Frequently Asked Questions

The What

• What is a union?
• Why AFSCME?
• Who is leading the unionizing effort?
• What is the difference between the staff council and a union?
• What is collective bargaining and how does it work?

Why are we organizing?

• Why organize a union?
• Have other organizations like our unionized?
• What have unions achieved for our peer organizations?
• What are examples of changes following unionization?

How does the process of establishing a union work?

• What part of the process are we in?
• Who is included in our bargaining unit and eligible for our union?
• How did we determine there was interest in forming a union?
• Why haven’t I heard about this effort prior to Natalia’s email?
• Will I face retaliation if I join the union?

How does bargaining work?

• What is up for negotiation?
• What are the union’s priorities?
• How realistic are the priorities given Child Trend’s structure and budget?
• What are some of the priorities that have been shared?
• Will I have to strike?

How will our union work?

• How might shared decision making work?
• How does a union work towards a more concrete structure for remediation and consequence?
• What about dues?

Next steps

• How can I help?

Defining Key Terms

The What

What is a Union?

A union is you and your coworkers coming together to have a say in your workplace. By forming a union you will have a chance to create more accountability and transparency in the workplace through democracy and participation. By having a union, you equalize the power dynamics at work and have the tools, training and resources to negotiate with your pay, benefits and working conditions through collective bargaining. Unions are inherently democratic entities. All Child Trends workers who are eligible for the union have an opportunity to elect peers to lead the union.

Why AFSCME? 

When the organizing committee chose a union to work with, they sought one that would provide Child Trends workers with many tools and resources to help us build a strong union. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is one of the largest unions in the country with 1.4 million members. They have traditionally organized public sector and adjacent workers. We are excited to work with AFSCME to help improve the social policy sector.

Joining AFSCME gave us the chance to form our own local: Child Trends Workers United (CTWU). Locals are like nonprofit organizations that govern individual union shops or chapters. As our own local, we get to write the bylaws that govern our local, set the structure for our local, and choose our executive board members. Our union (CTWU) will truly be our organization.

Part of organizing with AFSCME means that we also have the expertise from the International Union which spans the country. We can always get the support we need. The International Union has a Research and Collective Bargaining Department and Federal Government Affairs Department

Who is leading the unionizing effort?

This initiative is not led by any one individual. Rather, it is an open “committee” composed of eligible Child Trends staff that has revolving members, ranging from roughly 15-25 active members at any given point in time. Anyone in the bargaining unit is welcome to join in whatever capacity they are able. Additionally, this is fully directed by Child Trends staff, with AFSCME representatives acting as mentors and providing guidance throughout the process. We are always excited to have even more colleagues involved.

What is the difference between the staff council and a union?

While we appreciate the Staff Council’s role with regards to its ability to communicate staff needs directly to management, the power of the Staff Council stops there. Management is under no obligation to follow up on any concerns brought up by Staff Council, and under no obligation to implement any suggestions made by Staff Council. Forming a union with an organization like AFSCME brings the support of its 1.4 million members nationwide and allows us to legally exercise our right to collective bargaining. Child Trends leadership will have a legal obligation to bargain with us over the wages, benefits, and working conditions we care about- that’s what’s different in a union. Staff Council is not a legal entity, and management is under no obligation to maintain Staff Council should they see fit to end it. Unfortunately, Staff Council does not reduce top-down decision-making but rather provides counsel to management regarding decision-making that impacts staff. Many members of the Staff Council are also union supporters!  

What is collective bargaining, and how does it work?

Collective bargaining is the process by which employees in unions and their employers come together to negotiate the terms and conditions in work, including pay, benefits and working conditions. The terms agreed to through bargaining are solidified in a collective bargaining agreement or what’s commonly called a union contract. This agreement is a legally enforceable contract between the union and employer. Workers’ current pay and benefits form the starting point for the contract. Before bargaining begins, CTWU will survey our members in a bargaining survey to understand the issues our members care about and determine our priorities for bargaining. Members of the union elect coworkers to our  bargaining team to represent us in the bargaining process, and will vote to approve the contract once it is negotiated. Throughout the bargaining process there will also be meetings to share back updates from bargaining and solicit feedback from members on progress and language.

Negotiations can include anything that affects the conditions of your employment. Management is legally obligated to bargain on certain topics such as wages, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment. Many unions also bargain on other important topics such as racial equity, professional development, and workplace democracy.

