Checks Are in the Mail for May Day!

As of today, International Workers’ Day, checks for approximately $9.5 million are in the mail to almost 2,500 freelance writers whose works were copied and distributed in electronic form by publishers of print periodicals who had neither paid for nor acquired digital rights to these articles. These payments today of millions of dollars to thousands […]

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 to Partner with VLA NY

NWU is partnering with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts NY. This is a new member benefit that our members will have access to in navigating the difficult world of building a freelance writing career.  NWU became a non-profit institutional member of VLA and the first fruit of this new relationship is that VLA will represent […]

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 […]

Women in Media: 1 in 2 Report Violence at Work

New York, MARCH 15 – Nearly one in two women journalists have experienced sexual harassment, psychological abuse, online trolling and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) while working—yet “up to three-quarters of media workplaces have no reporting or support mechanism,” says broadcast journalist Mindy Ran, citing results of a survey survey released this month by the International Federation of […]

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 […]

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 […]