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. 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.

It wasn’t a surprise when I entered academic publishing that I’d want to hold on to the various side jobs I enjoyed. What did surprise me was the necessity of additional sources of income to subsidize low press pay. Learning from many of my talented peers that I’m not alone in needing freelance work to generate even meager savings was a major factor in my decision to join the organizing effort. If we can come together to improve our compensation for keeping an income-generating wing of the university as esteemed as it is, we can use that momentum to change other antiquated publishing practices and influence university policy on the South Side and beyond.

Unionized workers are at the forefront of protecting all people by promoting solidarity, embodying community, and working on behalf of mutual aid. Unions protect workers, and they also protect society as a whole.

This is a dream job for many of us, one that would be difficult to walk away from for many reasons, but the gross underpayment we receive is simply untenable in the long term. I believe that we can achieve many of our collective goals—including but not limited to fair pay in an increasingly expensive world—by unionizing.

I started full-time at the press after first working as a part-time student, and I’ve always counted myself lucky to have seemingly fallen into such an intellectually rewarding career path. However, throughout my tenure, managers have repeatedly said that the only way for me to make a more livable wage is to leave and come back. It’s disheartening to be praised in one breath and given little to stay for in the next. I love my job, and it’s clear to me that the only way it will ever be sustainable is if workers come together and force change as a collective. Unless we unionize, university and press management will never make the improvements we need, because there’s simply no direct fiscal incentive for them to do so. Yet ultimately, a union will benefit all—including managers, who won’t have to fear losing employees to better-paying positions and dealing with the repercussions of chronic short-staffing.

I feel fortunate to love my work, to believe in the value of what I do. But the exploitation of that devotion has taken its toll: Burnout has absented me (both mentally and physically) from important moments and has left me with a profound sense of personal stagnation. I can’t even enjoy its presumed remediation—dreading, as I do, the unrelenting workload that awaits my return from PTO. Yes, I love my work and believe in its value. But I also believe in the value of those of us who do it and who deserve to do it under conditions that allow us to build lives outside of work that we can love just as well.

Throughout my years at the press, I’ve seen how much UCP staff give to their work. I’ve also seen a need for changes in how our workplace treats us in return. While we care about what we do here, we still deserve fair pay, equitable working conditions, and stability; this is why I chose to join the effort to build our union. We’ve seen that the university cannot be relied on to support us, so we must come together to make the press a sustainable place to work. At the largest university press in the United States, and at such a wealthy university, there’s no reason workers should live in precarity or go without living wages. The press prides itself on excellence, and its workers deserve nothing less. I believe that exercising our collective power through a union will raise the standards of working—and living—for all of us.

I have never had an annual review with my supervisor in my many years at the press! This is part of a larger pattern of managers not having the bandwidth to engage with the workplace issues that we face, which then allows the university higher-ups to do whatever they want without anyone looking out for our best interests. I want a union so that we can have transparency about the financial health of the press, our power as a unit of the university, and our standing as individual contributors. I trust my colleagues to represent me more earnestly and effectively than middle management can.

I was part of a union for many years, and it was a positive, empowering experience. There is power in numbers, which a single person negotiating on their own can’t tap into. Collective bargaining is a strong point in favor of unionization.

The importance of unions has long been apparent in American history. They’ve always been at the forefront not only of balancing the otherwise lopsided relationship between labor and management but also of defending progressive values altogether. As President Eisenhower proclaimed in 1952, ‘Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of their right to join the union of their choice.’ I, therefore, fully support the unionization effort at the University of Chicago Press.

I’ve been working at the press for over a decade, and it’s very clear to me that we won’t be able to mitigate chaos caused by chronic understaffing and bad pay simply by relying on the university’s goodwill. Structural problems can’t be fixed one worker at a time; we need to come together as a group to ensure that the university has no choice but to pay attention, and we’ll need the legal rights that unionization provides to help us understand what’s going on at UChicago and how to improve life for ourselves and our coworkers.

I like my job at the press a great deal. In my first few years here, I regularly told people that, while the pay wasn’t great, there were good benefits and nice, smart colleagues and that it was a ‘humane’ place to work. More recently, this last point has been belied by the departure of several colleagues (one of them a firing in another department that from all available evidence appears to have been not only unjust and ill-advised but very possibly illegal) and by what I have learned from colleagues who were struggling with workloads, even before the departures added to the problem, and with the cost of living. Working here shouldn’t be restricted to those with independent means or second, more substantial earners in the household. As we wait for vacant positions to be filled, we are encouraged to explore AI tools: Perhaps there is no ill intent in this, but it can’t help but appear like we are being asked to help train our nonhuman replacements. I want a union to help us have a fighting chance against both these larger structural forces and the occasional bad human choices leading to unnecessary hardship, to make this workplace closer to the humane ideal I first took it for.

Worker solidarity is the most powerful way I can protect not only myself and my work but also publishing, books, and the right to knowledge.

Most of my family members are or were at one point in a union, and I've heard several stories of how their unions protected them—from guaranteeing planned and approved time off to regulating and enforcing working hours in a field where the mentality is that you should be willing to do anything for the job because you love it. Unions take the guesswork out of everyone's expectations and rights, which makes for a better-informed workforce.

The nature of my position is often isolating, and departments often feel siloed. Having a union to fight for the common good empowers everyone by providing strength in numbers, especially in the face of a university that undervalues the work of the press.

My experiences at the University of Chicago Press have been uniformly, even absurdly great—in interactions with readers, associate editors, publicists, designers, marketing specialists, and for that matter with editorial staff at the most senior ranks, I have felt myself in the hands of able and exacting professionals. Meanwhile, virtually everything about my working life in the academy at large has improved whenever there was a union on hand, to do what a union does: protect the vulnerable, speak up for equity and fairness, and above all instill an institution-wide sense of shared purpose and collaborative endeavor. I'm so happy to support the UCP Workers Guild, and look forward to a future of working with them, and with the press.

Over the past century, labor unions have been more consistently on the side of the angels in more issues and conflicts than just about any other force in our society. This unionization will bring the best kind of changes and increased strength to an already great press.

My first book was published with the University of Chicago Press (UCP), and it was a career-changing experience. I chose UCP because they were willing to advance a book project focused on questions of marginalization, race, and resistance. UCP has always been a press committed to publishing work that struggled with systemic inequality. I believe that a press that has such commitments, MUST also support and empower all those who work for them. And the best way to empower workers is to support their unionization. Unions are a collective force for good, and any press that supports unionization is a press I want to work with in the future. I fully support the UCP Workers Guild!

I welcome our newest members at the University of Chicago Press to the Chicago News Guild. Every worker deserves a union, and those employed at an industry-leading publishing house are no exception. The Guild stands with UCP workers and their efforts to secure stability, transparency, and fair compensation in the workplace. When workers stand up for themselves, people listen, and this will be the first time UCP workers have had a seat at the table. We look forward to working with the University to reach a fair contract that respects the workers who keep the University of Chicago Press running.