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Two More Unions! Hachette Book Group Employees and workers at Magic The Gathering: Arena Both Vote to Unionize!

There are two more unions in the geek space as Hachette Book Group Employees and workers at Magic The Gathering: Arena both have voted to unionize.

Hachette Workers Coalition (HWC)

Employees of Hachette Book Group have voted to unionize, joining the Washington-Baltimore News-Guild-CW Local 32035 of the AFL-CIO. A supermajority of the 600 workers signed up and the Hachette Workers Coalition (HWC) is now the largest union in trade publishing history. The members are seeking a livable wage regardless of work location, better working conditions, a cap on workload hours, a clear and neutral grievance process, AI protections, follow-through on DEI policies, and more.

The HWC have successfully organized in the past, canceling HBG’s publication of Woody Allen’s memoir in 2020 and amending the return-to-office work in 2022.

In the announcement, they mention “substandard working conditions, overwhelming workloads, and compensation not commensurate with the exceptional success and growth that workers have brought HBG.”

The organizing campaign has taken over 5 years.


United Wizards of the Coast - CWA (UWOTC

In other union news, the workers at Magic: The Gathering – Arena have overwhelmingly voted to form a union, United Wizards of the Coast – CWA (UWOTC).

The USWOTC has asked the Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro management to voluntarily recognize the union by International Workers Day (May Day) which takes place on May 1, 2026.

In their announcement, the union has said they are negotiating for:

  • Layoff Protections: Employees currently live in fear of suddenly losing their jobs, with no warning and through no fault of their own.
  • Remote Work Protections: Leadership is instituting a mandatory RTO, forcing numerous remote employees to return to a physical office or be forced to resign. This painful choice is splitting our employees between their homes, communities, and the jobs they love.
  • Generative AI Protections: Pressure has ramped up from leadership to adopt LLMs and Gen AI tools in various aspects of our work. WOTC lacks a robust AI policy, leaving opportunities for abuse and communicating a level of disrespect for artists and other creatives.
  • Sustainable Workload: Employees’ experiences with “crunch” (intense, mandatory unpaid overtime) to meet deadlines vary widely by team and project, with some teams crunching on a regular basis just to get planned work out the door.

They are asking individuals to sign a letter to show their support for the union.

J-Novel Club Announces Print Distribution Arrangement with Hachette Book Group, Diamond Book Distributors via Yen Press

J-Novel Club

 J-Novel Club LLC has announced its entry into an ongoing sales and distribution agreement with Hachette Book Group via a new partnership with Yen Press for J-Novel Club’s physical book catalog. Beginning July 1, 2024, all J-Novel Club frontlist and backlist titles will be distributed by Hachette in North America. International sales will be handled by Diamond Book Distributors.

Below is a released FAQ as to what this means.

What does this mean for current branding?

While all books will be listed for solicitation under Yen Press’s “JNC” imprint and appear in Edelweiss as Yen Press/JNC, on-book branding for titles produced directly by J-Novel Club will continue to feature the full J-Novel Club and J-Novel Heart logos. Titles produced by Yen Press under the “JNC” imprint will continue to use the simplified JNC logo.

How does this affect stock and inventory?

Retailers globally can continue ordering all J-Novel Club titles – including all June 2024 new releases – through 30 June 2024, after which inventory will be migrated to Hachette’s warehouses. This may lead to delays in order fulfillment for both retailers and customers while the transport and ingestion of catalog titles continues. July 2024’s new releases are already registered with Hachette Book Group and are available for preorder.

Why don’t I see new volumes out as far as before?

J-Novel Club has switched to a system of rolling solicitations. Each month, new volumes in production will be solicited for retail. This allows to more flexibly schedule new releases, as well as allowing us to provide increasingly accurate metadata such as page numbers.

How does this affect J-Novel Club’s digital offerings?

This arrangement is only for print editions in English and has no impact on J-Novel Club’s digital offerings.

Yen Press Expands Distribution Deal with Diamond to Include International Markets

Effective June 5, 2017, Diamond Comic Distributors will assume exclusive sales and distribution for Yen Press outside of the North American market in traditional and non-traditional book channels, a deal that was announced at the London Book Fair 2017. This is a significant expansion of Yen’s existing relationship with Diamond for the comic book specialty market, and, most importantly, gives Diamond exclusive rights to offer Yen Press titles in the UK and Ireland book markets.

Yen Press, LLC is a joint venture between Kadakowa Corporation and Hachette Book Group, dedicated to publishing manga and graphic novels for adults and young readers. Founded in 2006, Yen Press has quickly risen to become one of the largest and most prolific publishers of manga and original graphic novels in the North American marketplace and has become a driving force in the introduction of light novels to new readers through its Yen On imprint.

Review – The Adventures of Unemployed Man


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The Adventures of Unemployed ManThe Adventures of Unemployed Man is fun, funny and educational taking shots at today’s economic collapse and the issues people deal with day to day.  It intelligently explains and teaches economic issues and satirizes the current economic and political state.  This is humor as smart and biting as anything you’d find on The Daily Show or Colbert Report.

MAIN STREET, USA-Against incredible odds, jobless crusader UNEMPLOYED MAN and his sidekick PLAN B embark on a heroic search for work-and quickly find themselves waging an epic battle against The Just Us League, a dastardly group of supervillains including THE HUMAN RESOURCE, TOXIC DEBT BLOB, PINK SLIP and THE INVISIBLE HAND.

Experience this action-packed story in THE ADVENTURES OF UNEMPLOYED MAN-a fearless, brilliant, and provocative book that ASTOUNDS with incisive wit and AMAZES with stunning insights into the desperate situation so many heroes find themselves in today.

A new supergroup of down-but-not-out heroes has emerged from the economic crisis, including perpetual grad student MASTER OF DEGREES, fix-it-with-tape DUCTO, pain-shrinking therapist GOOD GRIEF, checkbook unbalancer ZILCH, shadow worker FANTASMA, and WONDER MOTHER, who built her invisible jet from pieces of the glass ceiling.

These heroes have enlisted the help of Erich Origen and Gan Golan, the dynamic duo behind the New York Times bestseller GOODNIGHT BUSH. Together they tell the story of our intrepid heroes’ climactic clash with the self-interested villains who dwell in the Hall of Just Us, devising sinister plots that threaten the entire world.

This richly illustrated book is a parody of classic superhero comics from the Golden Age to the present day-and a brilliant dissection of our current economic meltdown. It features dazzling artwork by such comics legends as Ramona Fradon, Rick Veitch, Michael Netzer, Terry Beatty, Josef Rubenstein, Benton Jew, Thomas Yeates, Shawn Martinbrough, Clem Robins, Tom Orzechowski, Thomas Mauer and Lee Loughridge.

Written by Erich Origen and Gan Golan with numerous artists, the story follows the fall and rise of Ultimatum and his eventual alter ego The Unemployed Man.  The story is brilliant with perfect jabs at the various forces that exist and affect today’s economy.  The best of all, it provides political commentary without shoving it all down your throat.

There’s some minor issues in the graphic novel doesn’t go too deep into some of those economic forces to really explain what they are (Glass Steagall being the one that really sticks out), but this should be enough to get folks to want to find out what they are themselves.

This is perfect satire that’s aimed at folks who let the rich get richer and don’t do anything about it.  There’s educational materials that make you think, all wrapped up in entertainment.

I wish all of politics was this much fun.  This should be required reading for everyone to open their eyes and get them to really think about what’s happened the last 30 years to get us where we are.

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