President’s April Column

A Time to Organize The Nautilus and Ebony campaigns have led to more requests for non-payment grievances (NPGs) and opened up more possibilities for building our union. These are more than grievances for us, they are also organizing campaigns. Based on Nautilus, we are discussing some ideas with National Association of Science Writers (NASW)  and […]

50 Years Since MLK’s Assassination

This month we remember the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I had just turned 18, and was a student at Manhattan Community College. Students and thousands of others converged on Central Park for a mass rally while everyone was still in shock. Then, with hundreds of thousands of others […]

End the War and Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen

New York, NY March 13 — Tonight NWU joined with the Arab-American Association of NY (AAANY) and the Arab-American Family Support Center (AAFSC) for a panel on ending the war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The event was also sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace, Brooklyn Peace and the International Committee of the Professional Staff […]

NWU Reaches Final Settlement Agreement with Ebony

CHICAGO, IL – The National Writers Union has reached a final settlement agreement with the Ebony Media Organization and CVG Group LLC (which acquired Ebony magazine in 2016), over the magazine’s failure to pay freelance writers, editors and designers for contracted and published work. This settlement covers 45 freelancers who are collectively owed $80,000 by […]

NWU and Nautilus Settle $60,000 Non-Payment Grievance

New York City, January 31 – Today the NWU announced that we have a signed settlement with Nautilus magazine resolving a non-payment grievance with twenty Nautilus freelancers. In mid-December, the freelancers filed the grievance with NWU for help in seeking payment of over $60,000 owed to them for articles published in the National Magazine Award-winning […]

President’s Column – Feb. Newsletter

Happy New Year and I hope you were all able to participate in the recent Women’s Marches. In NYC, the numbers were much larger than the stated 200,000, and thousands of people never got to actually join the march because the crowds were so big and due to NYPD crowd control. I was one, who […]

RIP Sister Ursula K. Le Guin

It is with great sorrow and the deepest respect that we bid farewell to Sister Ursula K. Le Guin, a  ground-breaking author, radical, feminist and revolutionary as well as a literary giant. What’s more, she was one of us, a member of NWU.  She was the author of more than 20 novels, a dozen books […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]