The move to unionize in comics-adjacent businesses keeps growing. Both teachers at SVA and employees at Abrams Books have voted to unionize in recent days.
• SVA’s efforts to unionize have been chronicled on an Instagram account and notes that SVA is one of the last art colleges to unionize. Instructor Joan Hilty is one of many who explained the movement, which will represent more than 1200 instructors.
100% this. I also teach just one class but unionized representation is as important to my and my students’ well-being as it is to my colleagues who heroically teach full time workloads. Despite what the admin claims, career professionals who want to teach at SVA struggle to balance teaching with their jobs due to SVA’s lack of competitive pay and institutional support. We can’t sustain working endless unpaid prep hours outside our day jobs any more than career professors can outside their class sessions.
The vote was held over the last two weeks and was supported by 77% of those who voted:
The resulting union will organize under UAW (United Auto Workers.) Hyperallergic has more on the effort.
• Abrams also voted to unionize in a mail-in election that took place from April 30 to May 21, and they will also join UAW Local 2110. This opens the way for Abrams editors, designers, product managers, and other non-supervisory positions to begin the process of contract negotiations with Abrams Books, headquartered in Manhattan, New York.
“WE WON! With 79% of eligible voters casting ballots we won with an 88% supermajority! We are so excited and proud to enter a new era for Abrams, an era where our rights as workers will be codified in a union contract and our voices will be heard collectively by management. Together we are Abrams, and we will contribute to a publishing industry that is more sustainable, just, and fair for every worker” posted the Abrams Union on Instagram
Abrams Books will be the newest member of New York publishers that are members of UAW 2110 following Harper Collins who joined in 2023 and joining the ranks of other workers in comics unionizing like Comic Book Workers United made up of Image staffers.
In a petition for the union vote the Abrams staffers outlined their concerns:
Staff members cite low wages, job security, and a need for greater transparency as reasons for unionizing.
“The work we do at the company is essential. Without our labor, Abrams couldn’t publish any books,” Sarah Robbins, an Associate Editor who has worked at Abrams for five years, says. “We want to be heard and treated with respect, which includes fair wages and better job protections.”
Madeline Morales, Designer, adds: “We’re unionizing because we love our jobs at Abrams and we want to make this a workplace that we can stay and thrive in. Everyone at Abrams deserves to earn a living wage and be treated fairly.”
Courtney Code, a senior editor who has worked at Abrams for ten years says: “At a time when book bans are on the rise, I am so proud to work in publishing alongside the most creative, collaborative, and hardworking people I have ever met, bringing thoughtful, diverse, and delightful stories into the world. Through unionizing, we can protect our jobs at Abrams, empowering us to continue this essential work.”
The last few years have seen thousands of workers in cultural institutions, media, and other traditionally “white collar” roles decide to unionize. Salaries at Abrams Books are among the lowest in the New York City book publishing world with an entry-level rate of just $40,000 a year. Entry-level rates at “Big Five” publishing houses increased to over $50,000 after a major strike by workers at HarperCollins in 2023, but wages at Abrams continue to lag.
Abrams workers have seen sudden changes to health care and retirement benefits, multiple rounds of layoffs and even attempts at union busting in the last year,
“After thirteen years in publishing, I was dangerously close to reaching a point of skepticism that anything could improve, and that stressful and chaotic conditions were industry standard,” said senior designer Andrea Miller. “I’ve completely changed my outlook since spending the past year organizing alongside my coworkers at Abrams.”
Additional reporting by Heidi MacDonald
