In honor of the Labor Day holiday, we are once again sharing our list of union and guild resources for writers–organizations that help freelancers around the country cope with shrinking pay scales, a health insurance crisis and the crippling recession.
We’ve started our list below with email and website links, but feel free to add suggestions in the comments section–we will keep updating our directory. Last year, the National Writers Union (NWU) celebrated 30 years as “the only labor union that represents freelance writers.” Here are a few NWU accomplishments this year:
NWU works with freelancers for Heart and Soul, a magazine with an African American readership, to recover payments due contributors. The 2-year effort by a dozen NWU members/H&S contributors leads to a binding legal agreement providing for payments of outstanding article fees totaling $126,000. The mass grievance first started in Oct. 2011 with 5 writers winning $5,000: this settlement covers 12 more. The NWU submits comments to the Copyright Office and mobilizes NWU members to oppose “orphan works” legislation that would allow anyone who claims they can’t find the holder of the rights to a work to use it without permission or payment. The majority of individual comments received by the Copyright Office come from NWU members.
Union & Guild Resources for Writers
Writers Guild of America, East
Writers Guild of America, West
San Francisco Bay Area NWU chapter
Santa Cruz/Monterey NWU chapter
Southeast Michigan NWU chapter
Western New England NWU chapter