Members identify which issues are most important to them and areas that have broad consensus and the highest impact on our experience at work are often prioritized in bargaining. that need improvement are often prioritized in bargaining. The organizing committee has been learning about workers’ concerns and they will field a bargaining survey to systematically capture and prioritize the concerns of all members. After Management and  our bargaining  team come to a Tentative Agreement (the TA) members will vote to accept or reject it. If approved by the members, it will go into effect, and if rejected the bargaining team will work with members to address their concerns to take back to management and continue negotiations.

Why are we organizing?

Why organize a union?

Discussions around unionization at Child Trends have been happening for nearly four years with a small group of coworkers. As we observed our peer organizations (Urban Institute, MDRC, the Center for American Progress, and the Brookings Institute) win their unions and first contracts. 

Many staff are motivated because there is a lot we already like about working at Child Trends—flexible work schedules, remote work, retirement benefits, PD funds, annual leave policies—and we want to protect those things in a contract. We think this will help our organization in the long run, and improve staff retention— we see unionization as something we’re doing for the betterment and protection of all of us. Individual staff may all have different reasons for unionizing, but the overall goal is to come together to solve organization-wide problems in the most democratic way possible, alongside management. Staff would like to feel more enfranchised in the workplace.

Staff have also a number of items they would like to advocate for, including improving benefits and professional development opportunities, job security, providing support for staff during COVID, paid parental leave policies, annual raise amounts, revising promotion process, having a democratic voice in our workplace, and creating a more equitable, humane workforce.

Through collective bargaining, we are able to contractually lock in everything that we currently like about our benefits and pay. With a contract in place, management is unable to make any changes to our benefits and compensations without union approval. As one example, our healthcare plans have changed in recent years, with prices for deductibles increasing. In the future, if a union were in place, management would not be allowed to change our healthcare plan without bargaining with our union. Currently, our handbook says that they can change our benefits at will—a union contract could prevent this from happening unilaterally. Similarly, in an all staff meeting earlier this year, HR mentioned possibly needing to ask staff to reduce FTE due to under coverage but giving them “a 2-month notice”. Having a union contract, we could put into place something called “impact bargaining”— essentially, bargaining over the effects of this proposed change, how it would be carried out, and who would be impacted.

Our formal priorities will be determined through a bargaining survey which will be collected and tabulated. Union members will be able to complete surveys. We will also be nominating a bargaining team who will serve as representatives to our unit at the negotiating table along with AFSCME representatives.

Have other organizations like ours unionized? 

YES! There is a growing curiosity and shift towards unionizing nationally and globally. Many nonprofits, policy think tanks, and research organizations in public and private sectors have unions! These include the Center for American Progress (CAP), Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Brennan Center, and the list is growing! The Urban Institute received voluntary recognition of their union in May 2021, and employees at Brookings asked for recognition this spring. Below is a table of some orgs, their union sites, and their union socials. You can also find more on the NPEU site here as well as news of agreements and voluntary recognitions achieved as recently as Dec. 2, 2024.

What have unions achieved for our peer organizations?

Unions have won a lot for their members and organizations at large. Research shows unions serve families, the economy, and democracy at large. Additionally, unions at organizations are able to solidify existing policies while also introducing new wins—some examples of what unions at other social policy research orgs are listed below. You can also  see additional examples here from the Center for American Progress’s wins and the National Women's Law Center contract. 

• Higher salaries at every level band
• Guaranteed annual raise amounts
• Wage floors
• 80 hours of COVID-specific leave
• Additional parental and bereavement leave
• Revamped promotion processes
• Procedures to limit overtime work
• Reduced hours every Friday
• Minimum of 4-weeks severance pay, including healthcare

What are example changes following unionizing?

Two changes that would immediately happen is that Child Trends would not be allowed to change our working conditions without first negotiating with us as a union. Once our union is certified, Child Trends would not be able to change your health plan, remote work status, etc. and any proposed changes from Child Trends would have to be negotiated with us as a union first. The other immediate change is that everyone in the union would be granted Weingarten Rights. These rights mean that union workers have the right to union representation during all meetings or discussions with supervisors or managers that the worker reasonably believes might lead to discipline. These meetings or discussions include discussions in offices, over the phone, and even outside of work-facilities. This added level of protection is another reason some of us are excited about organizing.

