HCU Pushes Back Strike Deadline
The HarperCollins Union has pushed back their strike deadline to 11/10, after the midterm elections.
[Portions of this article were originally published in previous reporting.]
The workers at publisher Harper Collins authorized their second strike of 2022, previously scheduled for November 7th, pending substantive progress in contract talks. The HarperCollins Union, an affiliate of UAW Local 2110, reported the strike authorization was approved by 95% of the voting members.
Hump Day News previously reported on the one-day strike that took place on July 20th. Back in the summer around 100 employees and supporters let management know how they felt about the lack of progress of contract talks.
What are workers fighting for? Per the UAW Local 2110 press release:
The union is bargaining for higher pay, a greater commitment to diversifying staff, and stronger union protection.
The HarperCollins publishing house is headquartered in New York City, which reliably tops out lists that track the highest cost of living in American cities year to year. The economic insecurity experienced by workers living at the outer edge of their budgets is a constant concern. As one employee put it to the NYT back in July:
“I love my job, I love my authors, it’s an incredible privilege to get to work on these books, and I would love to do it for the rest of my life, if I can afford to,” said Stephanie Guerdan, an associate editor in the children’s department who joined the strike.
But with a salary of $56,000 a year, she said, she worries she won’t be able to stay.
“There’s a running joke in publishing that you have to have a rich partner to be able to make it in the industry,” she said. “That should be a thing of the past.”
No significant progress in contract talks has been announced by either the union or the publishing house since the one-day strike in July.
On the contrary, the union has filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the NLRB against the publisher. The filing includes the specific allegations:
8(a)(5) Shutdown or Relocate (e.g. First National Maint.).Subcontract Work
8(a)(5) Repudiation/Modification of Contract [Sec 8(d)/Unilateral Changes]
As for the publisher, HarperCollins announced layoffs in the middle of October. Olga Brudastova, President of Local 2110 UAW, called the timing of the decision “suspicious,” arriving right on top of the union’s vote for strike authorization. The layoffs eliminated six members from the union’s collective bargaining unit.
Aside from a psychologically chilling effect that layoffs can have on morale, industry observers note that reducing the number of workers in a collective bargaining unit, whether by legal reclassification or outright termination, is a common union busting tactic.
The strike, re-scheduled for November 10th, is designated as “open-ended.” This represents a significant escalation in urgency for both sides to find a resolution to the contract standoff. But with weeks left on the calendar before the deadline, there is time left to reach an agreement at the negotiating table.
Stay tuned as the story develops.
