CWA 1180 - Calendar

Inside an activist contract campaign
Hair 'til it's fair and other creative tactics win workers at Human Rights Watch 31% over 5 years

September 2006

It was last September, more than six months before their contract was set to expire, that Local 1180 members at Human Rights Watch began to plot an ambitious contract campaign that would eventually lead to a strike vote—and historic wage increases. Their brainstorming produced a variety of pressure tactics, such as silent lunches in union T-shirts and a flamboyant “Hair ‘Til Fair” campaign, in which the men in the shop refused to shave until management came up with a fair offer. It also birthed a solid communications system, in which shop stewards sat down with union members and non-union senior staffers to win their support. “

The negotiations were really led by the union leaders in the shop,” says Erin Mahoney, an associate in the Women’s Rights Division who was part of the leadership team, along with Ranee Adipat, Hannah Gaertner, Rachel Good, Alison Lombardo, Jo-Anne Prud’homme, and Keramet Reiter. “We knew the sentiment around the organization and how hard we were willing to fight, and that allowed us to win more.”

Shortly after midnight on June 22, they won a 31 percent pay increase over five years and three months and a 28.4 percent increase in minimum starting salaries. The raises, heavily weighted toward the first year, brought entry level pay for an associate, a skilled position requiring a Bachelor’s degree, from about $29,500 to $33,000 as of April 1, 2006, with comparable gains for the receptionist and mail room manager. The union also won 75 percent health coverage for those working at least half time and an agreement to bring current part-timers up to 60 percent time with full benefits. “Before I was paying $250 a month for health insurance,” says Elizabeth Siegel, a part-time associate in the Children’s Rights Division. “Now my health care is free. Combined with the raise, that’s about $5,000 more a year in take-home pay.”

Careful preparation
The shop stewards began by seeking out advice from staffers who helped negotiate the last contract, in 2003. They conducted surveys to find out how much unionized staffers spent on rent, bills, and student loan payments in relation to their take-home pay. They worked with a researcher at the national
office of CWA to create charts comparing their pay to equivalent jobs tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and to pay at other nonprofit groups— finding, for example, that they worked longer hours and earned far less than their counterparts at Human Rights First, another Local 1180 shop.

They analyzed Human Rights Watch’s tax returns and fundraising to assess the organization’s financial health. And they decided to fight for a major wage increase. “The research helped us win support for our wage demands throughout the organization,” says Mahoney, “and that helped the morale of our members.”

Escalating actions
The campaign began before negotiations did, with members sporting union buttons. On day one of bargaining, everyone in the shop sat down for a silent lunch at a public table, wearing red CWA shirts. They lined up outside of negotiating sessions holding signs. Leaflets went up in cubicles reading “Fair
Contract for Unionized Staff,” and for their non-unionized supervisors, “I Support the Staff Who Support Me.” They plastered the union bulletin board with testimonials about how hard it is to live on $1,800 a month in take-home pay. They also rounded up letters of support from other nonprofits.

“Once we identified that we wanted a substantial wage increase, the conversation turned to how we were going to get it,” says Local 1180 vice-president Bill Henning, who advised the bargaining team. “To their credit, the members devised all kinds of creative schemes to force management to
pay attention.”

A strike vote
When, after several days of negotiating, management walked away from the table, saying they would not meet again until the union dropped its wage demand, the shop gathered to debate what to do. “We had a meeting at my house, and since the elevator was broken, people had to walk up 14 flights of
stairs,” recalls Mahoney. “But we had almost 100 percent turnout.”

They voted to try a sick out but learned that such an action was not legally protected. The men in the shop began “Hair ‘Til Fair.” They all worked to rule, going home at exactly 6 p.m. Then, on May 8, came a strike vote. It was nearly unanimous.

Soon every member of the shop was assigned to a committee, whether to coordinate community support, media, or picket duty. “The most important aspect of the picket committee was to get in touch with everybody in the office,” says Siegel, who headed the committee. “Each of us took four divisions, and we’d go to the director and the researchers and speak about what we hoped would happen in the negotiations, what would happen if we had to strike. Then we asked them point blank not to cross the picket line if we did. The purpose was to let people know we were serious, but we were working very hard to reach an agreement.”

Shortly after the strike vote, management came back to the table. “As a human rights organization, we depend on our reputation,” says Mahoney, “so the threat of a strike was huge.”

Communications network
During the five weeks management stayed away from the table, maintaining unity in the shop was a challenge. The negotiating team succeeded by scheduling frequent union meetings and instituting a system of one-on-ones that allowed them to meet personally with each member. “It started a month before the contract expired,” says Anna Sinelnikova, an associate in the Europe and Central Asia Division. “Sometimes they’d meet with us three times a week, sometimes once a week. They’d just stop by for 15 minutes, to make sure we were comfortable with what was going on and give us a chance to say anything we might not want to say in front of the whole group.”

Some members expressed concern that a strike would jeopardize Human Rights Watch’s mission. “Hesitations would come out in meetings and we could discuss them,” Mahoney says. “With each action, people got braver, and soon people felt if they had to strike it was as much management’s fault
as anyone’s.”

A winning outcome
In the end, the negotiations moved quickly, and the shop’s tight coordination and solidarity produced significant gains in pay, health care, tuition benefits, and promotion policy. The entire office, management and union alike, celebrated the agreement with champagne. “It’s a great contract,” Sinelnikova says. “Without all the actions, we would have gotten much worse.”

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