‘Probably the most highly effective and substantive form of justice’: Duke College Press Employees Union hosts occasion to garner help

By Last updated May 27, 2021

Members and allies of Duke University’s Press Workers Union came together to support the union in a community solidarity speak-out on Monday, just over a week before the union’s certification is passed in a formal vote.

The event, hosted through Zoom and attended by over 100 people, was attended by a DUP employee and writer, Durham Mayor Steve Schewel, and representatives from several local trade unions.

“[The DUP Workers Union is] important for the publishing industry. It’s important for the south. This is important for Durham, ”said Schewel.

Schewel, Trinity ’73 and visiting assistant at the Sanford School of Public Policy, described his and other Durham residents’ relationships with the university as “complicated” and found Duke to be Durham’s largest employer.

“That is fine [Duke] offers so many people. And yet we also know that Duke sets the wages, ”said Schewel. “It sets the wages for this region, for our city, and gaining the wages people deserve, gaining the working conditions people deserve, will make a difference for everyone.”

Talks among DUP employees about improving working conditions began in 2019, according to Kelsea Smith, DUP deputy editor-in-chief. Since then, by working with her staff in union efforts, Smith has created a “strong community of connections” to draw on in times of need, such as when she gave birth to her daughter at the start of the pandemic.

During her seven years with DUP, Smith has left employees due to limited opportunity, structural racism that disabled them, abrupt restructuring and situations where “life changing events in our current situation could not be accounted for” [Family and Medical Leave Act] Guidelines. ”

“Our union was and is not a magic wand that will automatically turn our workplaces and lives into a utopian paradise,” said Smith. “It’s just us and we’re not perfect. We make mistakes and our organization together has taken a lot of hard work, but it was worth it because we deserve a say in what happens in our workplace. ”

The Chronicle reached out to DUP Director Dean Smith for comment. He referred The Chronicle to concerned DUP colleagues, a group of employees “who have questions about union formation efforts”.

In response to Kelsea Smith, the staff wrote in an email that while “it is difficult to respond to individual experiences” they can agree that there have been problems in this direction in the past.

“Concerns about racism, abrupt (and possibly unfair) restructuring and an unacceptable approach to life-changing events are tied to what we would call the ‘old’ organization,” they wrote. “We can agree that progress is somewhat limited too, partly due to the size of our small nonprofit organization.”

Staff added that Dean Smith “is committed to change and actively soliciting input from employees at all levels,” as well as promoting equity and inclusion efforts and diversity training for DUP employees.

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“Smith’s leadership has not made any restructuring decisions without carefully considering the implications for the press and its employees and communicating openly about the business reasons for this restructuring,” they added. “We have a director who is dedicated to improving our culture and has already made the changes necessary to help all DUP employees.”

Chenjerai Kumanyika, a journalist and assistant professor at Rutgers University, said that in his experience, most institutions’ commitment to social justice is at the discretion of managers or policies that “cannot deliver the forms of justice we need. ”

“Recognizing workers and institutions that negotiate directly with workers gives you the most powerful and substantial kind of justice,” said Kumanyika.

The DUP colleagues concerned wrote that “no concrete steps have been offered on how a union contract could more effectively combat social injustice in the press,” based on information shared by union organizers.

“The first step is to acknowledge the existence of inequalities, which we have done. We (the employees of DUP) are committed and have the common goal of tackling our challenges, implementing changes and finding a solution, ”they wrote. “It is not an easy task and can only be accomplished when everyone is committed and not shared.”

The DUP colleagues concerned also shared a statement by Gisela Fosado, editor-in-chief of DUP, calling for more diversity at DUP.

“We absolutely need more BIPOC employees and especially black women at all management levels,” wrote Folsado. “And we ALL need to understand how we individually and collectively maintain the culture of white supremacy here at DUP and beyond.”

Folsado added that the work to change that culture is “frustratingly slow” and that while DUP is not yet where it needs to be, “we are seeing more and more of us doing the work we need to be”.

Marybe McMillan, President of the North Carolina State American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, expressed her support for the meeting, saying that “over 120,000 union members across North Carolina” are also in solidarity with workers’ union formation efforts.

McMillan pointed to recent union victories in North Carolina, including the formation of the Duke Faculty Union, the first faculty union at a private university in the south, and the union of 1,800 nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville last fall, the largest union win in the south in ten Years.

“I am confident that [the DUP Workers Union] will make history by organizing the first university press in the south, ”said McMillan.

Joseph Winters, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and African American Studies and DUP author, compared the DUP Workers Union campaign to books on critical theory published by the DUP.

“Critical theory is always a kind of criticism backed by some kind of hope that things might be different,” he said.

Union formation means “rethinking what it means to be a worker, what it means to show solidarity with others, what it means to treat someone with respect and dignity in the workplace,” Winters said. “It seems to me that this is exactly an embodiment of this overlapping of the critical, but also of hope.”

After going public in March, the DUP union moved for an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board in May to legally certify the union in May. If a majority of the DUP employees vote in favor of union formation, the NLRB will certify the union. The vote will take place on June 2nd between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m.