Frequently Asked Questions

A union is any group of workers who talk together and organize to improve their working conditions. Specifically, it involves workers who are not managers. The group of workers may or may not be affiliated with a larger network of workers, in an established labor union (such as NewsGuild-CWA). Membership in an established labor union can provide significant support, guidance, and resources to help the group of workers (the union) negotiate with their employer to secure the things they need to improve their workplace.

The process starts with private conversations between coworkers to gauge support and interest. For a large organization like DUP, it’s important to form an organizing committee (OC) to coordinate these conversations. The OC should have respected leaders from across the organization and should ideally have about 15 percent of the staff. From there, the goal is to talk to everyone on staff, learning their issues and priorities and informing them about the unionizing process. Once it’s clear there is broad, active support for the union, the OC begins the process of certification.

• This Lit Hub interview with the organizers of the Verso Books Union provides a good overview of this phase.

• The two paths toward legal certification are 1) voluntary recognition and 2) a National Labor Relations Board election. 

  • Voluntary recognition: At any point, management can voluntarily recognize the union and enter into contract negotiations with the union.

  • NLRB election: If management does not voluntarily recognize the union, the members of the union can turn to the NLRB for certification. This process involves two steps:

    1. Signing cards: If more than 30 percent of the bargaining unit signs union authorization cards, then the NLRB will call for an election.

    2. Election: Everyone in the bargaining unit votes on a given day in an election sanctioned by the NLRB. The votes have to be counted within thirty days. If more than 50 percent of the unit votes to form a union, the union is certified. Management is then required to enter into negotiations.

• This article from Teen Vogue does an incredible job of explaining the legal pathways toward unionization.

See our mission statement for a more detailed answer to this question! Put simply, our goal is to make DUP a better place to work for everyone and to help it continue to publish the vital, cutting-edge scholarship it is known for.

• We are unionizing because we have a very basic right under US labor law to come together in an organized way as DUP workers and negotiate with Duke University (and DUP management) over our workplace conditions. Many of us who have been at DUP for a few years can imagine very concrete ways that our workplace could be improved, and unionizing is the best way to secure those improvements. 

• Ultimately, to form a union is just to exercise a basic right that we have as employees. Our working conditions affect our whole lives, so we deserve a say over what those working conditions are. Coming together as a union gives us an opportunity to negotiate a contract with Duke to secure what we need for ourselves and for our coworkers.

• The union will represent everyone who works at DUP who is not in a management/supervisory role, an intern, or a confidential employee. This is called the bargaining unit.

• You and I will only enjoy the benefits of a union if everyone does! Everyone has worked very hard to make our workplace better, and your coworkers need your public support to ensure our collective success. The union is only as strong as its many members.

Once our union is certified, we enter into a period of status quo protections. This means that DUP is prevented from making unilateral changes to any aspect of our working conditions without discussing them with us first. This lasts all the way up until the ratification of our first contract, effectively giving us the right to negotiate with management.

• You are not alone. While many of us would be financially devastated if we lost our jobs and benefits, we are very painfully aware that some people/positions at DUP are more vulnerable than others (people of color, queer people, people with disabilities, people with medical needs, people with dependents, people in lower-level positions, people from working-class backgrounds, etc.). We are taking people’s vulnerability and need for security very seriously. We have no illusions about the risks involved in unionizing. You can be assured that every measure was taken to protect everyone’s identity until we were fully ready to be known publicly, all together, on our terms. Keeping the union a secret until we had the majority of people involved makes it harder for Duke to target any one of us in particular now that we are public. Having a union will benefit everyone at DUP but probably will help those who already lack any sense of security most of all.

• The unfortunate reality is that there is absolutely nothing stopping Duke from taking away things that we desperately need (insurance, other benefits, etc.) right now. The process of unionizing is certainly risky, but having a union is actually one of the best ways of protecting and securing all of those things many of us are currently afraid of losing. People in unions generally have higher wages, better benefits, and more job security.

