Why We’re Backing AB-5

NWU supports the passage of Assembly Bill-5 (Worker Status: Employees and Independent Contractors). AB-5 is legislation in California designed to end employee misclassification and to bring the protection of state and federal labor law to the millions of workers who are currently deprived of it. AB-5 will require multi-billion dollar corporations to respect those labor […]

A Novel Discussion in D.C.

NWU members and authors Bill Fletcher Jr. and Tim Sheard enjoyed a provocative discussion July 16 about storytelling and social justice at the Busboys & Poets Takoma bookshop in the Washington D.C. area. Moderator Kurt Stand asked Fletcher, who is the author of The Man Who Fell From the Sky, and Sheard, who wrote One Foot in […]

Our Future to Write and Own

My favorite old union song has always been “Solidarity Forever.” It never fails to inspire and remind me of the power that working people have when they come together to rewrite the rules of our broken economy. This lyric, from Ralph Chaplin’s original, I find particularly moving: All the world that’s owned by idle drones […]

Conference Seeks to Bolster Global Worker Rights

The International Labor Organization (ILO) renewed a Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work on June 21 in Geneva, Switzerland. The event coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Conference, where the organization adopted a new international Convention against violence and harassment at work, while vowing to hold governments accountable for violations. Sharan Burrow, general […]

Reception for the NWUSO Legal Action Fund

In 2018, the National Writers Union collected more than $200,000 for almost 150 unpaid freelancers by waging Group Non-Payment Grievances. Most of these were settled directly and with the assistance of the UAW Legal Department , some had to go to court. All of the unpaid freelancers were paid 100% of what they were owed. […]

Police “Confiscate a Newsroom” to Try to Reveal a Confidential Source

On Friday, May 10, ten San Francisco police officers and two FBI agents raided the home of freelance journalist and videographer Bryan Carmody. They showed up with sledge hammers and battering rams with guns drawn, and a search warrant looking for “stolen or embezzled” property. In reality, they were not so much looking for a […]