How does the process of establishing a union work?

What part of the process are we in?

As of December 9th, there is an upcoming hearing scheduled for December 12th. All other future dates are yet to be determined by the NLRB, but a rough calendar with more information has been provided below:

Who is included in our bargaining unit and eligible for our union?

We will be working with a National Labor Relations Board agent, representatives from Child Trends, and representatives from AFSCME to solidify who is in our bargaining unit and eligible to be in our union, but our position has been that everyone at Level 5b and below should be included in our bargaining unit. The reason we used this definition is because at Child Trends, policy is that one has to be a level 6 to bring in new work and therefore, money. This means that those at level 6 and above have a unique power to shape program areas and who gets to be on the projects during proposal stages as PIs.

We don’t yet know if there are any differences in our bargaining unit lists, as Child Trends listed Level 5b and below on their petition and proposed a very similar number of eligible employees. We will discuss the bargaining unit as part of an initial meeting with the National Labor Relations Board, Child Trends representative, and AFSCME representatives on December 12th, where we will discuss the parameters of who is included. We’ll know more after that initial meeting.

Once the National Labor Relations Board agent determines eligibility and finalizes our bargaining unit, they will then move on to determining election dates.

Of note, there is an older rule in the National Labor Relations Act thatrequires “professional” employees to vote to be in the same bargaining unit as “non-professional” employees. Essentially, if you are a “professional” employee (i.e., research staff) you will vote twice—once to be in the same unit as “non-professional” employees (i.e., administrative staff), and once to vote yes for your union. It has been incredibly important to Child Trends staff that both research and non-research staff be included.  We recognize the burden non-research staff take on to support our budget, contract, proposal, and professional needs.

Here is the list of job titles that Child Trends considers to be “nonprofessional”.

How did we determine there was interest in forming a union?

Our union began with conversations between coworkers around shared issues and visions for investing in our workplace and Child Trends community. We began having conversations with more coworkers, sharing information, discussing areas of collective interest, and building support from across our organization for the union. Once a strong majority of staff indicated support for our union by signing a membership card, we were able to file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB will oversee our union election process, and once we have won our union election our union will be certified and we will begin the process of negotiating with our employer on behalf of all eligible staff. 

Why haven’t I heard about this effort prior to Natalia’s email?

With a virtual workforce, we don’t have space to naturally have these sorts of conversations that could otherwise happen around a water cooler, so the movement formed organically and has taken some time. It was never the intent to leave anyone out of these conversations, but we have relied on personal networks as we wanted to keep these conversations outside of work meetings. With a majority of eligible bargaining unit staff on our public letter, we have had even more support—not every staff member who is in support felt comfortable using their name publicly. If you would like to get involved, have a 1-1 conversation, or help us build our union, we wholeheartedly welcome the help! We are a group of volunteer coworkers who are interested in making our workplace even better. A huge reason for the effort is because of our commitment to Child Trends, our colleagues, and our work. 

Will I face retaliation if I join the union?

Under the National Labor Relations Act, you have a legal right to organize. It’s illegal for an employer to retaliate against an employee for joining a union or participating in union activities. Of course, some employers break these laws. Through AFSCME, our parent union, CTWU members have access to expert staff and attorneys who will defend the rights of any worker who was punished for participating in union activities. If you are concerned about your retaliation or want to know more about your rights, reach out to your organizing committee member or send us an email at ctworkersunited@gmail.com. The best way to ensure retaliation doesn’t happen is for us to stand strong together as a union.

How does bargaining work?

What is up for negotiation?

During the bargaining process, our bargaining priorities regarding our wages, benefits, and working conditions will be determined through a bargaining survey sent to our members. Bargaining team members will be nominated by fellow union members and will determine the language of our contract proposals, with support from AFSCME staff. There is nothing concrete that we are refusing to negotiate or compromise on because bargaining hasn’t started, and ultimately, we as union members will determine what those items may be. If you are interested in learning more about what’s generally on the table, this link provides a high-level overview of what can be negotiated during bargaining.

What are the union’s priorities?

We would love to hear from more coworkers about things that are important to them and make sure all of us have a voice in our union! Our priorities are determined by our members, and will be determined via a bargaining survey sent to our members. 

