HarperCollins Workers Strike for Better Pay and Benefits

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/books/harpercollins-strike.html?searchResultPosition=14

Employees say they’ll not return to work until they have a new contract. The company says it will “continue to negotiate in good faith.”



Workers at HarperCollins staged a one-day strike in July. This time, they are striking indefinitely.Credit...Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

By Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth A. Harris Nov. 10, 2022

Unionized employees at HarperCollins went on strike Thursday, saying they planned to stop working until they reached an agreement on a new contract.

The HarperCollins union represents about 250 employees in editorial, publicity, sales, marketing, legal and design. In a statement, the union said its members, who have been working without a contract since April, wanted better family leave benefits and higher pay.

Olga Brudastova, the president of Local 2110 of the U.A.W., which represents unionized HarperCollins employees, said that the union had decided to go on an indefinite strike after negotiations with the company stalled. The union is proposing that HarperCollins raise the minimum starting salary to $50,000, from $45,000. It has also demanded that the company address the lack of diversity in its work force.

Publishing has long been a low paying industry with long hours for its entry and midlevel employees, and it is based in New York, a very expensive city. It is also an overwhelmingly white industry, and many in the industry feel the low pay is part of what makes diversifying the industry difficult.

FULL story at link above.