Big 5 trade book publisher HarperCollins and the UAW local representing 200 HC employees have tentatively agreed to a new contract after a strike that began in November.
According to a press release, the new agreement includes unspecified increases to the minimum entry-level salary from a $45k baseline. Striking workers will also receive a $1,500 lump sum bonus following ratification.
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“What we don’t know is whether they hit the $50K mark they’d been asking for,” says Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer. “There are open questions, too, about other things the union had been asking for, including more concrete actions on diversity measures at the publisher.
“The next year or so could still be very painful—remember HC parent company News Corp. has announced a 5% labor reduction as it resets after the pandemic boom,” Albanese tells me.