Abrams Books employees overwhelmingly voted to unionize in their National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election and will join United Auto Workers Local 2110, according to a UAW announcement today. The union will be officially certified in approximately a week, after which Abrams editors, designers, product managers, and other non-supervisory positions will begin the process of contract negotiations with the New York City–based publisher.

Abrams staff initially filed for an NLRB vote in early April, citing, among other things, low entry-level salaries, job insecurity, and a need for greater transparency in negotiations with management. In the subsequent weeks, employees said they experienced attempts by Abrams management to delay or upset the vote, according to reporting by LitHub. Nonetheless, the NLRB election saw 79% worker participation, with 88% voting in favor of unionizing.

Abrams will now join HarperCollins and the New Press in the ranks of UAW 2110 publishers. Lydia Nguyen, assistant editor for Abrams ComicArts, said that the workers at Abrams see themselves as part of a larger movement to put the future of publishing “in the hands of the workers—the people on the ground who build relationships with authors, readers, and booksellers.” HarperCollins, the only Big Five publisher with a union, made waves in the industry when its workers went on strike in the winter of 2023, ultimately winning a higher minimum salary and new benefits.

According to the UAW statement, Abrams workers have seen multiple rounds of layoffs in the last year and sudden changes to health care and retirement benefits. Some employees expressed gratitude for their newfound sense of solidarity alongside potential contract wins. “After thirteen years in publishing, I was dangerously close to reaching a point of skepticism that anything could improve, and that stressful and chaotic conditions were industry standard,” said senior designer Andrea Miller. “I’ve completely changed my outlook since spending the past year organizing alongside my coworkers at Abrams.”

An Abrams spokesperson said the publisher will now begin the process of negotiating a contract in good faith. “We are now turning our attention to working through next steps,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to engaging in that process confident in our collective commitment to Abrams as company, as well as to our books and authors.”