Grievance Officers and Contract Advisors Needed

The NWU’s Grievance and Contract Committee is in search of several members who are interested in volunteering their time to be trained and to serve as Grievance Officers (GOs) and Contract Advisors (CAs).  Why Volunteer? Grievance Officers assist fellow NWU members in fighting to resolve disputes with publishers that may arise from lack of pay, […]

NWU Backs Study Hall Writers

The following letter was signed by 115 members of the Study Hall collective. NWU supports their struggle. info@studyhall.xyz // studyhall.xyz September 5, 2018 When The Outline launched in late 2016, they promised to be “a new kind of publication” that would, against many odds, find ways to thrive in a near-apocalyptic media landscape. Yesterday, they […]

Beyond Ebonyowes

The unfortunate circumstances around EBONYOWES are no secret: Loss of income. Possibly fractured relationships with editors, and second-guessing by some about our decision to take legal action against a beloved American institution. However, the experience forced me out of my comfort zone. After I stopped writing for EBONY, I began to pitch larger publications and […]

Get to Know Us

More than 40 people joined the NWU to get grievance assistance or contract advice during the first six months of 2018. And roughly half of all members who request service—not counting group grievances—are new members. If you’re one of them, welcome to the National Writers Union!  If you joined to pursue a grievance, you may […]

Consumers Digest: Pay Your Writers What You Owe Them

The National Writers Union/UAW 1981 is representing 17 freelance contributors to Consumers Digest Magazine who are owed more than $63,000 for stories that were contracted, completed and published. Some writers have waited more than a year to be paid by a publication that presents itself as a champion of consumers and ethical business practices. On May […]

Latina Freelancers Receive $43,000 to Cover Unpaid Invoices

We were building a mass grievance at Latina and Latina Kitchen. We had organized a group of 14 writers and photographers who were owed more than $45,000 by the publications’ owner Solera Capital, LLC, a private equity firm in NYC. Latina’s website was down, and my emails to their officers bounced back. Still, we moved forward, planning to add a few more folks […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

New Addendum To Book Contracts Guide

Over the past few years, we’ve had increasing numbers of inquiries about the treatment of electronic books (e-books) within book contracts. While they were traditionally considered subsidiary rights that compensated authors at 50 percent of net sales, many publishers have begun to see them as a windfall, and have tried to get members to accept […]