• It is illegal for Duke or DUP management to fire or retaliate against anyone for being involved in a union, even in the organizational phase.

• Ultimately we have the support of a large and successful labor union (CWA) to help guide us, and we are likely to have support from other university presses, countless authors, other unions at Duke (AFSCME Local 77, the Duke Faculty Union, the Duke Graduate Student Union, etc.), and other local Durham organizations. We all saw how Stanford University Press and Wayne State University Press were aided by an enormous community of supporters; we are confident we will have a lot of people on our side when the time calls for it.

• Yes! Unions are for anyone who needs their job, and especially for those of us who really need our job. A union is the best way to make our jobs as secure as possible.

• While we’re all thankful to have a job and some benefits now, unfortunately, Duke could at any moment remove some of our crucial benefits without any consequences as we saw during the pandemic. Even if you just want everything at DUP to remain the same and are perfectly satisfied with the way things are, a union is the only way to protect our current working conditions (especially in these uncertain times) and ensure, for example, that Duke can’t decide tomorrow to cut our paid time off, revoke our flexible work arrangements, or deny hourly workers any overtime.

• One of the great things about a union is that since we are all doing this together, no one person can be singled out as a “troublemaker.” You couldn’t be seen as that one loud-mouthed, confrontational employee in that one department; you’re just one among many of us who want to improve our workplace together.

• No one would have to pay dues until we have ratified a contract we are satisfied with through the bargaining process. We have just completed the phase of assessing support through an underground union campaign. Now that we have gone public, we need to continue collecting authorization cards, withstand the anti-union campaign from Duke, win our NLRB election, and then begin the bargaining process. The length of the bargaining/contract negotiation process is difficult to determine, but other unions at Duke were able to conclude their bargaining process and secure a contract within a year. It will be up to us to prepare and push proposals, set the tone of bargaining, and take continuous action to push Duke to accept our demands.

• Once a contract is ratified, we would begin paying dues through automatic payroll deduction; the NewsGuild’s national minimum dues rate is 1.44%. Some local unions have slightly higher dues rates.

• Union dues are worth the cost! For instance, even if we were only able to secure our regular 2 percent raises, that would still be a net financial gain for us since union dues are a smaller percentage of our income. Depending on what our negotiating priorities are, we could see enormous gains in other areas that would greatly exceed the cost of dues (higher raises and retirement contributions, lower insurance premiums, more paid time off, etc.). Members of unions across industries have higher incomes and better benefits than non-union members, making union dues well worth it, even from a purely financial perspective.

• According to some union organizers, almost anything is up for grabs; we could bargain over the quality of the toilet paper in the bathrooms if we like. As mentioned above, other unions at Duke have won things like significant pay raises, more paid time off, and health benefits.

• Throughout the process of assessing support and our various union events, many people have already discussed the things we want to improve through the bargaining process:

  • Increasing pay to be more in line with our experience and industry standards

  • Equalizing benefits between hourly and salaried employees

  • Making DUP a more welcoming place for BIPOC, LGBTQ people, and other minorities by foregrounding equity and inclusion issues and reducing discrimination

  • Ensuring adequate training for new employees

  • Requiring vacancies to be filled in a timely manner and compensation of employees who pick up the slack when they’re not

  • Creating clear grievance protocols with adequate employee protections, such as having a union representative in the room for any conversation around performance

  • Streamlining the PEP process and clarifying its relationship to raises

• Before we begin the bargaining process, we’ll circulate something called a bargaining survey to every staff member in the union that will allow everyone to identify the things that they care about and want to prioritize in contract negotiations. The surveys will ask about all kinds of things to do with our jobs and will have plenty of space for comments about anything else. The surveys, along with group discussions and listening sessions, will be used to help us identify our demands in the bargaining process.

• You’re not wrong: the consolidation of power in Central Admin was an enormous source of a lot of the problems we’re facing, and we are optimistic about positive changes! But we can’t keep relying on one person or a set of (unclear) policies; a lot of damage has been done already. What if our nice director decides to leave? We don’t want to be subject to the whims of a particular manager in order to maintain a good working environment. A union is actually the most effective way to shift power away from any one individual and give us all a greater say over what happens to us and our coworkers. Only with a contract can we solidify policies and hold management accountable.

