15 Million Readers are Watching: Scholastic Workers Walk Out in NYC
Scholastic employees with the NewsGuild of New York have been searching for a contract for more than a year. This week they walked out in protest. Photos by Steve Wishnia.
By Steve Wishnia
Frustrated by management’s rejection of their proposal for annual pay increases after more than a year of contract talks, workers at Scholastic’s Magazines+ division held a one-day strike Nov. 1.
“We’re here about wages. There’s a hypocrisy involved,” production editor Alison Colby told Work-Bites as about 30 workers picketed outside the back entrance to Scholastic’s Soho offices, circling on the sidewalk between an inflatable Scabby the Rat and a banner of Clifford the Big Red Dog hanging from above the children’s publishing company’s bookstore.
“It’s the same old corporate story,” says Colby. “The CEO makes a ton of money, but the people doing the actual work, who are making the product, are not getting paid. This is a company that has enough money to pay a livable wage.”
It did a $42 million stock buyback two years ago, she adds.
The Scholastic Union’s contract with Scholastic Inc. expired in May 2022, and it has been in negotiations since October 2022. The union, formed in 1937, has 82 members in the bargaining unit and is affiliated with The NewsGuild of New York.
Scholastic is trying to circumvent its promise to set a $65,000 minimum salary.
Scholastic’s magazine division publishes 27 magazines for classroom use, including Junior Scholastic, Scope, StoryWorks, Action, Science World, and Math. It also publishes online versions.
“Once we create the content for the print issues, we have to repurpose it for the online versions,” says Allan Molho, production editor at Science World and Math.
That extra task was added about five years ago, he said. But workers did not get a raise for taking it on, says Colby.
Management has promised to set a $65,000 minimum salary, but under its previous offer, that wouldn't happen until three years into the contract, Colby says. But following a “marathon bargaining session” the day before the walkout, the company has reportedly agreed to “raise the salary minimum for all current and future Magazines+ employees to $65K by the second year of the contract.”
“That is a huge win!” Colby says. “But the general wage increases in their most recent proposal still fell short.”
What might seem like a middle-class salary is often not enough to cover the cost of living in New York. Christy Damio, education editor of Action, a magazine for middle-school students who are struggling with reading, says she has gotten regular raises during the 23 years she’s worked at Scholastic—but her housing costs have gone from $300 a month to $3,000 during that time.
“We have members who have had to use their retirement savings to keep up with the inflationary costs and rent increases since the pandemic.” — NewsGuild of NY.
“My income has not gone up by ten,” she says. “I care deeply about the kids we’re serving, and I’m willing to do extra work, but I shouldn’t have to be spending my savings.”
“What we are asking for, from a billion-dollar company, is enough to live on as employees,” Scholastic Union member Sandra Roldan said in a statement released by the NewsGuild. “We have members who have had to use their retirement savings to keep up with the inflationary costs and rent increases since the pandemic. That’s unacceptable for a company who professes to be dedicated to the ‘highest quality of life in community and nation.’”
Colby notes that the Scholastic company credo says it respects the “worth and dignity of every individual” and the “right of each individual to live in a wholesome environment,” but “the increases they’ve offered will basically keep us stagnant.”
“Our members are dedicated to the values that their work for Scholastic represents. We think the company should, at both the bargaining table and at book fairs, represent those values too,” NewsGuild of New York President Susan DeCarava said in a statement.
Steve Wishnia worked as a freelance editor and writer at Junior Scholastic from 2008 to 2011.