An organizing campaign that concluded with management voluntarily recognizing the Washington-Baltimore NewsGuild has resulted in the creation of a 36-worker bargaining unit at the Center for Popular Democracy.
The campaign at the progressive nonprofit headquartered in New York began in May. “We quickly collected signed cards from more than two-thirds of the three dozen or so employees in the unit,” said WBNG Organizer Bruce Jett. “An agreement was then reached on bargaining-unit clarification, and a voluntary recognition agreement was signed by both parties July 8.”
“After we presented signed cards from 30 CPD employees seeking union membership,” said Local Representative Rick Ehrmann, “management agreed to our proposal for card-count recognition.” The neutral card-check count was conducted by an arbitrator July 14.
Six of the new bargaining unit’s workers are in the organization’s Dupont Circle office. Thirteen members of the shop are in Brooklyn, and the others are scattered among offices of CPD partners nationwide, including in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit and Minneapolis.
“In partnership with high-impact base-building organizations, organizing alliances, and progressive unions,”populardemocracy.org notes that CPD has “an innovative pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda.”
Current campaign titles indicate goals of Climate Justice, Education Justice, and Housing Justice & Wall Street Accountability. The Fed Up Campaign works toward a reform of the Federal Reserve System while achieving full employment nationwide.