Some of the issues many of us care about are solidifying democratic decision-making processes and enshrining benefits we like about Child Trends (e.g., flexible work schedules, remote work, retirement benefits, PD funds, annual leave policies); job security; providing support for staff during COVID; paid parental leave policies; annual raise amounts; revising promotion process; having a democratic work environment; and creating a more equitable, humane workforce. 

Many staff have also raised the ways healthcare plans have changed in recent years, leading to increased deductibles for many. Staff have proposed alternatives such as tiered plans and deductibles so no one is paying more than 10% of their income on health care. In addition, our chance to select an HMO plan was eliminated this past year. If a union were in place, changes to our healthcare plans would be a negotiated item during bargaining. As it stands now, our handbook says that Child Trends can change our benefits at will; a union contract could prevent this from happening unilaterally.

How realistic are the priorities given Child Trend’s structure and budget?

Once we are certified as a union and submit a demand to bargain, we will be able to request more financial information about Child Trends to better understand the organization's finances and current budget priorities. The financial information we receive will inform our contract proposals to management and how we think about our bargaining priorities. Unionizing will give us more access to financial information to better understand any limitations in place, and those limitations will not be ignored during bargaining. We all have an interest in making sure Child Trends is successful. Helping to prioritize what will recruit and retain staff benefits us all.

What are some of the priorities that have been shared?

• Parental leave: Information specific to parental leave can be found in this 2023 Child Trends brief, which ultimately recommends “at least 12 weeks” of job protected leave. 
• Sick leave: Staff have also brought up a desire to develop a contribution system for the sick leave bank where staff with unused leave that would otherwise be wasted could be donated to the pre-existing communal leave bank. This could create a long-term leave bank for our colleagues that have serious medical issues. In contrast, the current ad-hoc leave-bank purely exists through donations of annual leave. We could also consider requesting a set number of hours/funds to pad the emergency leave bank. Staff have brought up a desire to consider developing a special leave benefit for those who suffer from natural disasters, as we see the increasing effects of climate change impacting our staff (the most recent example being Hurricane Helene). Again, our exact bargaining priorities will be determined by our members via a bargaining survey and info sessions, but these are some of the initial issues and ideas many of us are excited to be able to bargain over. 
• Healthcare premiums: Here is a short 2-pager about tiered healthcare premiums. An analysis of the relative cost burden to staff was run a couple of years ago; it found that the staff with the highest plan burden at the time could be paying 17% of their salary to healthcare premiums, while multiple levels of the highest paid staff were paying a mere 1% of their salary to healthcare. The federal government defines a high medical premium burden as when a household's premium costs are at least 10% of their income (excluding health care costs). We’d like the opportunity to be able to bargain over our healthcare premiums and have a voice in what our benefits look like and how they impact staff across Child Trends. 
• Professional Development (PD) funding: Junior staff have noted that their limited funding pool makes it difficult to pursue important professional development opportunities like attending conferences unless they are able to attend on project funds, which may not be possible for all staff. While we enjoy our current PD benefits and would like to lock them in via contract, we also plan to discuss ways to support professional development opportunities for all staff.  One idea might be having a special benefit to help cover conference attendance costs for staff that have less PD funding or to simply increase the PD limits for junior staff. Again, all of this is up for discussion, but it has been a common theme in conversations with junior staff.

Will I have to strike?

No one will ever force you to strike, and the vast majority contracts are resolved without a strike. Strikes are extremely rare. The decision to strike would be made democratically by you and your workers, and would require an XX% majority to pass.  If most workers do not want to strike, there won’t be a strike. It’s that simple. Additionally, strikes only occur after lots of other union activity and escalation, and would be something we would all get to weigh in on and discuss together. 

How will our union work?

How might shared decision making work?

Great question! This will happen in a few key ways. First, unions are democratic, member-run organizations—the decisions we make as a union will be made by our members, and everyone in the bargaining unit is welcome to join and participate in our union. 

We will determine our bargaining priorities through a bargaining survey, which union members will be asked to complete. A group of our coworkers will be nominated to serve as representatives on a bargaining team with an AFSCME representative, and any CTWU member will be able to be nominated. Once we have secured a tentative agreement (aka a draft of our first contract that both our CTWU bargaining team and Child Trends leadership have reached an agreement on), all CTWU union members will get to vote on the agreement. Upon passing, that agreement will become our union contract.

