[ Makayla Wahaus and her co-workers are part of a trend in the
union movement in which employees at nonprofits including human
service agencies, museums, think tanks and other such organizations
are starting to look to traditional labor unions as a way of improving
their finances and, they say, democratizing their workplaces.]
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NONPROFIT, HUMAN SERVICES WORKERS ARE STARTING TO UNIONIZE  
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Rick Karlin
June 26, 2022
Times Union
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_ Makayla Wahaus and her co-workers are part of a trend in the union
movement in which employees at nonprofits including human service
agencies, museums, think tanks and other such organizations are
starting to look to traditional labor unions as a way of improving
their finances and, they say, democratizing their workplaces. _

,

 

Makayla Wahaus’ journey to union activism started at Rensselaear
Polytechnic Institute where she was a physics major. A course on food
systems sparked an interest in social problems like food deserts and
poor nutrition and the 2020 graduate ended up working for the
non-profit Capital Roots, which works to make fresh produce available
to people in neighborhoods where there are no nearby supermarkets or
other healthy food sources.

She says she loves her job, but wants more say in how the organization
is run, and like others, says it’s increasingly  hard to survive on
the pay, which for many is under $15-an-hour.

 “Those are all factors that came together and made us want to
organize collectively,” she said of the current drive
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have Capital Roots employees join the Service Employees International
(SEIU) union.

She and her co-workers are part of a trend in the union movement in
which employees at nonprofits including human service agencies,
museums, think tanks and other such organizations are starting to look
to traditional labor unions as a way of improving their finances and,
they say, democratizing their workplaces.

In the Capital Region, Capital Roots is one of at least three
nonprofits whose employees have moved to unionize in recent months.

Earlier this year, workers at the Northeast Parent and Child
Society voted to join
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Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). In addition to Capital
Roots, employees at the Joseph’s House homeless shelter
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moving to join SEIU.
Nationally, union membership remains low among the broad workforce at
just above 10 percent, compared to 20 percent 40 years ago, according
to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 That reflects years of decline that came with de-industrialization
in much of the nation’s rust belt, deregulation and the trend toward
replacing those on the picket line, which started when President
Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

But in the last few years there has been at least a small sign of
resurgence in union activity, evidenced by union drives at
post-industrial employers such as the Starbucks coffee shop chain and
the Amazon web retailer.

At the same time, nonprofit groups have also seen a resurgence.

Federal statistics track union membership by occupation, not whether
an organization is for-profit or nonprofit, so precise numbers are
hard to come by.

Additionally, union officials who are organizing union drives are
often reluctant to publicize them until they gain enough momentum to
increase their chances of success.

But those who track such things say they’ve noticed an uptick in
unionization in the nonprofit sector in recent months and years.
“What we’ve been seeing in the trends is that, yes, there has been
an increase in the nonprofits organizing,” said Cathy Creighton,
Director of Cornell University ILR (Industrial and Labor Relations)
Buffalo Co-Lab and a labor attorney.

There is even a Nonprofit Professional Employees Union that has
organized unions in a number of organizations nationally.

According to their website, they have unionized a number of think
tanks including the Center for American Progress, New America United,
both public policy think tanks, and Bend the Arc, a Jewish progressive
organization.

Other groups represented by the union include the Brookings
Institution, ACLU, Center for American Progress, National Immigration
Law Center, National Center for Transgender Equality, Food and Water
Watch and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Museums like the Chicago art institute, The Lower East Side Tenement
Museum in New York City as well as the  New York City Planned
Parenthood have unionized too, noted Todd Vachon, an assistant
professor of  labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers
University.

Actually, it’s surprising that many nonprofits haven’t organized
sooner, given the type of employees they attract.

Social action or human services careers frequently draw, young, highly
educated and idealistic people who are looking for a job that has some
greater meaning.

“The people that get into this are really passionate about the work
that they do,” said Vachon. 

One turning point may have been the pandemic, which not only caused
temporary shutdowns but also prompted people to rethink relationships
with their employers.

Workers in some social service groups were unhappy with how health and
safety protocols were enacted during the pandemic. That’s especially
important for human services agencies whose employees deal
face-to-face with clients who may be homeless or facing personal
issues that endanger their health.

“When COVID set in, a lot of folks didn’t have a union and were
not pleased with the way management handled health and safety in the
workplace,” Vachon noted.

“These are everyday workers who went in and during the pandemic
placed health challenges on themselves,” added Ron Briggs, Capital
Region president at CSEA. “They are starting to see that if they
form something together they are going to be stronger.”

“The pandemic was a disrupter,” explained Creighton.

The money, of course, is also an issue and the current inflation is
hitting non-profit workers both in their pocketbooks and workloads.

“Like my co-workers, I love what I do, but I find the workload and
pay unsustainable,” said Cody Bloomfield, another Capital Roots
employee involved in the organizing effort.

Inflation may be creating a feedback loop for human services
organizations as well.

With higher food and housing costs, more and more families will need
help from groups like Capital Roots or Joseph’s House. That, in
turn, increases the workload on the employees.

As families are in more and more need for economic reasons these
services become more and more essential,” said Briggs. At the same
time, people who work in these organizations may be struggling to
afford healthy food and housing as well.

Managers and top officials at nonprofits aren’t unsympathetic.

Observers have said they don’t push back as hard as managers at
private for-profit firms for a number of reasons.

They may be under fiscal stress but not pressure for ever-increasing
profits, which is what many publicly traded companies demand of their
managers in order to satisfy shareholders.

Nonprofits also are keenly aware of their public profiles and want to
be seen as good employers

“We read your list of concerns and recognize several Board
priorities in them, reflecting on the fact that we have not been able
to make as much progress on some of them as we would like to,”
Capital Roots Board of Directors President Rachel Hye Youn Rupright
wrote in a letter last week to workers about their seeking a union.

“Concerns such as staff turnover, salaries, and COVID fatigue are
front of mind and have been discussed by the Board, as recently as at
our annual Board retreat held last week.”

Union officials say that conciliatory tone is in contrast to how some
private for-profit firms can react when facing unionization efforts.

The letter, said SEIU organizer Sean Collins was “Not a 'yes' but
also not a 'no' either.”

[email protected] 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU_

* Capital Roots
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* Service Employees International Union
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* Civil Service Employees Association
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