#HarperCollins strike

[willowheartswarriors]

Congrats to the HarperCollins union on ratifying their new contract!

Source on Twitter

[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]

[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.

[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!

[high-quality-tiktoks]

She so real for this, remember the strike is still on going

[libraryleopard]

January reads

Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

Yerba Buena by Nina Lacour

Fine: A Comic About Gender by Rhea Ewing

Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks by Nathan Burgoine

Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

The Dreaming: Waking Hours by G. Willow Wilson, Nick Robles, Javier Rodriguez, M.K. Perker, and Matheus Lopes

Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

Slip by Marika McCoola and Aatmaja Panda

The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

The Demon in the Wood by Leigh Bardugo and Dani Pendergast

The Confessions of Frannie Langon by Sara Collins

Sleeping With the Dictionary by Harryette Mullen

Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk

This Will Be Funny Someday by Katie Henry

The Animals at Lockwood Manor by Jane Healey

His Hideous Heart edited by Dahlia Adler

Kindred by Octabia Butler

[lilithsaintcrow]

“We’re on Day 58 of the strike, with no idea of how much longer this will stretch on. I admit it: I’m terrified and exhausted. I also have never believed in our mission more.”

[thebookbin]

Me, trying to review books as an avid reader and book reviewer

HarperCollins: won't fairly bargain with their workers

Me: No reviews atm because everything I've read lately has been published by HarperCollins or a HarperCollins owned subsidiary (break 'em up) and I am withholding my reviews out of solidarity for the Union Strike.

Reviews: empty :(

More info here

[emeryleewho]

I keep seeing posts talking about the WGA/Sag-Aftra strike, which yes, good, but in all this "support writers" sentiment I'm seeing no one talk about book writers, which I think is something people should know more about right now.

We are at an all-time high for book bans, namely targeting queer & PoC-authored books. This means that a lot of schools and libraries are no longer stocking diverse YA books, and if you're not in publishing, you may not realize this but school & libraries are by far one of the biggest markets for diverse YA books.

This means that in 2023, YA book sales are down. This is also in part because Barnes & Noble (the largest physical book retailer in the U.S.) is no longer really stocking YA hardcovers. This means that marginalized authors and debut authors are struggling to sell books.

But it's a LOT worse than that. In the past couple of years, marginalized authors are *really* struggling to get new book deals. Most books are acquired by a publisher about 2 years before they release to the public, so this isn't all that noticeable yet, but a LOT of marginalized authors I've spoken to (myself included) have been unable to sell a new YA book since 2020. So while I had a book out last year, even if I sell one right now, you won't see it until 2025-2026. That's three to four years without a new release or the income I get from publishing those books.

On top of that, Big 5 publishers have started closing imprints (namely their diverse imprints) and have started telling their marginalized YA authors to just go. I've had multiple authors tell me their publisher basically said, "eh, we don't care to put in the work for you anymore. You can just go somewhere else". Of the authors who *are* getting offered new contracts, we're being offered pay far below the cost of living and we're being handed contracts that split our payments 4 or 5 ways and require we sign over our work to be used to train AI so they can replace us a few years down the road.

Authors are freelancers who own our IPs, which means we can't unionize the way Hollywood writers can, and despite authors showing up in droves to support HarperCollins employees when they went on strike for fair wages, we're being hung out to dry when it comes to our own rights.

If you enjoy diverse books, especially diverse YA, please understand that many of the authors you loved over the past 3-5 years are being forced out of the industry. We're being exploited, and we have no way to defend ourselves. Our books sales are drying up thanks to anti-queer legislation, our rights are being eaten up by AI, and our publishers are degrading us while profiting of us and refusing to share those profits with us.

Within the publishing industry, we've all been watching this decline happen over the last decade, but outside of it, I know most people have no idea what's going on so please spread the word. And if you care about diverse books especially in YA, please support marginalized authors in any way you can. The industry needs to be reminded that it needs us before we're all eliminated from it.

[archaalen]

AP News: HarperCollins union approves contract, ends 3-month strike