Labor Activists Strategize in Chicago

Several NWU members, including Ismael Parra, David Trujillo, and Eliane Bernard, attended the largest Labor Notes conference ever April 6-8 in Chicago. About 2,500 people from 25 countries, including more than 200 international guests, participated.   The Rev. William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign greeted the massive crowd via a video  by saying, “Help save […]

NWU at Los Angeles March for Our Lives

So Cal members of the National Writers Union (NWU), along with an estimated 80,000 more, attended the youth-led March For Our Lives rally in downtown Los Angeles on March 23.  In other areas of the country and around the world, millions of supporters turned out, including more than 800,000 at the march’s ground zero in […]

So Cal Meets Up

The SoCal Chapter met Sat., Feb. 24 at the Workmen’s Circle in Los Angeles. Five members plus one prospective member attended—five women and one man. We began with a live video interview with NWU President Larry Goldbetter, who spoke about various non-payment grievances (NPGs) in progress. He spoke in particular of a forthcoming agreement with Ebony for $80,000 worth […]

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 […]

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 […]

Ebony Freelancers and NWU Get to Know Each Other

On November 1, lawyers for NWU and the Ebony Media Organization finally met in a Cook County courtroom. At issue is the $80,000 owed to the 48 freelancers who are being represented by their union. The following night, about a dozen Ebony freelancers and some NWU reps met and got to know each other at […]

Writer Alert—UPTOWN Magazine—October 18 2017

UPTOWN Magazine–a national publication with regional editions in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. –has not been paying all of its freelance writers. Some writers remain unpaid since October, 2014. Together five writers, now represented by the National Writers Union, are owed $18,825 for work published by UPTOWN over the past three years. The NWU has tried repeatedly […]

SoCal Meets, Eats, Reads and Plans

Members and friends of the So Cal chapter gathered at Mi Vida boutique in Highland Park, CA, for a holiday meeting and public reading on Sunday, December 18. A delicious assortment of goodies, including Mexican hot chocolate, welcomed the crowd of about 15, roughly a quarter of them NWU members. New member David Marques emceed […]

2016 Year in Review

All in all, it was a very busy year at NWU and we’re better off for it. The elections aside, we still have many challenges ahead, the main one being how to grow, be more active, and better serve our members while, at the same time, cutting back on spending. This is a perpetual riddle […]