September 13, 2024, 12:16pm
The OUP USA Guild, part of the News Media Guild and representing around 150 workers, is demanding that Oxford University Press reverse the recent firing of US-based workers, claiming the layoffs are in violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that management and the union signed just three weeks ago. 13 members of the Guild are among the fired, including the entire North American Design team and the US Content Transformation and Standards team.
OUP USA Guild has filed a grievance, and questions the justification for the layoffs:
Management has attempted to justify these layoffs to our members on the highly dubious grounds that the US and UK teams are duplicative and that the amount of work has been reduced, despite these teams’ heavy workloads (many of which have only increased since before the pandemic). These are the people who design OUP’s award-winning covers and graphics, do complex data work that sustains OUP’s digital products, and so much more. Together, they represent nearly two centuries of service and dedication to OUP’s mission. They and their teams are irreplaceable.
Publisher’s Weekly got a statement from OUP defending their decision: “Like many organizations, we have to adapt how we work so that we are best-placed to achieve our mission and future ambitions. We are grateful to all of those affected for their contributions and quality of their work over the years.”
This isn’t the first time the OUP USA Guild, which joined the News Media Guild in September 2021, has alleged that management has fired workers in bad faith. In April, their union chair Scott Morales was let go, which drew swift disapproval by the Guild. The Guild voted to strike in June, before a tentative bargaining agreement was reached in late July.
Oxford University Press publishes the very popular Very Short Introduction series, as well as academic work geared towards specialized readers—stuff like The Werewolf in the Ancient World by Daniel Ogden, which I enjoyed even if a lot of the scholarly references went over my head. And I can see an OUP edition of Hamlet on my shelf now, with its well-designed, austere cover—I wonder if that designer is currently out of work.
The Guild’s entire statement is below.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LAYS OFF ENTIRE US DESIGN, DIGITAL CONTENT TRANSFORMATION AND STANDARDS TEAM
September 11, 2024 – Three weeks after ratifying their first Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), Oxford University Press has notified 13 members of the bargaining unit that they and their teams are being laid off. This includes the entire US/North America Design team and the entire US Content Transformation and Standards team.
The OUP USA Guild has filed a grievance in response to these layoffs. We assert that they violate the CBA’s jurisdiction article, which protects historic union work from being relocated out of the unit, and the layoffs article.
Management has attempted to justify these layoffs to our members on the highly dubious grounds that the US and UK teams are duplicative and that the amount of work has been reduced, despite these teams’ heavy workloads (many of which have only increased since before the pandemic). These are the people who design OUP’s award-winning covers and graphics, do complex data work that sustains OUP’s digital products, and so much more. Together, they represent nearly two centuries of service and dedication to OUP’s mission. They and their teams are irreplaceable.
We demand that OUP immediately reverse this disastrous decision and reinstate these roles.
Workers at Oxford University Press voted to join the News Media Guild in September 2021 and ratified their first contract in August 2024. The Guild represents about 150 workers in all aspects of publishing.
The News Media Guild is Local 31222 of The NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America. Founded in 1958, it also represents workers at The Associated Press, the Guardian-US, the EFE News Service, Financial Times-US, Democracy Works, With Intelligence, and United Press International.