FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: UCP Workers Guild | ucpworkers@gmail.com
Emily Steelhammer, Staff Representative | esteelhammer@chicagonewsguild.org
CHICAGO, IL —Workers at the University of Chicago Press are forming a union with the Chicago News Guild, TNG-CWA Local 34071, joining the nationwide labor movement for a stronger publishing industry. The UCP Workers Guild has requested that leadership agree to voluntary recognition and work with staff to negotiate a first contract. If not recognized voluntarily, workers are seeking an election monitored by the National Labor Relations Board by mail.
The University of Chicago Press is a leader in academic publishing, boasting a rigorous program of trade and specialist titles, a portfolio of highly regarded scholarly journals, and the Chicago Distribution Center, which includes the digital scholarly book repository BiblioVault. The UCP Workers Guild represents staff across the press’s divisions and marks the first union in the press’s 130-year history.
In a mission statement, the UCP Workers Guild outlines the following organizing principles, which are guiding its efforts: pay equity, sustainability, and transparency.
A full mission statement and additional information about UCP Workers Guild is available here. Information about the Chicago News Guild is available here.
“I dreamed for years of getting a job in academic publishing, and I’m thrilled to be working not only in my chosen industry but at one of the most prestigious presses in the country,” said Griffin Reed, a UCP Workers Guild member.
“However, that excitement is too often exploited by employers, and particularly by our employers at the University of Chicago. My coworkers and I face low, stagnant wages; a lack of standardization across the press regarding our ability to work from home; and potential precarity in the form of layoffs, outsourcing, or the introduction of AI into our workflow. I want a union to ensure that our jobs are protected and that we are paid fairly for our profit-generating labor.”