* In These Times back in 2021…

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.  […]

For months now, management and the union have been locked in a stalemate over the issue of how many workers will be allowed to be members of the unit. Restricting the size of a proposed unit is a common tactic by employers, who often seek to assert that as many employees as possible are managers or supervisors, and are therefore not eligible to be union members. These sorts of negotiations, though cloaked in legalistic language, are usually more about power than about law — how fiercely management chooses to argue over vague job descriptions comes down to whether they are comfortable working with a staff union, or whether they see it as a priority to make the union as small and weak as possible from the very beginning. 

Fed up with the delays, the ACLU of IL Staff United finally filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board in early October, seeking a resolution. The union had a two-day hearing at the NLRB that concluded on November 1. Though the timeline is not certain, the union expects to get a ruling on the size of its unit soon, and then it can proceed to a formal vote for certification.

* The National Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of the union’s right to hold an election in December of 2021…

[T]he Employer provided only broad assertions to support its claims, and has thus failed to meet its burden to prove that the disputed classifications should be excluded because they are supervisory, managerial, or confidential in nature. Accordingly, I am directing a self-determination election among the petitioned-for appropriate unit of employees, including permitting the professional employees in the unit to first determine whether or not they wish to be included in the same unit with the nonprofessional employees, as set forth below.

* The union claims they have not received raises since 2021…

* Yesterday, the union picketed to demand a contract…

* More…

* Fortune | ACLU, a big defender of free speech, illegally fired worker for complaining about working conditions, labor board says: The discharged employee had been “concertedly complaining” about wages, hours, and working conditions “throughout 2020, 2021, and until about May 2022,” according to the filing, which was issued in March by an NLRB regional director on behalf of the labor board’s general counsel, and obtained by Bloomberg News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

* Law 360 | Illinois ACLU Staff Can Vote To Join Atty Union, NLRB Official Says: A National Labor Relations Board official ordered a representation election at an Illinois ACLU-affiliated organization in which attorneys and other staff members will vote on whether to be represented by a United Auto Workers-affiliated union.

* Law & Crime | ACLU Accused of ‘Union Busting’ by Hiring ‘Anti-Union’ Law Firm [Ogletree Deakins] Over Labor Dispute: Workers and labor organizers at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kansas have met resistance from the affiliate’s executive director Nadine Johnson after reportedly obtaining majority support for a union there–accusing the storied civil liberties organization of “union busting” over a series of procedural moves apparently aimed at slowing down the union recognition process.