The once-beloved Scholastic company has been struggling with bad press that will only worsen after its unionized workers held a walkout protesting low wages.
Many of us have fond childhood memories of Scholastic Book Fairs coming to our schools. It was a time when we could buy the books that spoke to us and helped us grow our love of reading. Recently, Scholastic hasn’t been doing great in the public eye. The company has been accused of hiding or segregating possibly controversial books to avoid vocal outrage from a few right-wing parents. Rather than defending the freedom to publish diverse books, they bowed to pressure from censorship campaigns.
All workers want is a fair wage
On November 1, Scholastic’s unionized workers walked out over stagnant wages. As reported by Publishers Weekly, all the employees are part of Scholastic’s magazine department. Workers say their contracts expired in May 2022. The union and Scholastic have been trying to finalize a new contract since October 2022.
Scholastic recently reported to its shareholders that profits are strong. The company has seen a revenue increase to $1.7 billion in 2023. Yet according to the Scholastic Union, employees haven’t had their wages increased in two years. With large corporations like Scholastic, we shouldn’t be surprised to see surpluses divided up amongst shareholders instead of among the workers who put in the labor for the increased profits. Time and time again we see it, but it is still disappointing.
Employees all over Scholastic are not happy with the recent direction of the company. Not only are they fighting an uphill battle over pay, but employees also aren’t pleased with how Scholastic handled the book fair controversies. Alexandra Lim-Chua Wee, an associate editor and union member, said “I think it kind of all boils down to frustration at a company that does not value its employees the way that it says it does.” Union members penned a letter outlining their grievances over Scholastic as a whole.
Sadly, this is a sentiment that is felt by workers in industries everywhere right now. It is especially difficult in more creative fields. We can see this with the recent writer’s strike and unionization of visual effects artists. Workers of all industries are humans who should have pay reflective of the work they put in.
(via Publishers Weekly, featured image: Doug Scaletta/Scholastic)
