#HarperCollins strike

[seventeeneightyfine]

let me explain why i’m flooding your dash with posts about the harpercollins strike

As a bookseller, I want you to know that one of the worst things about our industry is the unsettlingly pervasive idea that we should financially suffer for working in it. There is a powerful idea in creative fields (as in many, many fields under late capitalism) that one should be willing to forego necessities of life -- namely, an adequate wage -- in order to have work that one resonates with emotionally.

In bookworld, I’d say that this is frequently aided and abetted by two factors. First, we often feel a strong sense of community with our coworkers and the book creation/promotion world at large and feel we should sacrifice personally for them; that to do so is right. Second, we have a sense that, due to a confluence of factors  from Amazon monopolization to the rise of the Internet to the pandemic’s financial tolls, we work in a permanently struggling industry -- that we should be willing to take the hit, as it were, to help keep our business afloat.

Neither of those feelings is accurate in an independent bookstore. It doesn’t matter how narrow the profit margins are or how close you are with your coworkers. Your labor is labor, and it must be compensated. They are even less true in the context of a multi-billion-dollar publishing corporation, where the people at the top (including the parent company’s owner, who is literally Rupert Murdoch) benefit from growing monopolization while employees are unable to afford basic cost-of-living expenses. May I remind you that of HarperCollins’ thousands of employees, many are required to live in New York City -- one of the most expensive metropolitan areas in the world. While working long hours, HarperCollins staff making a starting salary (45,000/year) make $18,600 less than the average annual cost of living in New York City for a single person.

This is unacceptable. As one sign carried on the picket line read-- PASSION DOESN’T PAY THE RENT.

Fair wages do.

[katy-l-wood]

Hey, if you support the Harper Collins strike, please consider signing their solidarity letter! It has 5,000 signatures so far and they'd like to triple it by the 15th.

Sign Here

[misstermirkwood]

HarperCollins Strike Updates-Revenge of the Scab-bots

Do you love messing with union busting corporations? Do you love books? Did you read Warriors as a kid or were you normal? (no shade I own the first 36 books and they are wrapped in cellophane cases for safe reading)!! Then I beg a few minutes of your time! 

It is day 32 of the HarperCollins Union strike, and it looks like HR has started its campaign to hire scabs by replacing union eligible jobs with management level positions that AREN’T union eligible: 

It sure would be a Shame if these jobs were flooded with credible applicants that then ghosted HR making it impossible to sift through the real and fake apps...it would be such a heartbreaking new years revelation for The People Team to come back to, what an absolute shitstorm THAT would be!! 

[willowheartswarriors]

Congrats to the HarperCollins union on ratifying their new contract!

Source on Twitter

[starrlikesbooks]

Remember- don't cross the picket line and support your unions! x

[forewordreviewsmag]

We've got an update on the HarperCollins strike!

"More than 200 workers at one of the largest publishing companies in the country have been on strike for months now. Striking workers at HarperCollins Publishing held a rally last week at the steps of News Corp, the publisher's parent company, and plan to stay out longer. NPR's Andrew Limbong reports."

Read this article from NPR to learn more!

Striking Harper Collins employees on the picket line [Photo: @EmmaKupor]

[kiraleighart]

Being an author with business smarts makes me feel crazy.

I see the business rules of status and marketing apply to traditional publishing. With my eyes.

Agents talk market fit, do calls for "diversity," but marginalized authors say rep is rare. Yet we have no transparent data on it. In fact, we have no transparency into anything trad publishing does until years later, with online aggregates.

Which end up being damning as all hell.

Not to mention junior employees are leaving in droves and even the HarperCollins Union is on strike! How can we trust that trad pub isn't stuck in old-guard ways when its junior workforce is struggling to meet fair wages, or leaving??

I have seen with my eyes that clout can buy an author career. Rich people barf books. Having family in PR wins. Republicans buy NYT Bestseller Status. Internships make wins, which means generational wealth is a factor.

But bringing this up yields crickets. Static.

I feel like I'm being gaslighted by an entire goddamn industry???

[caffeinated-bibliophile]

FYI, the HarperCollins strike is still happening

[timetravelbypen]

Man the HarperCollins striking workers and the other publishing folks speaking up in support and highlighting the massive massive problems in our industry sure is stirring up a lot of feelings.

