One interesting side effect of writing a book about unions (as I recently did) is that it makes you more aware that the book industry is, for the most part, not unionized. On one hand: yeah, just like every other industry! On the other hand, there are some glaring reasons to think that the book business — the whole sprawling chain, from writing to publishing to selling — is overdue for its own big wave of unionization. Book workers, unite! You have nothing to lose but the branded tote bags they give you instead of raises.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, any type of worker, in any type of workplace, in any area can be convinced to organize. The hard part is just helping people understand exactly what they are losing by not having a union, and what they can do about it. This process of education and empowerment that precedes union drives can be more or less difficult depending on how easily…