Posts tagged Catapult Workers Collective
Catapult to Be Sold, End Operations
October 23, 2026 // The statement did not name the buyer but said the union was notified that “continued employment with the prospective buyer is not an option.” The Catapult website currently lists 25 employees, including Koch, who is CEO, and publisher Alyson Forbes. The union includes around 20 employees in editorial, design, marketing, publicity, production, operations, and rights, PW reported in April. News of a sale comes six months after they petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a vote on unionization, citing a need for “job security, wages, and a need for greater transparency from company leadership.” An “overwhelming majority” voted to join UAW Local 2110 via an election, the union announced in June. It said Wednesday it is negotiating a separation agreement with the company.
Publishing’s ‘Hot Labor Summer’
August 26, 2026 // HWC organizers told PW they had been organizing on and off since 2022 and decided to go public this April. Something was in the air. Weeks earlier, employees at Catapult Book Group had launched their own union, and after HWC, staffers at University of Chicago Press and Dark Horse Comics announced union drives in quick succession. HWC, the Catapult Workers Collective, and the University of Chicago Press Workers Guild all won their union elections, while Dark Horse Workers United received voluntary recognition from management. In each union’s public statements, employees expressed strikingly similar reasons for organizing: inadequate pay, large workloads, and limited potential for advancement. They all cited, in their own words, what HBG organizer Julia DeVarti, an associate editor at Little, Brown, called publishing’s “passion tax”—workers’ tendency to “be exploited for working in an industry we love.”