November 19 The Fight for a Writer’s Bill of Rights

On this day in Labor History the year was 1981. 

That was the day that the National Writers Union was founded.  

The Writer’s Union represents freelance writers across a range of genres. 

The idea for a union had gained steam at the American Writers Congress in New York City that October. 

Author Toni Morrison delivered a keynote speech to a packed room of 3,000 attendees.

She declared “We don’t need any more writers as solitary heroes.  We need a heroic writers movement—assertive, militant, pugnacious.” 

She made the call for “an accessible organization that is truly representative of the diverse interests of all writers.”

The editor of The Nation magazine echoed the call for solidarity amongst writers. 

During the Reagan administration, the resurgence of the Cold War Era anti-left rhetoric left many worried about the constitutional right of free speech.

A union would be a way for writers to stand together.  

By 1983 the union had ratified their constitution. 

The United Auto Workers provided free office space.

The Auto Workers union was branching out to organize beyond auto plants, with other groups of workers including graduate students. 

In 1991 the writers voted to formally affiliate with the United Auto Workers. 

During the 1980s the NWU reached agreements for freelance writing standards with publications including Black Film Review, Mother Jones and Ms. Magazine. 

The union has also worked to help freelance writers to recover wages owed to them by various publishers, stand up against censorship and protect free speech. 

In 1992, the NWU held a series of events focused on a “Writer’s Bill of Rights.”

Today the union represents members from playwrights to web content writers, novelists to technical writers, bloggers to poets.