CHNY Staff to Join CWA Local 1104, Form Upstate Nonprofit Workers
(Albany, NY) Clean and Healthy New York, an environmental health advocacy organization based in Albany, NY, strongly supports worker rights as integral to fulfilling our mission of building a just and healthy society in which toxic chemicals are unthinkable, and our vision of a clean, safe, and healthy world where all people are free to grow and thrive. Thus, we are pleased to support our non-director staff in their unanimous decision to form the Upstate Nonprofit Workers union as part of Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 1104.
"Labor unions and worker organizing have played vital roles for more than a century in securing safer and healthier workplaces and ensuring a powerful voice for workers. Clean and Healthy New York has partnered with labor and worker organizations throughout our 15 year history, and now, as we grow to meet the urgent need for action to secure a just and healthy society for all, we are proud to walk our talk. We enthusiastically support the formation of the Upstate Nonprofit Workers by CHNY staff. Staff unionization will formalize our ongoing practice of being responsive to staff needs and worker rights," said Bobbi Wilding, CHNY Executive Director. "We encourage staff at other nonprofits to follow suit, and believe that this will benefit our sector - and our movements."
“The CHNY board of directors appreciate the initiative and leadership of our staff workers to forge the Upstate Nonprofit Workers of CWA Local 1104. We deeply believe in the importance of unions and their role in protecting workers, and we are excited to see this movement growing in New York State,” said Penny Fujiko Willgerodt, Chair of CHNY’s Board of Directors.
CHNY staff and Communications Workers of America issued a release from the newly-forming union follows.
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Clean and Healthy New York is an environmental health advocacy organization with a mission to build a just and healthy society in which toxic chemicals are unthinkable. Our work changes laws, shifts markets, and empowers people to advance innovative solutions and create a sustainable economy. Learn more: chny.org
For Immediate Release: November 22, 2021
Contact: upstatenonprofitworkers@gmail.com
CLEAN AND HEALTHY NEW YORK STAFF VOTES
UNANIMOUSLY TO UNIONIZE
ALBANY, N.Y. – 11/22/2021: Clean and Healthy New York staff have presented management with union-authorization cards demonstrating unanimous support for forming the Upstate Nonprofit Workers. Management maintains that it will honor its promise to voluntarily recognize the union. Employees will be represented by CWA 1104 at the bargaining table. Employees cite better wages, worker rights, and oversight of management as key determinants for arriving at a consensus vote. The campaign was launched with the intent to bring in nonprofit workers across the state, regardless of the size of their organization.
Despite all-time highs in charitable giving and several rounds of forgivable Payroll Protection Program loans, small nonprofits continue offering wages uncompetitive with larger nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, and consulting firms. Combined with long hours, high workloads, low pay, and unaccountable management, nonprofit employees spend an inordinate amount of their time dealing with preventable turnover. Unmanageable caseloads at most human service nonprofits compromise critical client services, leaving workers and agencies open to possible liability and communities vulnerable to tragedy. The union also states that higher base pay is necessary to diversify the industry, which has long been dominated by childless employees with little to no debt.
“We, the non-directorial staff of Clean and Healthy New York, are committed to building a just and healthy workplace, with full transparency and accountability between staff and management,” reads the workers’ mission statement. “We are organizing to protect both ourselves and the integrity of our mission. All nonprofit workers are welcome here.”
