Lancet union declares first

Union members at The Lancet and its affiliated journals will go on strike Sept. 22 for one day with further action planned for the following week, after pay negotiations with parent publisher Elsevier fell apart, The Lancet’s union announced today. The strike is the first in The Lancet’s 200-year history. Elsevier was ordered to recognize the union, a chapter of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), in September 2025, and their collective bargaining agreement was finalized in February. As part of the action the union, which represents 110 employees in various roles across several of The Lancet’s 30 journals, is also calling on members to refuse to work hours outside their contracted amount. Negotiations on pay and support for workers began in March when the union asked for an 7.5% pay raise in the first year. According to an open letter from the union, workers’ pay had failed to keep up with inflation, leaving them “substantially worse off than they were five years ago despite their growing expertise and responsibilities.” Elsevier rejected the union’s request and countered with a raise of 4.1% for the first year and 2.9% for the second. Talks eventually broke down, and on Sept. 4, members voted 94.5% in favor of the strike. “How the company have conducted themselves in these negotiations and been extremely stubborn and challenging, we think has inflamed the situation and made [The Lancet’s union] more determined than previously to secure its original pay demand,” Alex Maguire, National Union of Journalists organizer, told Retraction Watch. The group said it plans to walk out on Sept. 22, and will “work to rule” from Sept. 23 to 30, performing only their contractually mandated duties and hours. Workers are already working the minimum hours required this week. Members of the union’s committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and auto-replies for several members noted that per the union action they would not be available outside working hours. “We found that a lot of The Lancet runs on goodwill, and it’s an organization that is dependent for most of its staff to work along above their hours,” Maguire said. “So it was felt that by people sticking to their contracts, that would show how much extra unpaid work they put in.” Despite the lack of growth in employee wages, Elsevier, the medical journal’s parent company, reported an adjusted operating profit of 1.04 billion pounds, or US$1.39 billion, in 2025, with a 38% profit margin – the highest of the “big four” academic publishing houses. It’s not clear what the specific contributions of The Lancet journals are to the overall budget. But The Lancet’s article processing fees have nearly doubled in recent years, going from $5,000 in 2020 to $9,550 in 2026, with other Lancet journals also increasing their processing fees. In the open letter to Erik Engstrom, the CEO of Elsevier’s parent company RELX, and Elsevier CEO Kumsal Bayazit dated Sept. 17, workers “urge Elsevier to return to negotiations with a pay offer that reflects the crucial value that these staff continue to bring to both the company and the scientific community.” James Butcher, a publishing expert and former executive editor of the Lancet, noted the union vote earlier this month in his blog Journalology, saying “editors working on selective journals create value for shareholders and it’s not unreasonable to expect to be treated fairly by employers.” In an emailed statement, an Elsevier spokesperson said, “After several rounds of constructive negotiations with the NUJ, regrettably, we have not yet been able to reach an agreement on pay, and NUJ Chapel members have voted for industrial action.” In 2024, NUJ workers at Nature held a two-day strike over similar concerns. The union called off the strike on the second day after the union and Springer Nature reached a two-year pay agreement. The Lancet union seeks to find common ground with the publishing giant, the statement from NUJ said, as they believe “Elsevier’s aim, ‘Advancing human progress together,’ cannot succeed without them.” Like Retraction Watch? You can make a tax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow us on X or Bluesky, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, add us to your RSS reader, or subscribe to our daily digest. If you find a retraction that’s not in our database, you can let us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at [email protected].