Unions and the Nonprofit Sector

by Shruthi Kamisetty

I spent a lot of time this week thinking about unions. I have been following Amazon workers fighting for a union at the corporate behemoth’s Bessemer, Alabama warehouse location. Over the last few months, their fight for a union has gained a lot of traction and national attention. Their fight has been powerful and affirming. 

There has been a dramatic resurgence of unionizing during this pandemic. Breweries, Amazon warehouses, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Non profits, Newsrooms, Big Tech, Hospitals and so many more places have been exercising their constitutional right - to unionize. Oftentimes, workers were met with repression and efforts to undermine their unionizing (which is illegal).

Unionizing is a constitutional right. 

Why has there been an uptick in unionizing over the last year? This Pandemic has brought into the spotlight the horrific and unjust treatment of frontline workers everywhere. Many frontline workers received a lot of praise and performative *claps* but many of those same workers, forced to work in dangerous workplace conditions, did not receive hazard pay, appropriate COVID-19 protections and were considered “at will” employees (employees at the will of the employer). 

Locally, in the Twin Cities, amidst this national resurgence of unionizing, we saw well known coffee shops, breweries, nonprofits and other industries, starting to organize unions regularly, publically and emphatically. 

I have a personal connection to unionizing. I am a non profit worker in my late 20s. I work in the field of community engagement at a nonprofit (Hope Community Inc.) and for a long time have wrestled with the increasing professionalization of community work done by non profits and the unchecked power that private foundations have on the work of nonprofits. In other words, I have become incredibly interested in and invested in understanding the nonprofit industrial complex (NPIC) and how it relates to my work.

‘The Revolution Will Not Be Funded’, a fascinating anthology, describes the NPIC as “a set of symbiotic relationships that link political and financial technologies of state and owning-class control with surveillance over public political ideology, including and especially emergent progressive and leftist social movements.”

2 years ago, my coworkers and I, at a local non profit, started to unionize. We unionized to improve our working conditions at our workplace as well to challenge the repressive effect the NPIC had over our work - work that was deemed progressive, justice focused and with close proximity to social movements.

The unionizing process started with conversations about our experiences working at the organization. We built off of our strong and caring relationships which only got deeper and deeper as we started the union organizing process. We shared how much we made with each other breaking the implicit professional ‘codes of conduct’. We started to gain momentum.

A few of us who had learned more about non profit unions, started to introduce the ideas of unions to coworkers we were in conversation with - not wanting to force the idea on people, but open up space for conversations and potential fears people would have about unionizing. Slowly more and more people warmed to the idea. Most of the frontline workers started to meet and we introduced the group to a labor organizer at the Minnesota Newspapers Guild who helped guide us through the unionizing process. We are now unionized with the Minnesota Newspapers Guild! 

In August of 2020, after a lot of back and forth, we were finally voluntarily recognized by the organization's executive director. We were so excited and relieved to become a union! We had worked so hard on this and the stakes felt high -  we were embarking on a journey, as workers at a non profit, to level the playing field and the power dynamics to make the organization better, ensure our workplace conditions were worker-first and to set an example to other non profits in the city - that unionizing is possible. We were making it clear that in the case of progressive non profits, stated values often did not reflect in the internal structures (example, pay inequity) and processes. And that, THAT needed to be changed urgently. 

Right now, we are going through our first union contract negotiations with the organization. Negotiations are about coming up with terms and conditions of our employment including, but not limited to - pay, benefits, discipline, time off, social media policy etc. This was a lot of hard work by the workers at the organization and we’re looking forward to seeing the rest of the non profit sector organizing themselves. 

Follow our union fight at: Instagram @united4hope, and twitter @unitedforhopeu1

We are excited to see other non profits unionizing - right now we are following the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits fight to unionize. Follow along here - @mcnunion