Frequently Asked Questions

Why Organize?

We are working to build a safe and equitable workplace guided by and held accountable to a commitment to justice, transparency, and security for all employees of our organization, to ensure fair and transparent practices and procedures, to provide a safe collective voice to raise concerns without fear of and with protection against retaliation, and to protect and support our most vulnerable employees.

We believe in the structural change that can be supported by collective employee action:

• A system of fair and equal distribution of resources, knowledge, rights, and privileges, both across and within departments, can uplift employees and fuel collaboration between coworkers.
• More standardized practices will help all employees, especially those most vulnerable.
• Our staff possess an abundance of knowledge resources that can be elevated and strengthened to improve the organization’s practices and policies.
• Distributing decision-making can help empower staff and build a culture of long-term dedication that will encourage staff retention.

Why a Union?

The union will be a space that increases employee power and provides a structure for raising concerns without fear of and with protection against retaliation. This will create stability, consistency, and protection for employees in the agency, allowing us to better serve our communities. 

A union will establish a channel through which employees can not only voice their concerns, but create a structure for accountability from all management to respond to those concerns in a timely fashion. Ad hoc processes are unsustainable when attempting to address multiple, recurring, and interrelated issues. We want to ensure the provision of proper training, orientation, and resources at the organization that can meaningfully support and empower our diverse staff including staff of color, staff and managers from non-traditional planning backgrounds, and new managers with an emphasis on internal promotions. Without establishing more standardization and transparency, we risk falling short of our commitments to our most vulnerable employees, or losing employees to opportunities elsewhere.

Through a union, we will work to establish more predictable ways for leadership and staff to engage in conflict resolution, limiting miscommunications and the potential for poor outcomes.

Why Now?

Our collective experiences urgently tell us that further changes to support employee well-being can and should be made:

• By taking action now, together, we’re helping to ensure that our processes intentionally include all employee voices, and provide a means of receiving and incorporating everyone’s input.
• The current governor’s administration creates a supportive political environment for unionizing.
• Current management and leadership appear open to new ideas to help us rethink practices that aren’t working for us, improve communication channels, and better the agency as a whole.
• The focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion creates an opportune time to elevate those concerns and see real results through tried and true methods championed by unions.