Freelance Solidarity Project Organizes with NWU

In the spring of 2018, a group of volunteers began discussing how freelancers could benefit from the gains of collective bargaining. As thousands of workers have unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East and the NewsGuild-CWA, the question of how we could stand in solidarity with staff workers while advocating for our own rights […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 by the union. And some, with the assistance of the UAW Legal Department, had to go to court. All of the unpaid freelancers were paid 100% of what they […]

How writers monetize words: The marketplaces for writing in digital formats

The Internet is often depicted as a threat to traditional print publishing and traditional print publishers — which it is. But the Internet has also created many new digital publishing and income opportunities for tech-savvy, innovative, and entrepreneurial writers. This includes ways to make money from business models and types of writing that would be […]

OUT MAGAZINE: PAY THE FREELANCERS !

Feb. 26, 2018 — NEW YORK CITY — The National Writers Union is now representing 25 freelance contributors to Out magazine, who are owed more than $40,000 for work that was contracted, produced and published. This campaign — which is also taking place on social media with the hashtag #OutOwes — is going public today, and we expect […]

NWU and allies urge easier, cheaper copyright registration for online work

The NWU and National Press Photographers Association filed written comments yesterday with the US Copyright Office to create a new procedure to register multiple written works first distributed online. The intent is that the collection of works can be registered for a single fee and with a single application. This proposalwas made in response to a petition initiated by the […]