Scholastic Worker Walkout
Unionized workers at Scholastic are staging a walkout, protesting the publishing company’s rejection of a proposal for annual raises. Union members did not report to work on November 1, 2023, and held a rally and protest on Zoom and in person outside Scholastic headquarters in New York City.
The union has been trying to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with Scholastic since October 2022. The previous agreement expired in May 2022. Protesters call for the company to pay its workers a living wage with annual raises to keep up with inflation and rising rent costs.
Susan DeCarava, president of The NewsGuild of New York, which represents Scholastic’s 82 unionized workers, said, “We see straight through the hypocrisy of Scholastic and are standing together today to make this company better. Our members are dedicated to the values that their work for Scholastic represents. We think the company should, at both the bargaining table and at book fairs, represent those values too.”
Scholastic also recently came under fire for offering a separate, opt-in “Share Every Story, Celebrate Every Voice” selection for their book fairs, which critics said served as de facto censorship of diverse books (mostly by LGBTQIA+ writers), since those books weren’t included in school fairs unless specifically requested. The company subsequently apologized for the program.
For more information, see the statement from The NewsGuild.
This is a small part of a tremendous problem, one that potentially affects the entire publishing industry as well as people in all walks of life. Employers are paying their workers too little, while property owners are charging for rent too much. In fact, all corporations are taking bad advantage of workers and consumers alike, and the larger corporations do the more harm. Should we not have laws to rein in all these executives and CEOs, to inpose limits and demand accountability, just as the laws does to the workers, renters and everyone else?