Scholastic Employees Rally for Fair Wages and a Strong Contract

Dozens of Scholastic Union members rallied at the company’s headquarters Wednesday to protest Scholastic’s slow-walking of contract negotiations and refusing to offer a fair deal, including retroactive pay and remote work rights, to workers.

The 82 members of the Scholastic Union are represented by The NewsGuild of New York. The union’s last collective bargaining contract with the children’s publishing powerhouse Scholastic Inc. expired in May 2022. Employees have been bargaining with the company since last October but management has yet to agree to important demands around retroactive pay and remote work protections.

Scholastic management has dragged its feet at the bargaining table and refused to offer retroactive pay that would cover the cost of inflation. Many employees struggle to afford the cost of living in New York City under their current salaries. The company has also refused to update and formalize its remote work policy, putting the company out of step with the rest of the publishing industry and the economy at large.

“Scholastic may teach children to be kind to others, but it refuses to extend the same kindness to its own employees. As inflation has soared over the past few years, Scholastic has failed to raise our wages to reflect growing costs or offer formal remote work options for those of us who can no longer afford to live in New York. The current pace is unsustainable, and that’s why we’re out here demanding Scholastic come to the bargaining table and agree to a fair contract once and for all,” said Alexandra Lim-Chua Wee, a member of the Scholastic Union Bargaining Committee and a Senior Associate Editor at Scholastic. Read more here!