GCD History

1983
First grievance won.

1988
First major book grievance won $25,000 from Scribner/Macmillan for freelancers doing work-for-hire tasks for a subcontractor of the publisher.

1989
In the first intervention in a book publisher’s bankruptcy, GCD arranged protection of rights of about 750 Stein & Day authors.

1990
Recovered $30,000 from Silver Burdett Press (then part of Simon & Schuster), which failed to pay the freelance writers and editors of a children’s book series.

1991

• Group grievance filed against In These Times. Represented 445 writers/photographers. Ended in compromise.
• First international grievance. A French publisher was forced to withdraw a noted feminist’s book it had deliberately mistranslated.
• Database of division cases established.

1992
NWU members protest at NY’s Book Country Fair in support of grievances against Simon & Schuster, especially a case in which a new edition of a work said “more than 1 million copies sold” when author’s royalty statements showed only 250,000 sales.

1993
Amount collected through grievances reaches $750,000.

1994

• First successful journalism group grievance. Two writers were removed from Golf Week blacklist.
• First significant grievance involving electronic rights won against Playboy, which had tried to reuse a freelancer’s interview with Fidel Castro in a CD-ROM compilation without permission.
• First contract seminars by Executive Director Maria Pallante (now Register of Copyrights).

1995

• Formal training begun for new grievance officers and contract advisors.
• Contract advisements begun.
• First edition of Guide to Book Contracts published.

1996
Amount won in grievances reaches $1,000,000.

1999

• Operations centralized rather than chapter-based.
• With legal help from the UAW, hired a lawyer who recovered more than $18,000 in back royalties and arranged for numerous rights reversions for Carol Publishing grievants after its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
• First edition of Guide to Work for Hire Contracts published.

2000

• Paid coordinator funded for first time at the Delegate Assembly.
• Won bankruptcy grievance that involved 1000 writers.

2005
Revised edition of Guide to Work for Hire Contracts published.

2006
5,000 requests handled since database was established.

2007
Revised edition of Guide to Book Contracts published.

2010
Natural Solutions group grievance, on behalf of freelance journalists who hadn’t been paid, began.

2011
Heart & Soul group grievance, on behalf of unpaid freelance writers and editors, began.

2012
Amount won in grievances exceeds $1,500,000.

2013
Natural Solutions grievance closed after collecting $23,333 for members.

2014
Heart & Soul grievance closed after collecting over $125,000 for 12 writers and editors.