• The problems with our workplace are ultimately bigger than any one individual. They’re cultural, systemic problems with our workplace and how it’s structured. With a union, we would have the collective bargaining power to address fundamental policy problems that run all the way through Duke: problems such as how our pay is set, how our time off is limited and managed, etc.

• While it’s great to have a supportive supervisor/department, at the end of the day even the best manager doesn’t seem to have much power to protect anyone from HR, to secure better pay, better benefits, or greater job security for any of their staff. Working together and having Duke recognize us as a union and negotiate with us has the potential to secure all of those things for us.

• Some of us are lucky to have good managers/supervisors, but unfortunately many of our coworkers haven’t been so lucky. Many of the people we work with and see every day are struggling daily to get adequate support from their supervisors. In a union, we could work together to make sure everyone at DUP is supported in a fair and equal work environment.

• Ultimately, a union can benefit all staff, managers included. If we are able to improve our working conditions, clarify/secure better work policies, we’ll be more equipped to perform our job duties well and smoothly, and that will make managers/department heads’ lives easier.

• The union is just us, those of us who work at DUP. It is not some “third party”; it’s your coworkers (and you, if you will join us!). We are affiliated with CWA, of course. They are our larger network of support, and they provide us with guidance and resources. They will also help us represent ourselves at the bargaining table, a process that requires resources and guidance. But we are the DUP Workers Union.

• The union would not at all jeopardize any good relationships you have with your manager. It would be illegal if your manager penalized you in any way for being involved in your union, so your relationship shouldn’t change at all. If you have any complaint or dispute, or anything at all that you want to talk to your manager about, you are always free to discuss that with them. The union can be there for you to turn to if those conversations go poorly or if you feel as though you may have received unfair treatment. The union does not at all preclude you from approaching your manager about a workplace issue. The union is simply your network of coworkers who will be there for you if you need support with a workplace concern, and who can help make sure our concerns are recognized.

• If you are planning on leaving DUP at some point, your support/involvement while you’re around is still crucial and will make an impact! You can leave knowing that you did great work to improve working conditions for your coworkers.

• Part of the reason it will be important to have a union at DUP is so that we can establish working conditions that will allow people to stick around longer, which we hope will reduce staff turnover. We all want to work at a place where we’re compensated fairly, where we feel secure and comfortable, and where we feel able to lead full, healthy lives.

Unions are for anyone who has to work in order to live. Some of us just do our jobs because we need a paycheck or health insurance, and some of us deeply identify with our work and find it very fulfilling. Either way, we all work under conditions at DUP that are troubling. All of these things can make it difficult to maintain a balanced, full, healthy life, even if you love your work. Forming a union will help all of us to secure and maintain better working conditions.

Right-to-work laws essentially boil down to the fact that unions can’t require employees to pay dues as part of their employment nor can they require employees to be members of the union. That’s it! Functionally, right-to-work laws are designed to reduce a union’s ability to fund itself and thus reduce its ability to advocate for its workers in their workplace and in the broader political world.

Now it is more important than ever to have a union so we can advocate for our interests. A union contract not only improves working conditions but also guarantees security. As we’ve seen in this crisis, right now Duke can unilaterally choose to freeze salaries, cut retirement benefits, and leave job positions unfilled, increasing work for everyone left. A contract can secure annual cost-of-living salary increases, set retirement and other benefits, and specify reasonable performance expectations so we don’t find ourselves overloaded in an already stressful time. During this most recent round of austerity measures, only Duke employees represented by unions retained their annual salary increases (and would have maintained their retirement contributions, had they included that in their contract). It is also during times of crisis that having clear and equitable policies around medical, disability, and dependent-care leave becomes especially important. A union gives us a seat at the table with Duke so we can find the best way to support DUP while also looking out for the interests of its employees.