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The rise of unionizing in the nonprofit sector
September 4, 2024 — Just five years ago, few could have imagined what work would look like today.
Remote work is allowing workplaces to span across entire states, artificial intelligence is turning what used to take a week’s worth of effort into a 10-minute affair, and workers across the country are demanding a shorter work week. With so many changes in such a short time, it should come as no surprise that labor rights are popping into the forefront of Americans’ minds.
As the largest holiday celebrating labor rights, Labor Day finds its roots in an effort to acknowledge workers as they endured tiring and often-dangerous conditions in factories. The holiday was first established federally in 1894 by President Grover Cleveland and has since evolved into a tradition of long weekends, family gatherings and backyard cookouts.
But the struggle for workers’ rights in the United States was not as pleasant as the traditions now applied to its holiday.
Many of the benefits that workers enjoy today were long fought-for through a combination of organized strikes, boycotts and protests. Little of these efforts would have been possible without the creation of one major institution: unions.
In the early labor movement, unions were created to organize large workforces so they could collectively pursue higher wages and better working conditions. They were responsible for pushing many of the labor laws that exist today including the minimum wage, overtime pay and child labor rules. Today, the goals of labor unions are much the same — particularly in the nonprofit sector, where workers face unique challenges.
Nonprofit-specific labor unions appeared to represent nonprofit staff members in collective bargaining. For example, the Progressive Workers Union represents more than 500 nonprofit workers across six different organizations. Its core tenets include promoting democratic decision-making processes, workplace transparency and decentralized work structures.
“The union helps collectively improve working conditions and pay,” said Dawna Knapp, a union steward representing the Sierra Club for the Progressive Workers Union. “On an individual level, we can also provide protections.”
According to Knapp, these protections have become increasingly necessary due to changing priorities across the nonprofit sector.
“There might be a mission creep into a more corporate attitude,” Knapp said. “They want to, essentially, satisfy donors or grant funders.”
This perspective is verified by data from across the sector.
According to a survey of nonprofit leadership in 2022, 74% of participants said their organization was experiencing higher operating costs, and 60% said their current finances were insufficient to accomplish their mission. In nearly all subsectors, from arts and culture to health care, securing funding was one of nonprofit leaderships’ top priorities.
As funding concerns move to the forefront, it is possible that ethical labor practices have fallen out of favor in lieu of financial efficiency.
“Over the past 10 years, one of the most common issues that I see is management trying to take advantage of worker labor by adding more responsibility and tasks and duties to a workload,” Knapp said.
This phenomenon, often called job creep, is a problem that has plagued workforces for decades, leading to increased stress and burnout for employees. The Progressive Workers Union’s solution is to create contracts with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for all nonprofit employees.
“Our contract has a pretty good article on that and it protects workers from excessive workloads,” said Knapp. “It comes with a job description revision and salary.”
This is among the many benefits of a union contract, which also can include terms for mandatory health insurance and paid parental leave benefits. However, while the benefits of unionization are palpable for workers, they often place employees at odds with management who are concerned about how these benefits will impact their organization’s finances.
For this reason, employees looking to organize their workplaces are frequently faced with backlash.
“One of the challenges to starting a union is that it is harder than it looks,” Knapp said. “Just getting to start that conversation and then potentially fight with management to get this done is a process.”
A recent example of this pushback comes from the National Audubon Society — a nonprofit organization that encourages conservation and scientific research of bird habitats.
Its corresponding union, Bird Union, has been locked in contract negotiations with management for more than two years. Audubon Society upper management’s alleged refusal to grant unionized staff the same benefits as non-unionized staff or voluntarily recognize Bird Union has been publicly criticized as “union busting”: a practice where employers attempt to disincentivize unionization among their employees.
“It happens all over the nonprofit industry,” Knapp says. “They’re just breeding bad will rather than encouraging good will. There’s a lot of mistrust, which is hard to rebuild.”
However, despite the pushback they so often face, research shows that public opinion towards unions is changing. A Gallup survey found that 71% of Americans approved of labor unions in 2020 — up from a low 48% just 10 years earlier.
The nonprofit sector is no exception to this trend, as unionization increases in frequency across the country.
For nonprofit workers who want to take the first step in organizing their workplace, the process starts with contacting their coworkers.
“A sincere listening tour is a really good place to start with your coworkers,” Knapp said. “Start saying, ‘Hey, do you have any issues that you’re facing? Is there anything that’s going on in your workday that you wish could be improved?’”
The next step is to contact the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election. A union is elected if the majority of employees in the workplace vote to be represented by a union or the employer is willing to voluntarily recognize the union. From there, negotiations over the new union contract and terms of employment can begin.
While the process has few steps on paper, in reality, it can be a yearslong effort. Many large organizations like the Progressive Workers Union offer access to an external organizing committee to aid in the process. However, Knapp says workers should still be ready for setbacks along the way.
“I think we need to be prepared when we’re starting out a unionization effort,” said Knapp. “Just have the strength of self to be like, ‘This wasn’t personal — I did a great job. I need to make some tweaks and get back out there.’”
Image: Volunteers constructing a Pause and Play setup for the ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Story by Lillian Finley, ASU Lodestar Center
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