PORTLAND, Maine – A Maine author says she’s supporting striking workers in New York by holding off on publishing her latest book.
Monica Wood says 250 union employees with HarperCollins have spent the last year trying to negotiate a contract with no success.
The employees are seeking a raise in base pay from $45,000 to $50,000, Wood discovered. Wood’s editor will be participating in the strike, which she discovered after an unfamiliar company representative contacted her.
“This email comes in saying ‘Can you please approve the cover?’ and it’s not from somebody I know, so I called my editor, and her phone was not [on], they had disconnected and all that, so I called my agent who said, ‘HarperCollins is on strike,’” Wood said. “The least I can do to help is in my way, by declining to cooperate with the publication of my book until the strike is over.”
Wood says she’s riding out the strike until her book can be published by her editor and the striking employees she’s worked with, not replacements.
There’s no sign of that strike ending anytime soon.
HarperCollins was unable to be reached for comment.
