Nearly 20 organizers, researchers and administrative staffers at ACRE (Action Center on Race & the Economy) announced Monday that they are unionizing with the Chicago News Guild Local 34071. The ACRE Workers Union will represent staff across multiple U.S. cities.
Their concerns include “urgent gender pay equity issues” and “evaluation procedures that are punitive and lack consistency in application.”
“We believe the organization’s transgressions are largely caused by lacking systems in place and a unionized staff will help bring about the structure needed for ACRE to fulfill its overall mission,” they wrote in a Mission Statement. ACRE has rapidly grown since it was established five years ago.
“Our union will work toward an ACRE where staff are fully resourced to perform our work to support the movement and our communities, develop professionally, and care for ourselves as whole people. We deeply care about ACRE and are ready to put in the work to make it the organization we dream for it to be.”
“Our primarily Black and Brown union is equally diverse in the professional backgrounds we come from, and our collective expertise greatly enhances our organization’s contributions to the movement. We appreciate the challenges that come from a fairly nascent organization, especially one that is radical in philosophy and makeup.
In a statement, workers wrote, “ACRE embeds itself in today’s broader leftist movements fighting against oppressive systems in our country and beyond. As an abolitionist organization working to destroy racial capitalism, we are committed to the pursuit of economic and reparative justice for communities of color. The ACRE Workers Union is organizing with the Chicago News Guild to ensure that the anti-capitalist, anti-racist, and anti-patriarchal values we all share are actualized at our workplace.
“Our union will work towards an ACRE where staff are fully resourced to perform our work to support the movement and our communities, develop professionally, and care for ourselves as whole people. We deeply care about ACRE and are ready to put in the work to make it the organization we dream for it to be.”
ACRE serves as “a campaign hub for organizations working at the intersection of racial justice and Wall Street accountability.” “We provide research and communications infrastructure and strategic support for organizations working on campaigns to win structural change by directly taking on the financial elite that are responsible for pillaging communities of color, devastating working-class communities, and harming our environment.”
Follow them on Twitter @ACREworkers.