“There was frustration and an unwillingness to accept what we believed to be unacceptable,” said SPLC Union Organizer Danielle Davis. “There was a recognition of the power that we had to change it.”
“We look forward to helping them expose and eradicate the workplace inequities they continue to encounter in their workplace today,” said Organizing Director Bruce Jett. “Together we stand and together we will be victorious!”
The organizing committee has said that it wants to form a strong union that lays a “foundation for a legacy of equal rights, respect and dignity for all workers, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical ability, and national origin.”
“Earlier this year, co-founder Morris Dees and president Richard Cohen left the organization after charges of racism and sexual harassment; it is perhaps unsurprising that the remaining staff sought union protections.”
“If SPLC engaged legal counsel in good faith, and without intention of engaging in any kind of anti-unionization efforts, as implied by their statements, it is hard to believe that SPLC’s leadership and board didn’t realize that engaging this particular law firm would raise red flags among staff.”
“Management’s refusal to voluntarily recognize the union and decision to hire a law firm that specializes in ‘union avoidance strategies’ are counter to SPLC’s values,” the statement said. “The Center cannot truly claim to support workers’ rights, while also hiring a ‘union avoidance’ law firm to prevent its own workers from exercising our right to collective bargaining.”
Going public just days after the 40th anniversary of the Greensboro Massacre, in which Klansmen and Nazis killed five communist labor organizers at a North Carolina public housing complex, the SPLC Union is invoking the legacy of anti-racist workplace organizing in the deeply anti-labor South.
“SPLC continues to see high attrition of talented colleagues – most notably people of color, women and women of color,” the committee said. “Our union is committed to foster a workplace culture where all workers – regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical ability and national origin – can thrive.”
