Letter of Support

Dear Colleagues,

We are — each and every one of us — what makes Child Trends a great place to work. Everyday, leaders read and absorb our research and use it to improve the lives of children and families across the country. We believe our thoughts on how to improve our own workplace should garner that same level of attention from Child Trends leadership.

Our leadership says that "Child Trends is a great place to work because of our people." We wholeheartedly agree. Today, we write to you as Child Trends Workers United (CTWU), a union which has achieved majority support from non-management staff. We believe that we have the knowledge and capabilities to not only ensure that Child Trends remains a great place to work, but that it becomes an even better place to work.

In recent years, our field has seen a swell of unionization efforts. Today, we join our unionized colleagues from the Urban Institute, MDRC, the Center for American Progress, and the Brookings Institute. While our colleagues have organization-specific issues that their unions address, they were all inspired to unionize based on some research-backed facts: Unionized employees earn higher wages, they have better working conditions, and they experience lower pay disparities based on gender, race, ethnicity, and disability status. Additionally, unions allow non-management staff a genuine say in shaping their workplace. Our reasons for unionizing are also rooted in these facts.

Our current system of organizational policy creation and wage and benefits negotiation is one in which only a select few among our leadership team have consistent input. We believe that this system runs counter to Child Trends' goal of ensuring equitable, inclusive input from all members of our diverse staff. As our union will represent the full diversity of Child Trends staff, we will ensure that our BIPOC, queer, and disabled colleagues not only have their opinions heard, but are able to see their ideas enacted across the organization.

As a union, we will:

1. Advocate for the development of institutional processes that reduce top-down decision making and increase staff members’ influence on the development or revision of organizational policies that directly impact our workforce
2. Uplift our unified voice in the workplace by fostering a shared sense of identity and personal ownership of our union by actively engaging union membership in shared decision making and providing regular opportunities to form meaningful relationships with other union members
3. Advocate for increased benefits, such as expanded parental leave policies that match our own (research-backed) best recommendations, expanded sick leave policies, tiered health care premiums, and more equitable professional development funding
4. Demand increased accountability for staff that are known to cause both interpersonal and professional problems in the workplace by developing a more concrete structure for remediation and consequence, involving union leadership

We ask that Child Trends leadership respect our legal right to organize a union without intimidation and voluntarily recognize our union. Our more senior colleagues are also encouraged to voice their support if they so choose.

Sincerely,