Stephen King’s son among writers boycotting British Library event in solidarity with striking workers | Books
Horror writers are used to pushing the boundaries of fiction, but there’s one line some won’t cross in this field: picketing.
Several writers, including Stephen King’s son Joe Hill, who published his first novel in a decade, King Sorrow, have pulled out of a spooky seasonal event at the British Library this weekend over pay for staff at the central London institution.
Tales of the Weird is scheduled to take place Saturday and Sunday at the library and online.
Inspired by popular collections and anthologies published by the library, featuring often forgotten and lost ghost and horror stories, the festival will feature comedian and presenter Robin Ince, actor and director Alice Lowe, folk horror writer Andrew Michael Hurley and Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski.
But some writers boycotted the event after the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which says it represents a “significant proportion” of the British Library workforce, declared a strike over what the union called “poverty wages”.
Hill said he could no longer participate, not least because of what his mother might say. “After discussing the situation with other writers and doing my homework, I decided it was best not to do the event,” he said. “Plus, I’m supposed to have Thanksgiving dinner with Tabitha King, and if I cross the picket line to sell a book, that’s not going to be good.”
Texas-born, Mexican-American author V Castro, now living in the UK, is another author who has withdrawn, author of the vampire tale Wanted Maria, whose next novel is due out in February. He said: “A living wage and the ability to feed yourself and your family should not be up for debate.”
Keith Rosson, whose latest novel Coffin Moon was published earlier this month, was the first to take action, saying: “A reader informed me that BL librarians were on strike and I investigated the issue and informed other participants. While I am fully confident that the British Library and its staff will reach a meaningful resolution, I have a deep respect for librarians as a profession – I have dedicated a new novel to them – and I will not cross the picket line.”
The strike started on Monday and will last until November 9, with 300 members participating. According to a recent survey by the British Library, “Their main demand is for an inflation-proof pay rise and a pay rise with restoration, after a second successive year of real terms pay cuts.” [staff] We have seen many members struggling to make ends meet every month,” a PCS spokesperson said.
“Although the British Library initially offered a 2 per cent pay award, with some taking as low as 1.6 per cent, they increased the offer to 2.4 per cent, citing rising costs across the board, including energy bills and building materials; this is still well below inflation. Workers at the British Library are fed up. It is not surprising that the PCS vote returned a 98 per cent vote in favor of strike action, with a turnout of 75 per cent.”
A British Library spokesperson said: “The British Library has been informed of planned strike action at our site in London… We plan to keep all our buildings open during this period, without changing our building opening times. We will be reducing our service and there may be significant disruption and closure of reading rooms at short notice. Full details of the impact of the strikes can be found at: found on our website.”
