Minneapolis– Last week, workers at local nonprofit The Alliance for Metropolitan Stability announced the formation of an independent union, the Collective Alliance Workers (CAW!). Workers presented a letter to the Board of Directors showing majority support for unionization and requesting voluntary recognition.
The Alliance was formed over 30 years ago to fight urban sprawl and advocate for environmental protections. Over the years, it has grown into a BIPOC-led coalition of community-based organizations and advocacy groups focused on racial justice and equitable development in housing, transit, and small business. Today, the organization’s mission is “to build power across the intersections of geography, race, culture, and issues in the Twin Cities region to eliminate systems of oppression and advance our collective liberation.” Over the past year, staff have voiced growing concerns with management and called for a shift towards more collective organizational leadership.
“Both of my parents, who were immigrants to this country, benefitted greatly from being members of unions in their workplaces” said Owen Duckworth, who has worked at The Alliance for 14 years, and is a co-founder of the Equity in Place coalition. “I’m feeling proud and empowered by being part of this important step to form a union.”
In a statement, the union said: “We are standing up for a workplace where all Alliance staff are treated with dignity and respect. We are unionizing for the future of The Alliance, not just for a more sustainable organization for our members, but for an Alliance strong enough to apply our values internally. We stand by those values: collective power, shared leadership, community expertise, racial justice, intersectionality, intentionality, and abundance.”
A petition calling on the Alliance board of directors to voluntarily recognize the union collected nearly 300 signatures in less than one week. Local movement leader and artist Ricard Levins Morales signed the petition and shared it on social media, saying:
“All workplaces should have a union, run by the workers. Those who work for people’s rights are no exceptions.” Other signers included local and state level elected officials and former Alliance staff members, some of whom noted that grievances have been going back for several years.
On Monday, June 15th, workers will hold a press conference outside The Alliance offices in the Seward neighborhood in South Minneapolis, to deliver the petitions to their board of directors and announce whether the board has decided to recognize the union. If the board refuses, union members have prepared signed union pledge cards and will be filing them with the National Labor Relations Board.
“Being a collective is not about semantics, it’s about having a strong and clear commitment to break away from patterns that produce the same systemic outcomes our movements operate under: scarcity, displacement, eviction, abuse,” said Ricardo Perez, a coalition organizer on staff at The Alliance who organizes the Blue Line Coalition. “As an immigrant, artist, organizer and family person I am so proud to take these actions knowing that change, abundance and joy can be a part of the work we do.”
Collective Alliance Workers - CAW! 