Workers for publishing company HarperCollins have been on strike since November. The company still refuses to negotiate with them.

HarperCollins (founded in 1989) has had its CEO Brian Murray since 2008. In November 2022, around 200 publishing employees formed a union and went on strike against the company with a list of demands they wanted to negotiate.

The strike holds three demands: for the minimum wage in their company to increase from $45,000 per year to $50,000; for them to address diversity issues at the company, and the guarantee that all eligible employees are in the union.

Authors working to get their novels published under HarperCollins and its imprints have expressed bittersweet feelings toward the situation. Sean Adams, the author of “The Thing in the Snow” (2023), said he believes it to be a sad situation, especially because his editor was on strike when the book was published.

“It’s a total bummer,” said Adams. “You work so long on a book, and you dream of putting it out—and your editor and your marketing person and your publicist, they’re all basically helping you achieve this dream.”

Instead, the union workers are encouraging authors to tweet and email the CEO of HarperCollins, demanding that they speak to the union. Furthermore, they are not encouraging consumers to completely boycott HarperCollins and harm the authors that are publishing through them; instead, they are asking that consumers not review HarperCollins (and imprint) titles until the strike is over, as well as purchase HarperCollins titles through their Bookshop.org link, where parts of the proceeds go to the fund that helps them be able to buy essentials (like rent and groceries) while they cannot receive paychecks. 

“We don’t want to harm HarperCollins authors,” said Rachel Kambury, a striking associate editor at HarperCollins.