Image Comics Workers Win Union Election in Historic First for Comics Industry

[QUOTE]Today the workers of Image Comics voted 7-2 in favor of unionizing with the Communications Workers of America. Previously, management refused to voluntarily recognize what is now, officially, the first union in comics.

Comic Book Workers United, the union of Image Comics workers, previously told Motherboard that it had a supermajority of workers eligible to vote.

It’s appropriate that Image is the first comics shop to unionize, despite the fact that the company didn’t recognize the union and has generally been reticent to say much about it. As we wrote in November:

“Image was founded in 1992 as a response to the predatory relationship between publishers and creators. Superstar artists working for the traditional publishing duopoly of Marvel and DC, inspired in part by the creators’ rights and self-publishing movements of the two immediately preceding generations—which included, at one point, a union drive led by legendary artist Neal Adams—wanted more control over their working conditions and intellectual property. When they didn’t get it, they left and founded Image.”

"Earlier this morning the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and National Labor Relations Board vote results were tallied, 7 - 2, in favor of unionization,” a representative from Image Comics told Motherboard, regarding the successful union vote. “Everyone at Image is committed to this process and we look forward to continuing to work together on this."

Workers previously told Motherboard they were unionizing because of job precarity during the pandemic, because they want to push for greater diversity at the company, and greater transparency into the company’s operations. The union’s list of goals is posted on their website.[/QUOTE]

[url]https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3v355/image-comics-workers-win-union-election-in-historic-first-for-comics-industry?utm_source=reddit.com[/url]

Wow. I'm surprised but also elated. Great for them. Hopefully it will have a positive impact on other companies as well.

Looks like Image management did not recognize the union entirely voluntarily, and tried to block three of the Union members from voting.
[URL="https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7w7kz/image-comics-union-says-management-fought-to-invalidate-votes-in-historic-election"]Source: Vice Motherboard[/URL] again, who appear well connected regarding this story.

Not sure what management may have been trying to do there, sow discord? They had a statement out in November, but seem silent now. I had hoped Stephenson & co. would recognize unionization as a natural fit for Image's creator rights focus. As an outsider, their meddling here does not really look like they walked the talk voluntarily, while Image could position themselves as the tip of the spear on creator rights if they embraced it more publicly.

Kind of ironic considering Image exists because creators weren't being treated fair at Marvel and DC.

Probably best for Image to just replace the office workers. There are a lot of people who lost their job from DC, it's a small community so it shouldn't take very long. The "union" isn't vital to the books and the fact they want publishing veto power is just funny. Jim Valentino dropping them from the credits of his book was the right first step.