{"id":3258,"date":"2021-05-26T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T13:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=3258"},"modified":"2021-06-02T11:55:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T15:55:57","slug":"let-go-of-the-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2021\/05\/let-go-of-the-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Let go of the fear"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Duke University Press workers campaign for a union. Credit: DUP Workers Union.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joe Stapleton<\/span>: What were some of the main issues that agitated workers at Duke University Press leading up to organizing the union?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ale Mej\u00eda<\/span>: During the pandemic, departments were understaffed, so many employees were just being overworked. There was a university-wide hiring and promotion freeze, so [positions] were left open for extended periods of time in different departments. But I think this has been a problem, especially within our production department, even before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

I think another issue has also been the history of institutional racism at Duke. I\u2019ve seen different colleagues of color just have really bad experiences navigating the institution, such as having supervisors who put different expectations on them. And that makes me think specifically about relationships with supervisors as another issue. A lot of times as an employee, you don’t have a mechanism to submit complaints about your supervisor if you are struggling in your relationship with them. If you went to HR, which is something that I saw some of my colleagues do in the past, HR ultimately worked to protect the company\u2019s interests. Similarly, whether your supervisor likes you or not really dictates your time at the press and whether you’re able to move up. We can\u2019t rely solely on internal processes designed to address individual cases\u2014this is another reason we need a union.<\/p>\n

And then there’s obviously compensation and low salaries, especially for entry-level positions. Through organizing and getting to better know colleagues, it’s just been pretty eye-opening to see that there are people who have been in this industry or at the press specifically for such a long time, and they’re still in the same position for years or are still making similar to or just a little bit more [than] what I make having only been here for three years.<\/p>\n

Ben Kossak<\/span>: I think that it’s an issue endemic across the industry that people are underpaid in publishing and specifically in academic publishing. Academic publishing is at the unfortunate Venn diagram intersection of the nonprofit world and the publishing world, both of which are industries that often ask their employees to make sacrifices because the employees are dedicated to the product that they’re putting out. And so they sign up for lower salaries, work longer hours, etc. And because it can be hard to advance, a lot of people end up feeling stunted in their growth at the press.<\/p>\n

And then, also, I know the Director [of the press] has put a lot of emphasis rhetorically on transparency. Part of that is because of the relationship between the press and the university. A lot of the decision-making power over things like benefits or salary resides with the university, and we don’t have any real direct access to that. So, it can feel like not only are our working conditions being affected arbitrarily, but even our bosses can’t do anything about it.<\/p>\n

I’ve heard a lot of people talking about difficulties around FMLA [Family and Medical Leave Act], and especially people trying to have some flexibility around part-time FMLA or coming back to work have been problem points for various employees, and some have left the press because of it. They weren’t able to return to their position because they couldn\u2019t extend their leave or the return wasn’t flexible enough to account for the fact that maybe they still needed to take care of their mother ten hours a week or something.<\/p>\n