacted HarperCollins, and why the stakes of this strike are much bigger than just pay issues at the company. As Harshberger put it, "We believe that this is our only opportunity to make real change in this industry."
Dec 16 2022
Unionized HarperCollins employees are planning to rally outside the company's headquarters at 195 Broadway in Manhattan's Financial District at 12:30 p.m. on December 16, according to the union. Authors including Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, R.F. Kuang, and Molly McGhee will "co-host" the rally, the union said...
79% of literary agents who participated in a survey conducted by the Association of American Literary Agents say that they support the HarperCollins union strike. The union had previously asked agents to refrain from submitting new projects to HarperCollins until an agreement is reached...
A majority of respondents to the poll say they have changed their dealings with HarperCollins in some way as a result of the strike, from delaying deal announcements to only submitting option projects to withholding all business, including meetings, with the publisher.
Dec 14 2022
About 250 HarperCollins employees have been on strike for more than a month, fighting for better pay, union protections, and diversity initiatives. An open letter of support for the employees striking has reached 8,500 signatures according to the union. A separate letter was signed by over 500 authors, both ones represented by HarperCollins and writers who are associated with other publishers.
Some of the authors who signed include Barbara Kingsolver, Jacqueline Woodson, and Kwame Alexander. The authors who are published through HarperCollins expressed that they feel that HarperCollins’s refusal to negotiate in good faith has hurt their sales: “We express deep concern about the long-term impact on our books and careers if the strike continues…Your refusal to reach an agreement with the union hurts us, your creators.”
They also state that they will not be submitting new books to HarperCollins until the strike ends. More than 150 literary agents have made this same promise. The letter states, “We stand with the people who mold and champion our work and ask that they be compensated justly and fairly for their labor. Our hope is that HarperCollins will not be satisfied with meeting an industry standard that is far too low to retain top talent.”
Dec 14 2022
It’s been more than a month since Laura Harshberger, a senior production editor at HarperCollins (a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.), stopped producing children’s books and went on strike with more than 200 colleagues in New York City.
“We are not striking against our job, but for our jobs,” she told The Washington Post. “We want to work for HarperCollins, but we want to work for them with dignity, respect and fair wages.”
The striking workers — who are from the editorial, sales, publicity, design, legal and marketing departments — have three demands: HarperCollins should raise its minimum starting salary from $45,000 to $50,000; address the lack of diversity in its workforce; and provide more security for unionized workers.
In an open letter to authors and agents, HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray said the company’s current compensation offerings are consistent with peers in the publishing industry.
Workers say that is precisely the problem. “The industry has long been notorious for low salaries. But while the world has changed and the cost of living increases, publishing has not changed with it,” said David Palmer, a senior production editor at the company.
The outcome of the strike, which began Nov. 10, could go well beyond whether junior editors can afford to live in New York City, and may have a ripple effect on jobs across the publishing industry. Its impact may be seen in the quantity and diversity of books that are published for years to come, including whether a book is published because it is good, novel and unique, or whether it’s just a book that CEOs believe will make money...
“No one is doing their best work when they are worried about making rent,” said Stephanie Guerdan, an associate editor at HarperCollins. “Without a fair contract, only those who can afford to work in publishing will stay.” ...
Dec 08 2022
From an article by Rye White in n + 1 magazine:
An observer can catch HarperCollins president and CEO, Brian Murray, crossing the picket line most mornings, evenings, and lunchtimes, although sometimes he avoids us by taking the entrance through Starbucks on the corner of the building by Dey and Church. His response to the strike so far (tucked away in a since-deleted report on the company’s profits) has been characteristic of management’s approach: some people will always want more. What exactly does more look like to the workers at HarperCollins? A fair contract that guarantees union security, codifies diversity protections, and most crucially increases salary minimums from $45,000 to $50,000.
Like a lot of white-collar sectors, publishing has long been an industry guilty of exploiting the nebulous quality that bosses like to call “passion.” My colleagues and I have the jobs we do because we love books, we believe they have power and significance, and we work incredibly hard on their behalf. But anyone who’s worked in the industry—at one of the “Big Five” publishers like HarperCollins, or at a small agency whose team members can be counted on one hand—has heard lines like one leaked from an influential HarperCollins higher-up early on in the strike: if we just “stuck it out” for ten years, we could stand to make a decent living in publishing. We’ve been told that this is just how it is. The industry’s established players hardened themselves to low pay and long hours, so what’s our problem?
Claims like this ring especially hollow in an industry as demographically unbalanced as publishing, which is overwhelmingly staffed by young women on the lower levels and overwhelmingly white at all levels. Many who have “stuck it out” in publishing have had their low wages cushioned by the help of a partner’s income or support from upper- or middle-class families. But workers without the benefits of whiteness, without well-paid spouses or partners, without families who have income to spare for their expenses month after month are too often pushed out. Living in a city like New York on $45,000 is difficult and inhumane; trying to do it while battling racism and sexism on the daily is even more so. The union’s position is clear: if this industry wants to retain the love and passion it runs on, something (the corporate powers that be) has gotta give (us more money).
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