93 votes in favor, 12 against: workers at The University of Chicago Press (UCP) voted by a landslide to unionize with the Chicago News Guild, Local 34071 of The NewsGuild-CWA.
The election—with votes counted on July 8 and the results officially certified by the National Labor Relations Board on July 16—marks another win for labor organizing in Chicago cultural institutions and in the publishing industry nationwide.
“We were feeling confident going into it, but it’s really great to have that level of support and affirmation for our union,” said Meredith Nini, senior promotions manager at the press and UCP Workers Guild member.
The UCP Workers Guild will soon start bargaining for its first contract; according to Nini, the union is hoping to begin the process in November. As members prepare for the next phase, they’ve sought to keep up momentum and stay united.
“There are different divisions of the press, different departments, and they all have unique things that they want to see in a contract,” Nini said. “Making sure we have representation from across the press within our leadership is really important to us.”
UCP is one of the largest university presses in the United States. With more than 270 employees, it publishes about 280 books a year and more than 90 journals, and it also provides distribution services to other publishers. The new union has 134 members in a wide range of roles at the press, including its books and journals divisions and press administration.
In an email, U. of C. spokesperson Gerald McSwiggan wrote, “Following certification of the election results by the NLRB, the University will bargain in good faith with the UCP Workers Guild, Chicago NewsGuild—TNG-CWA Local 34071. We greatly value the work of UChicago Press employees and their important contributions to the Press’s scholarly publishing mission.”
According to the UCP Workers Guild, it is the first union for most departments at the press since its founding in 1890. About 60 warehouse workers at the press’s Chicago Distribution Center in Pullman are already unionized with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
After the UCP Workers Guild announced its union drive in May, in-person and hybrid workers based at the press’s Woodlawn office voted in person on June 9 and 10, with other workers voting by mail.
In accordance with the National Labor Relations Act, employees were categorized as “professional” or “non-professional” in the election process and “professional employees” were asked to additionally vote on whether to be in the same bargaining unit. The Guild argued the division didn’t make sense for their workplace, and “professional employees” voted to stick together as one union.
As described in its mission statement, the UCP Workers Guild’s goals fall into three main categories: pay equity, sustainability, and transparency. Now that the Chicago News Guild is officially the workers’ collective bargaining representative, they have a different kind of legal power to negotiate with U. of C. about those goals.
The union recently sent out a bargaining survey to gather more information on the specifics of what members want to include in a contract. “While we’ve been collecting thoughts on what people want out of a contract and what people want out of the union since day one, now is the time to get some of that information a little bit more formally,” said Adrienne Meyers, senior promotions manager at the press and UCP Workers Guild member.
In addition to the critical issue of pay—union members have discussed calling to raise “low, stagnant wages,” as marketing associate Griffin Reed referred to them in a statement on the union’s website, and implement consistent cost of living adjustments—protections for remote and hybrid work are likely to come up. Meyers said workers have seen “varying levels of security in those arrangements,” and that she hopes they can get “some things on the books that are just more stable and could bring us a little bit more peace of mind for folks who are commuting longer or need to be fully remote.”
Another goal is protections regarding use of generative AI, which the UCP Workers Guild mission statement says “threatens to degrade our job security, professional integrity, and author relationships.”
Workers are also worried about layoffs and additional strain on workloads if positions open and are left unfilled, said Nini: “We’re never quite sure how the university situation might impact our situation.”
U. of C. has struggled with its budget in recent years. Hyde Park Herald reported in May that the university estimated the deficit would be reduced to $140 million by the end of the 2026 fiscal year, down from $288 million in fiscal year 2024. Though the university currently says it “is not planning further University-level [personnel] actions,” measures to close the deficit so far have included layoffs, hiring freezes, and a voluntary retirement program that together have cut university staff by approximately 400.
Besides the bargaining survey, the UCP Workers Guild is setting up unit governance and planning monthly all-member meetings. The Guild also wants to continue building relationships with other unions, especially in Chicago.
The union already has good connections with other unions at U. of C., such as Faculty Forward (the union of non-tenure-track faculty) and the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors, as well as unions at other publishers. They’ve been in touch with workers at Hachette, the third-largest trade publisher in the United States, where workers won their own union election just a day before UCP, becoming the largest union in trade publisher history.
“I think our goal is to reach out and meet more unions that are in Chicago. We’re thinking of like museums, other publishers, libraries,” Nini said.
As Meyers put it, the union is “trying to just expand the networks and seeing how we can all support each other, in unions in general, and also in related industries around town.”
UCP Workers Guild members have savored the decisive win, and now they’re excited to continue the charge.
“Unionizing is a lot of work, but it’s not difficult work. It takes time. But I think a lot of people have this idea that it can’t be done in their industry. And I would just encourage people to learn more about it and figure out the steps to take to unionizing,” Nini said.
Olivia Stovicek is a senior editor for the Weekly