I saw a junior agent saying something today about “not getting to be a Real Adult” for 10+ years on publishing wages and that just. That hit me.

Because I’m 32 and living with my parents and can’t afford housing on my own and even if I DID want a partner I couldn’t really look for one because... I’m not out to my parents and I live with them!

And In Publishing Terms I’m actually paid decently at this point... and yet if I was making what I make now pre-pandemic, it would have maybe been housing money. It’s not now.

I’m actually really quite good at my job. I love editing. I love my creators. My job drives me absolutely insane but the actual work of editing and making books I love.

But dear lord I am tired.

Anyway good luck striking HarperCollins folks, I’m rooting for you.

[lilithsaintcrow]

“Because HarperCollins is the only union shop among the Big Five, the stakes here are high. It is pushed by necessity to set the labor standards for the rest of the industry: when it raises its wages, Penguin Random House raises its wages too. The hope among supporters both in and out of the union was that the new agreement would spark similar structural changes at the other Big Five houses, and maybe even inspire other houses to unionize.”

There’s going to be a backlash, of course—the rest of the Big Five will do what they can to punish the union shop. I don’t see any real change occurring until Amazon is dealt with and there’s a resurgence of mid-size and large publishers; the former probably won’t happen for nearly a decade and the latter will require the industry tanking first.

By “Amazon being dealt with” I mean the monopsony aspects; I don’t think the government subsidizing of Amazon and other megabillion corporations will be halted until there’s another Great Depression and concomitant social unrest.

We’re in the fucking Gilded Age, we know how that played out, and those in power are willfully ignoring any lessons learned in favor of keeping their grasp on said power.

In other words, I’m not an optimist, even though the end to the HC strike is very good news. I wish it was enough.

[helloiamausacresfan]

The union at HarperCollins (UAW 2110) is currently (as of 11/10/22) on strike for livable pay and working conditions-this is a Twitter thread called "How can I help while the Harper Union is on strike?

"Image description"

"Anyone: •Donate to our strike fund •Email peopleteam@harpercollins.com with your support •Boost our message on social media (Find assets at the drive link in our linktree!)"/end ID

ID: "Authors and agents: NO NEW CONTRACTS WITHOUT OUR CONTRACT! As of 11/10, we will be going on strike until we have a fair contract. We're asking you to strongly consider holding any new submissions to any HarperCollins editor until we have reached an agreement. (This would not apply to any existing contractual obligations like deadlines or option material.) #HCPONSTRIKE" /end ID

ID: "Freelancers: •Don't take new HC contracts while we're striking •Don't renege on existing contracts" /end ID

ID: "Reviewers and blurbers: If you are able, please hold your reviews, nominations, and any other content until we have a fair contract." /end ID

ID: "Bookstores and booksellers: •Share our "I stand with" graphic on your own social media •Print our bookmark and distribute it to customers (Find assets for all of these at the drive link in our linktree!)"/end ID

"Management: •Write to Brian Murray and the People team to support a fair contract as soon as possible. •Do not physically cross our picket line-stay at home out of support for the union. •Note that managers are not protected under the NRA if they strike in sympathy." /end ID

Link to Donation Pledge page:

[soleadita]

i’d say someone should force the harpercollins execs to watch newsies but they’d probably miss the fucking point

[unaffordableamericanlandwhy]

Human’s Striking 4 A Decent Living!

Why hasn’t anyone protest against some of these greedy landlords? These greedy landlords are the cause of so many people not being able to afford to even be able to live payday to payday. I call this price gouging!!!

Who are these landlords? Who is really buying our American real estate? And why? Every time a group goes on strike, a big percentage of the reason is because those in the group cannot afford rent.

Whoever is buying our American real estate is bringing down American businesses. Employers are being blamed for their employees not being able to afford rent, when it is really the greedy landlords that are the fault for many of our homelessness.

We are losing our American way of life. From small business, to affordable housing, even some of our corporations can’t afford rent.

For many, the answer is to build new affordable housing that will likely not be affordable. There seems aplenty of places that are now for lease and rent that sit empty due to the monthly rent rate. So why built more to just sit empty? Make laws against rent greed...which I call price gouging!!!

[beezlebutch]

I want to talk about a book I just read but I can't because it's published by Harper Collins. Harper Collins treat your fucking workers right!