On Aug 6, 2007, at 2:53 PM, Marvin Gandall wrote:
> evokes memories of the
> early labor organization of freelance writers in the early 1980s.
Wow. What a stunning success that was! I got involved in the NWU in the late 1980s, and sat in on negotiations with the Village Voice. And sitting was all I could do - the VV didn't recognize us, and so I wasn't allowed to speak. I did talk informally from time to time with the excellent Julie Kushner, lead negotiator with the Voice for the UAW, which represented fulltime staff, but that was it. We then took a survey of Voice freelancers and found that they were happy to be writing for the Voice and didn't particularly want the NWU to rescue them. And from then on, the NWU accomplished, um, like nothing.
Doug