Comic Book Workers United is so vocal about its efforts to unionize within Image Comics that it shows other staffers at other comics publishers that they are not alone. CBWU is focused on leading by example, and hopes to one day play a role in helping workers throughout the industry.
It is an element of the union's overall origin story that will sound familiar to anyone who has gone through the process of becoming a union shop. The idea of a company initially rejecting its workers' unionization attempt can be alarming for those who haven't gone through that process.
The organization has received a lot of support from across the comics space that speaks to the fact that people are paying attention and seem to agree with the union's stances. In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the union said that it has received a lot of correspondence from people asking for advice on how to start the process themselves, which was one of its goals.
At the same time that CBWU is shining a new light on how workers are vested in fighting for better workplace conditions, it reminds one former editor of how incomprehensible an idea it was a few years ago. Alejandro Arbona, who was an assistant editor at the House of ideas, told The Hollywood Reporter that he and a number of other staffers contemplated forming a union. Arbona said that general fear and uncertainty was what held them back.
rbona said that it was just speculation and thinking. We came to the same self-defeating conclusions about who would join us, who wouldn't, and how the company would respond.
In the case of CBWU, Image acknowledged that the National Labor Relations Board has been petitioned to hold a secret ballot to determine if the Communications Workers of America should represent them. The fear is that Image, or any other comic book publisher in a similar position, might respond in less explicit, but still damaging ways to workers who have been brave enough to speak up for themselves.
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