Major Step Toward Victory for Hachette Book Group Workers

On Monday, workers at Hachette Book Group (HBG), the third-largest trade publisher in the United States, announced their intent to form a union with the Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild (TNG-CWA Local 32035). The move is an effort to ensure better benefits, protections, and rights for workers, as well as increased equity, transparency, and agency in the workplace. Workers with the Hachette Workers Coalition have signed hundreds of cards in support of forming a union at HBG.

With approximately 600 members, the Hachette Workers Coalition (HWC-CWA) will be the largest union in trade publisher history, inclusive of workers in every physical office and remote location, across the United States and Canada. The HWC-CWA demands a livable wage regardless of work location, better working conditions, a cap on workload hours, a clear and neutral grievance process, AI protections, follow-through on DEI policies, and more.

This campaign is a major strategic push for The NewsGuild-CWA and could spell more powerful contracts for future members in the industry.

“Both across the publishing industry and especially at HBG, we have felt the crush of increased workloads while our compensation, career growth, and opportunities have stagnated,” said HBG designer Andy Wang. “Instead, leadership has continued to spin the revolving door with callously handled layoffs and hushed dismissals, and has regressed on common-sense policies such as the right to work from home or to even have your own desk! As united members of the Hachette Workers Coalition, we reject our current industry model, which actively undermines the long-term development of employees’ skills and their ability to support themselves and their families in pursuit of unsustainable profit-driven growth.”

Click here to read more about the Hachette Workers Coalition.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.