There will be lots of different ways to participate in our union: from the bargaining team, to being trained as a shop steward to help represent our coworkers, to participating in issue-specific committees (e.g., a health and safety committee). Our union is what we make of it, and the more people who are involved, the better and stronger we will be. 

What exactly these structures will look like will be determined through group discussion as well! AFSCME is here to help provide us with a framework for success for our union, but the final structure and decision-making is up to us, Child Trends staff. We make our union!

How does a union work towards a more concrete structure for remediation and consequence?

When workers form unions, they become more effective partners. Labor-management committees and other union institutions enhance communication and cooperation and enable the free exchange of ideas and perspectives between staff and management. LMCs are one place where our union and Child Trends can take on issues and solve problems together. Likewise, union-represented workplaces are more stable, with less turnover and better working conditions, which improves their ability to attract and retain talented staff. With a union in place, we’ll be able to play a greater role in helping inform our workplace culture. 

Union contracts often include just cause protections—meaning you cannot be terminated without cause—and progressive discipline, which means discipline would almost always start at the lowest possible level, would follow a clear and documented process, and would reduce favoritism. Almost all union contracts also include a grievance process and arbitration procedure, where we can work to resolve workplace disputes over the implementation of discipline or our contract with a neutral third party. 

What about dues?

No one will pay any dues until we have negotiated a contract that has been approved by members and ratified via a vote. It typically takes about a year to negotiate a first contract. Becoming a union is a marathon—not a sprint—so we appreciate your patience and continued support as we follow NLRB timelines and navigate this process.

Dues help us run and manage our union. The two most important things you can do to build our union are to get involved and to pay dues. Our dues ensure we have legal resources and support from AFSCME lawyers, union representatives to help us navigate any grievances and discipline in the workplace, researchers and contract negotiators to help us develop strong contract language and bargain our contract, trainings to ensure we know how to run our union, resources to support our members in arbitration, and more. 

Next steps

How can I help?

You can help by signing a membership card, taking a photo, and sharing a quote about why you’re excited to be part of our union, staying informed, and communicating with the organizing committee. If you would like to sign a membership card, reach out to anybody on the organizing committee and they can explain the process to you. You can also join our organizing committee, and help us reach out to coworkers to share information about the next steps in this process.  We want to strive for inclusive and diverse representation in our union because it makes us stronger. 

Defining Key Terms

AFL-CIO: The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a federation of more than 50 labor unions in the United States, representing more than 9 million American workers.

Bargaining Unit: A group of employees in a given workplace that has sufficient commonality of interest to constitute a unit for purposes of collective bargaining. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) or similar federal, state or local agency usually defines a bargaining unit. 

Certification: Official recognition by the National Labor Relations Board that an employee organization is the exclusive representative for all the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit for the purpose of collective bargaining. An employer is required by law to bargain in good faith with a certified exclusive representative. 

Collective Bargaining: A method of determining terms and conditions of employment through negotiation between representatives of the employer and the union representing employees. 

Collective Bargaining Agreement, or Contract: A formal written agreement over wages, hours and conditions of employment entered into by an employer and the union representing the employees in the bargaining unit.

Duty of Fair Representation: The union’s obligation, as the exclusive bargaining representative of a group of employees, to represent fairly all employees in the bargaining unit in grievance handling as well as contract negotiations.

Labor Board: Quasi-judicial agency set up under national or state labor relations acts. Its duties include defining appropriate bargaining units, conducting elections to determine if workers want union representation, certifying unions to represent employees, and hearing and adjudicating complaints by either the union or the employer charging unfair labor practices.

Shop Steward: Members of our union who are trained in the language of our contract and in how to represent coworkers in any potentially disciplinary meetings with management. Shop stewards are also trained in how to file grievances. Stewards are the experts in representing coworkers and enforcing the language of our contract in our workplace.

Unfair Labor Practice: An employer or union practice forbidden by the National Labor Relations Board It often involves the employer’s efforts to avoid bargaining in good faith or avoid the certification of a union at their workplace. Other examples may include management’s failure to provide relevant information the union has requested for either bargaining or grievance settlements or arbitration awards.During the organizing phase, unfair labor practices include saying that bargaining will start from scratch, threatening layoffs, or promising benefits, pay increases, or promotions to influence people to oppose the union.