The staff union and management are locked in a battle over who can be included in the union.
By Hamilton Nolan, In These Times
A union fight that is playing out in Illinois highlights how progressive organizations can use technical objections to the scope of a proposed union to effectively pursue union-busting while maintaining plausible deniability that they are doing so. This effort to have it both ways makes sense when you consider where this labor battle is happening: at the ACLU.
The past two years has been a landmark one for unionization at the ACLU, part of the broader, ongoing wave of nonprofit organizing. As the pandemic raged in 2020, workers at several ACLU state branches unionized – including in Kansas, where the staff faced a corporate-style anti-union campaign. In January of 2021 about 300 staffers nationwide formed the civil liberties group’s largest staff union, called ACLU Staff United. In subsequent months, more state ACLU staffs across the country have successfully unionized, and ACLU staff union drives are underway in other states, like Virginia and Illinois*. Workers have vowed to continue until they have successfully unionized every state office.

Though common sense might tell you that an organization that proudly declares that it “has championed the right of workers to organize unions since its inception more than 90 years ago” would be an easy place to unionize, that has not been completely true. While most of the union drives at the ACLU have secured voluntary recognition from management — a necessary baseline for any employer to be considered pro-union — that has not been the case in Illinois. In late June, workers there asked management to recognize their staff union, part of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers. More than five months later, they are still waiting.
Recent Posts
Report Details Private Equity’s Stranglehold On US Healthcare
March 27, 2023
Take Action Now “The damage that private equity has wrought on Americans’ healthcare from cradle to grave, simply for profit, has become…
20 Years Later: Confessions Of A Conscientious Quitter
March 27, 2023
Take Action Now Like so many Americans, I was a victim of sadistic marketing that pushed me to believe that becoming a Marine was the best and most…
Here’s What To Know About The United Nations’ IPCC Reports
March 27, 2023
Take Action Now The IPCC might be the most used acronym in climate science. The scientists behind the influential IPCC report discuss what it is and…
We Don’t Have To Choose Between Nuclear Madmen
March 27, 2023
Take Action Now The madness has remained resolutely bipartisan. Joe Biden quickly dashed hopes that he would be a more enlightened president about…