Verso union officially recognised by radical publisher after months of talks

Verso’s union has been officially recognised by the company after 17 months of meetings with management, the group has announced.

The group of staff, who have unionised with the National Union for Journalists, tweeted on 13th July: “We are now officially recognised! Thanks for all of your support, it’s been a long 17 months!” They added they were "excited to start negotiations”.

A spokesperson from the NUJ Verso chapel told The Bookseller: “We are really excited to be recognised and to start negotiations with the Verso Board. The publishing sector is having a moment of self examination and we are excited to join our colleagues who have begun organising across the industry, including our colleagues in Verso’s US office. 

“For over 50 years Verso Books has been a leading publisher of emancipatory politics. In deciding to unionise, our staff look to combine radical publishing with organising and real solidarity with the wider trade union movement."

Verso is a left-wing publisher which describes itself as "the largest independent, radical publishing house in the English-speaking world", publishing authors such as John Berger, Arundhati Roy and Owen Jones. 

Last month, union organisers tweeted that for “a full year”, the Verso London union had been meeting with management about a recognition agreement so they could begin negotiations over wages and working conditions. They added: “After over a year of talks, we still do not have recognition. 

“We now find ourselves stuck on a question of union democracy: management has refused to accept our proposal that our members should send whoever they see fit to negotiations with management.”

According to the union, staff were in a worse financial situation than they were during 2020, “a year that the company made its biggest profit in its 50-year history” and that salary reviews had been on hold since 2021, “pending negotiations”. 

A Verso spokesperson said: "We are glad to have reached this voluntary agreement with the NUJ chapel, after the challenges of the pandemic and lockdowns. Verso is proud to be a union employer, not only for the benefit of our own colleagues but for the wider labour movement.”