Archives for 2017

Nautilus and NWU Make Progress on Freelancer Payments

New York, NY December 22 – This week Nautilus founder and publisher John Steele met with NWU President Larry Goldbetter to discuss resolving the issue of non-payment to freelancers at the award winning science magazine. Both Steele and Goldbetter expressed optimism that this issue will be resolved.  The union is representing 19 Nautilus contributors who […]

NAUTILUS STORIES PUBLISHED, BUT NOT PAID FOR  

Here some of our stories that Nautilus  contracted for and published, but has yet to pay for more than a year later for many of us.  Topics include selfishness, depression, rats, and impossible math. Also apropos, “Trust” is the theme of Nautilus’s December issue.    Lorraine Boissoneault, Chicago, Illinois, NWU (@boissolm, www.lboissoneault.com) “Archaeologists are Planning […]

An Open Letter from Freelancers at Nautilus Magazine

December 13, 2017   Dear Readers, Funders and Board Members of Nautilus Magazine,   As of December 13, we are writers and editors awaiting payment from Nautilus magazine for a collective debt totalling $50,000. Some of us have been waiting to be paid for more than a year. Our numbers span many time zones, from […]

NWU Crashes Ebony Power 100 Bash – Pay the Writers!

On December 1, NWU crashed the Ebony Power 100 Gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. The Gala is Ebony magazine’s annual award ceremony to honor the leading African-American figures in politics, culture and sports. NWU’s action was organized by SoCal acting chapter chair Ismael Parra and NWU VP Pamela K. Johnson. Members […]

NWU Joins Public Defenders and Community Organizations to Demand, “ICE Out of NY Courts!”

(Brooklyn, NY) – On December 7, NWU joined with the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys – UAW Local 2325 (ALAA), and other unions, immigrant rights organizations, and community groups at a rally at Brooklyn Borough Hall to call on the Office of Court Administration (OCA) and Chief Judge Janet DiFiore to immediately prohibit Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) […]

What a Year!

Last year at this time, most of us were depressed and/or in shock at the outcome of the presidential election. But on the day after the inauguration, the Women’s March, a worldwide protest, helped clear our heads and set us on a course to fight back. The anti-Muslim travel ban was met by thousands of […]

Daily News Reporter Speaks at NWU Event

One of few remaining labor reporters, Ginger Adams Otis, spoke in early November at the 1199 Union Hall in Hartford, CT. She covers worker and union issues for the Daily News’ “On the Job” beat, and her talk attracted a large, enthusiastic audience, which included members of UAW Local 6950/UCONN Graduate Employee Union. Adams’ most poignant […]

Ramsey’s Latest Play Staged

NWU member Calvin Ramsey staged a reading of his latest play Damaged Virtues, November 28 at Harlem’s National Black Theater.  Based on a true story about J. Marion Sims, a 19th-century physician, the drama explored the doctor’s sadistic penchant for performing experimental gynecological surgery on enslaved women. Despite the pain and suffering he visited upon them, […]

How High Must Prospective Employees Jump?

I wrote an article in 1998 about questionable “tests” employers were requesting of prospective employees. I was asked, under the guise of recruitment, to produce feature-length articles, conference proposals, health columns, and a 38-page editing “test;” all of it live work. Almost 20 years later, these exploitive practices are still occurring. Over the past year […]

French Law Favoring Publishers Repealed

The French government earlier this year repealed a terrible law giving the country’s publishers the “right” to issue or license new editions of “out of print” books and pocket the revenues. The law, which was overturned last June, allowed print publishers to profit from these newly issued digital editions, regardless of the availability of previous versions of […]