Damaged Book Worker

Damaged Book Worker has been a member of Linktree for 5 years and joined in December 2020. The social media accounts linked to from Damaged Book Worker are: • Instagram • Substack • X Besides social media accounts, Damagedbookworker has populated their site with: • "I was terrorized out of my job by Small Press Distribution." [12/1/20] • "How Former Employees at a Berkeley Bastion for Literary Presses Ignited a Reckoning" | KQED [8/10/21] • KQED article: clarifications & corrections • “Management and the board should be held accountable…for what is a clear pattern of abuse & a toxic culture” -From a then-current worker [12/2/20] • “My hourly wage was being changed multiple times to fit their ‘math.’” -From a former worker [12/7/20] • Statement from SPD Staff: "written to affirm the narrative of Damaged Book Worker" & then-current staff members' experiences of "chronic misconduct." [12/18/20] **Most workers have since left/been pushed out** • "Toxic: A Farewell to SPD & Hostile Workplaces" by J Worthen, former SPD employee of over seven years [2/15/21] • “The current ED also helped to cover up a rape joke made by the former ED at AWP in 2019 at a meeting of our publishers” [2/15/21] • "The culture of worker abuse in the literary/ nonprofit industry must end." -From a former warehouse worker [2/16/21] • Testimony from the last non-management woman worker left at SPD: "Things couldn't be worse at SPD right now." [6/3/21] *She has since been retaliated against* • "A Call to End the Anti-Worker Campaign Led By SPD's Board, Directors, Managers, and Apologists," from 7 current & former SPD staff who experienced & witnessed abuse & misconduct [6/10/21] • **Long but important** A refutation of recent management-led efforts to falsely exonerate SPD leadership & contradict the realities brought to the public's attention by victims. [7/13/21] • A second former worker comes forward about SPD asking them to sign an NDA. [KQED audio piece, 9/13/21] • SPD Author Elsa Valmidiano, "Demanding Accountability" [12/3/20] • Open Letter to Small Press Distribution: "In light of SPD management's labor violations and hostile work environment, including microaggressions against a worker of Color, we are writing with the following demands…" [12/11/20] • KQED Radio Piece [1/3/21] • "Allegations of Wage Theft, Discrimination at Small Press Distribution," Publishers Weekly [1/6/21] • "Fair Practices and Damaged Book Workers," Full Stop [1/25/21] • Open Letter to the SPD Board & Boycott from Metatron Press [5/11/21] • Boycott from Bluestockings Cooperative [5/25/21] • A board member calls my article “questionable” on the ED’s Facebook wall [12/2/20] • SPD deletes public statements admitting to wage theft [12/5/20 & 12/11/20] • My response to SPD’s now-deleted statement: “There are serious fabrications of events that were deeply traumatic for staff.” [12/5/20] • Screenshot of the ED telling a worker the amount of wages at stake are too small to keep looking into [12/9/20] • The board pressures staff to protect SPD’s reputation [testimony from a then-current worker] [12/11/20] • Leaked text shows SPD ED Brent Cunningham joking about being “the evil executive director” [1/3/21] • SPD announces a third-party "workplace assessment," ignoring demands in the December staff statement [1/19/21] • SPD gives my info to the investigation firm without my consent, violating my anonymity [1/22/21] • Another former SPD worker rejects the assessment and declines to participate [1/28/21] • SPD's Board President sends VIDA Lit an intimidating email after VIDA tweets support for impacted workers [2/2/21] • Then-current SPD employee has no faith in the assessment, working conditions worsen [2/9/21] • Brent Cunningham’s publisher, Ugly Duckling, defends him in emails [3/4/21] • Assessment finds "abundant" evidence of ED Brent Cunningham's misconduct; the SPD Board refuses to share summary or fire BC [3/8/21] • An anonymous friend of SPD’s Executive Director sends me a threatening email [3/23/21] • "There are no trans or non-binary people left at SPD." [4/23/21] • The Publicity Manager writes public statements & falsely signs them as the (non-existent) “SPD Publicity Team” [4/27/21] • Interim ED Cindy Myers condemns the whistleblower's testimony in an email to (mostly management) staff, urging them to put out a public statement saying SPD is “not a hostile workplace.” [6/3/21] • Brent Cunningham leaves SPD; leaked paragraph from the assessment confirms BC's "abundant" inappropriate behavior [7/1/21] • Statement from SPD's Board President: "The board did not ask OIG to look into any allegations regarding wages and financial abuse." [7/2/21] • SPD's Interim ED announces mediation has ended, SPD will “focus on the business of distributing your books” & not engage in social media “commentary.” [7/12/21] • **Please read this statement for a thorough refutation of SPD management’s recent statements & an overview of their attempts to sabotage victims [7/13/21]