Contact: Olga Brudastova, President, Local 2110 UAW
Cellphone: 646-715-5751
Email: olgabrudastova@2110uaw.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

HarperCollins Union Responds to the Company Open Letter with a Rally Co-Hosted by Authors

December 7, 2022, New York, NY__ Unionized employees at HarperCollins Publishers are hosting a rally outside company offices at 195 Broadway in FiDi, Manhattan, on December 16 at 12:30 PM. The rally is co-hosted by Rebecca F. Kuang and Molly McGhee. Numerous other authors have expressed their support for the union and plan to attend the event.

Rebecca F. Kuang is an award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy and Babel: An Arcane History, at its simplest, a book about revolution, about a strike, “an unflinching study of the cost of loving what’s destroying you” (New York Times).

The rally is part of the strike that started on November 10 and comes after Brian Murray, CEO of HarperCollins, issued an open letter to authors and agents, in which the company accused the union of mischaracterizing negotiations. Nonetheless, the letter fails to mention that the last bargaining session between the parties saw a comprehensive proposal from the union—a real pathway toward a settlement—which HarperCollins rejected, forcing unionized employees to go on strike.

“We are not surprised that the company continues its anti-union messaging with this open letter,” said Laura Harshberger, a Senior Production Editor in Children’s Books and the Union Chairperson. “It is consistent with our experience in negotiations, where they refuse to commit to contract language in an effort to maintain decision-making power over our working conditions. By issuing this statement, Brian Murray and the rest of News Corp confirmed for us that our strike is working and that the support of our strike from the publishing community, including authors, agents, and booksellers, cannot be denied or neglected.”

The union, Local 2110 of the UAW, represents 250+ employees in editorial, sales, publicity, design, legal, and marketing departments. The union is bargaining for higher pay, a greater commitment to diversifying staff, and stronger union protection. Negotiations started in December 2021 and unionized employees have been working without a contract since April 2022.

“One of the issues we’ve been fighting for is union security,” said Stephanie Guerdan, an Associate Editor in Children’s Books who has worked at HarperCollins since 2017. “While the company’s statement misrepresents this demand using classic right-to-work rhetoric, we’re actually being singled out from other News Corp subsidiaries like Dow Jones whose unions have union security. The company fails to justify why Local 2110 does not deserve the same protections its other unions enjoy.”

The mainly women workers average $55,000 annually, with a starting salary of $45,000. Many employees cite pressure to work extra hours without additional compensation. The company, one of the top five book publishers globally, reported record-setting profits in the past two years. The Union is asking to increase the starting minimum annual salary to $50,000.

“Anyone remotely familiar with the publishing industry will attest that HarperCollins salaries are not competitive at all,” said Genessee Floressantos, an Associate Publicist in International Sales. “The statement issued yesterday also makes it very clear that whatever increases have been implemented in the past couple of years were at the company’s full discretion. This is precisely why we continue to strike—we have a union and we deserve to have collective say in our working conditions. It is time the company recognizes we are not going away and puts a fair offer on the table.”

HarperCollins employees have had a union for more than 80 years and it is one of the earliest unions of “white collar” workers in the country. It is part of Technical, Office and Professional Union UAW Local 2110. Contract negotiations with HarperCollins management began in December 2021 when a one-year pandemic extension of the contract was set to expire. Currently, HarperCollins is the only major book publisher in the U.S. to be unionized, though book publishers in other countries have unions.

Local 2110 UAW also represents workers at the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Columbia University, Film Forum, Teachers College, ACLU, Center for Reproductive Rights, The New Press, and many more. The union has a reputation for aggressive organizing and bargaining and progressive politics.

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