After forming a union in 2022, the United Workers of Seven Seas, or UW7S, have officially voted to ratify their first contract with Seven Seas Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based company that is the number one independent publisher of manga, danmei, and light novels in the United States.
2022 was a remarkable year for labor: Gallup found that 71% of Americans “approve of” labor unions, the highest U.S. approval since 1965. Additionally, despite U.S. labor law creating substantial hurdles to union formation, the Economic Policy Institute found that 200,000 more workers were represented by unions in 2022, with millions more wanting to join one. According to the National Labor Board, there was a 53% increase in petitions for union representation elections relative to 2021. And since 2021, Amazon warehouse workers and workers at more than 300 Starbucks stores nationwide have led high-profile campaigns to organize their workplaces.
Last year, also saw the birth of the first U.S. manga/light novel publishing union: United Workers of Seven Seas.
With the growth of Seven Seas from 10 employees in 2018 to 40 in 2022, the company’s employees and freelancers spoke out about changing working conditions. “With rapid growth comes growing pains, and we, the workers of Seven Seas, have been shouldering much of that pain. We find ourselves overworked, underpaid, and we do not currently receive the benefits otherwise typical of the publishing industry,” reads the UW7S mission statement.
So, on May 23, 2022, Seven Seas workers voted to unionize, making United Workers of Seven Seas the first U.S. manga/light novel publishing union. The mission statement reads, in part, “We do not receive the vacation, sick days, family leave, health insurance, and retirement benefits otherwise typical of the publishing industry.” Chief among the union’s goals is securing these benefits.
At first, Seven Seas hired Ogletree Deakins, one of the largest law firms specializing in so-called “union-busting” activities, in response to UW7S’s formation. Per Kotaku, Ogletree Deakins “was accused of holding ‘fear mongering’ anti-unionization PowerPoints amid IKEA worker unionization efforts back in 2015.”
Although Seven Seas initially seemed determined to engage in “union avoidance activities,” within a month, the company recognized the union voluntarily. On June 24, 2022, the United Workers of Seven Seas tweeted, “UW7S is happy to announce that Seven Seas has agreed to voluntarily recognize us as the union based on a majority card check. This decision by Seven Seas eliminates the need for an NLRB conducted election and will pave the way for a more expedited path.”
Seven Seas released an official statement a day later: “This has been a challenging time for staff at every level. Above all, the well-being and safety of our employees is of utmost importance to us. In order to protect everyone involved, and to work together in good faith for the sake of our staff, creators, partners, and fans, Seven Seas has now decided to waive the right to an election in favor of voluntary recognition of the union. We look forward to working together with the newly unionized UW7S and the rest of our global staff as we sail toward an even brighter future.”
However, winning a union election (or waiving it) is the first step. To realize their goals, the newly formed UW7S had to successfully negotiate a contract—an uphill battle, even with a willing employer. According to the Economic Policy Institute, although there have only been “four analyses published in the last two decades” on how much time elapses between the legal recognition of a union and the signing of a first contract, each “show a consistent pattern of long delays, resulting in an increased likelihood that unions will fail to reach a first contract.”
But it appears that UW7S and Seven Seas have sailed toward a brighter future together because they entered into a contract on August 29, 2023. The union posted to X, “As of today, @_UW7S (with the assistance of our @CWAUnion reps) have officially voted to ratify our first contract with Seven Seas Entertainment. WE did it!”
To illustrate what a coup the United Workers of Seven Seas pulled by ratifying its first contract in a little over a year (May 2022 to August 2023), Robert Combs’ analysis for Bloomberg Law found that the average time-to-contract from 2020 to 2022 was well over a year, at +500 days. Go UW7S!
(featured image: United Workers of Seven Seas)
