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National Writers Union Fact Sheet
The National Writers Union can be reached by e-mail at:
CompuServe 72400,1712
Internet 72400.1712@compuserve.com
Notes on the History & Activities of NWU
Whether you write books, articles, short stories or poetry,
when you publish you enter into an economic relationship with a
publisher. And that publisher, whether large or small, is your
"employer" and, as the industry is currently structured, you face
him or her alone.
For free-lance writers, going it alone has its pluses and
minuses: working for oneself offers a great deal of intellectual
and creative freedom; but sometimes trying to get one's due from
editors and publishers is harrowing.
The National Writers Union formed in 1981 during the
American Writers Congress in New York City, where hundreds of
free-lance writers insisted on the need for independent writers
to join together to strengthen their hand when confronting the
concentrated and powerful publishing industry.
The Writers Union has nearly 3,000 members from every
writing genre. The Union is organized into geographic locals.
Our Eastern Region locals are Boston, New Jersey, New York,
Washington DC, Westchester, and Western Massachusetts. Our
Central Region includes Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul. On the
West Coast we have locals in Los Angeles, Santa Cruz/Monterey,
and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, locals are forming
in other cities.
From the moment we were chartered in 1983, we have put
together a union of writers, low on funds, but strong on our
commitment to authors and writers struggling for fairness and
dignity.
Using mostly our own labor and energies, and those of a
small, dedicated national staff, we now offer our members:
-- A comprehensive health insurance program available to
members in all parts of the country through Michigan Blue-Blue
Shield.
-- A National Grievance Network. We have won about
$700,000 for writers in disputes with their publishers.
-- Collective bargaining agreements with national and
regional publications, including Columbia Journalism Review, In
These Times, LA Weekly, Mother Jones, The Nation, Ms Magazine,
Pacific Guest Life, among others. Our ground-breaking agreement
with Ploughshares in Boston, is the first of its kind, setting
minimum standards at a literary magazine.
-- A Declaration of Writers' Economic Rights, aimed at
educating all publishers of writers' rights to fair compensation,
uniform contract standards, broader copyright protections, and
legal protections.
-- A National Book Campaign designed to change the
standard contract used by publishing houses. Our four points
include (1) Timely Payments to all authors, (2) Comprehensible
and standardized royalty statements, (3) Non-returnable advances,
and (4) Arbitration of disputes.
-- A new Journalism Campaign seeking fair and
professional standards from publishers of periodicals including:
no work for hire; full payment on submission of contracted work;
fair rates; and arbitration to settle disputes.
-- A Political Issues Committee which defends the rights
or writers and readers. We've actively opposed the Helms
amendment to the National Endowment for the Arts; we joined the
suit against the Pentagon's press censorship; we led the fight to
return Salman Rushdie's book "Satanic Verses" to this nation's
book stores after B.Dalton, Barnes & Noble and Waldenbooks pulled
the novel from their 2,000 stores; and we lobbied Congress to
change the way writers calculate their federal taxes.
-- Job Hotlines in Boston, New York and San Francisco.
-- A National Campaign to prevent Repetitive Strain
Injury (RSI).
-- Local and national newsletters to keep you informed.
-- A committment to exploring new technologies. The
National Writers Union has an electronic conference on PeaceNet,
and has representatives on major electronic services including
CompuServe and The Well. The national office can be reached via
Internet with the address nwu@igc.org. The union is actively
working to gain compensation for writers whose work is loaded
without authorization onto commercial databases such as Nexus or
Dialog.
-- Member services including a press pass, car rental
discounts, book contract consultations, an agents referral
network.
-- An opportunity to help build a new kind of union to
protect and defend writers.
The NWU Advisory Board includes: Ben Bagdikian, Anne
Bernays, William Burroughs, Philip Caputo, Ariel Dorfman, Barbara
Ehrenreich, Marilyn French, Doris Grumbach, and Gloria Naylor.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
National Office:
National Writers Union
873 Broadway
Suite 203
New York, NY 10003-1209