May 3, 2026 · Michael Welch

Unionizing As Passion Protection: A Conversation with the Hachette Workers Coalition

Hachette has actually seen a good history of employees organizing before. Previously, employees in the New York City office staged a walkout protest over certain controversial books being published. We’ve also initiated other movements in response to return to office campaigns that the company started after the pandemic, and this really laid the groundwork for employees to then get together and ask, “hey, what if we took this one step further and actually unionized?” And since 2024, there’s been so much great underground work going toward organizing people, having conversations, filing in with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, before we could then finally launch our public campaign, where we’re now hoping to simply reach an agreement and get to the bargaining table in good faith with the company.