Members of the Oxford University Press USA Guild (a unit of the News Media Guild, News Guild-CWA Local 31222) will stage a one-day strike on Tuesday after filing several Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against the employer.
The strike follows nearly three years of first contract negotiations with Oxford University Press. Speakers will include members of the Guild, IAPE 1096 representative Marissa Dadiw, OUP author and labor historian Shannan Clark, and others.
The Guild represents approximately 150 employees of OUP USA after they voted to form a union in September 2021.
Oxford University Press has repeatedly violated US labor law and has refused to bargain about remedies to these violations.
The ULPs include:
● Moving work outside the unit: the employer, across multiple instances, hired people outside of the Guild’s jurisdiction after bargaining unit members left the company.
● Illegal and retaliatory layoff of union leader: The employer laid off Unit Chair Scott Morales without previously bargaining with the Guild about that decision as required by US labor law.
● Withholding pay review/raises: The Guild is filing a ULP for the employer’s decision not to offer pay review/raises to Guild members until a collective bargaining agreement has been signed or ratified, another violation of the Guild’s rights under status quo protection.
● Retaliatory action for protected communication: An employee was disciplined for an email signature that contained a message about their working conditions. Communicating about working conditions is protected concerted activity under federal labor law.