Employees at Hachette Book Group vote to unionize

Workers at Hachette's publishing divisions across the United States and Canada voted 388-130 July 7 to join the Washington-Baltimore News Guild as the Hachette Workers Coalition. The bargaining unit, which includes roughly 600 employees, will soon begin negotiating its first collective bargaining agreement with management.

Hachette Book Group, the nation's third-largest trade publisher, becomes the second of the "Big Five" publishers to unionize, following the lead of workers at Harper Collins who have been unionized for 80 years.

The vote comes nearly three months after workers publicly launched their organizing campaign, saying they had collected hundreds of signed authorization cards and were seeking both voluntary recognition from the company and a National Labor Relations Board election. 

"This is the culmination of years of hard work by employees who came together to fight for better working conditions for ourselves and the publishing industry as a whole," Brenna Haney, a metadata associate in digital sales, said in a statement. "We withstood months of anti-union campaigning from the company, and today, we march forward united, ready to bargain for better benefits, stronger protections, and increased equity, transparency, and agency in our workplace."

Months of organizing

When the campaign was announced in April, Julia DeVarti, an associate editor at Little, Brown and Company and a spokesperson for the organizing committee, told The Chief that the effort built on a "long and rich history" of worker organizing at Hachette, including employee actions that successfully challenged the company's return-to-office policy and other workplace decisions.

"After those successes, we realized we could move the company on these issues," DeVarti said at the time. "There was a moment of asking, are we going to keep doing something with this now that we've built this organizing power? And that's when the focus on unionization came together."

Organizers are seeking salary increases, stronger benefits, protections against excessive workloads, clearer promotion pathways and a more transparent grievance process through a first contract.

Artificial intelligence has also been a central issue throughout the campaign. In April, DeVarti said workers wanted to negotiate safeguards before AI became more deeply embedded in the publishing industry, including protections against job displacement and clear policies governing the technology's use.

"We now go into negotiations with a strong mandate from our coworkers," said Maisa Nammari, a production associate. "HBG workers have shown that we reject a publishing industry model that prioritizes corporate profits while actively undermining our career growth and making it increasingly difficult for us to support ourselves and our families."

Accused management of anti-union activity

After employees announced their organizing campaign in April, Hachette declined to voluntarily recognize the union but said it respected employees' right to unionize and remained committed to open dialogue. Organizers, meanwhile, accused the company of waging an anti-union campaign during the election, saying employees received communications warning that workplace policies and benefits could be subject to negotiation under a collective bargaining agreement.

The organizing effort received support from elected officials, labor organizations, booksellers and authors, including New York State Senator Jabari Brisport, Assembly Members Claire Valdez and Phara Souffrant Forrest, State Senator Julia Salazar, and authors Rebecca Traister, Celeste Ng and Alexander Chee.

The relationship between the union and management at the other unionized "Big Five" publisher Harper Collins has, at times, devolved into deep divide. In late 2022 through early 2023 Harper Collins workers who are members of United Auto Workers Local 2110 walked out on strike for three months in order to secure a contract that fulfilled the unions demands.

Their latest contract was ratified in March without a strike.

The union representing workers at Hachette said members will soon elect bargaining leaders and prepare for negotiations with Hachette management.

"We look forward to meeting management at the bargaining table, and we have every expectation that we can come together in good faith to build a groundbreaking first contract that, by uplifting workers, will allow both Hachette and the wider publishing industry to flourish," said Eric Arroyo, a digital production coordinator.