Why workers at growing number of nonprofits are unionizing

Over his six years at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Esteban Gil watched colleague after colleague leave. Part of it was the nature of the work: helping people in immigrant detention and in prison. It is high-stakes, high-stress work. But there was also something deeply wrong with the way the group operated and the very low pay, he says.

“People burn out and they tire out, and then they leave,” says Gil, a program associate in the group’s criminal-justice-reform division. They didn’t have autonomy in their jobs, he says, and didn’t feel respected. Some folks left for more money, and others left to get away. “We had a problem with mismanagement and toxicity.”

A union, Gil thought, could be the answer, so he and his co-workers decided to form one.

Money was a key issue for staff at the nonprofit, which monitors hate groups and brings lawsuits over civil-rights, immigration, and criminal-justice issues. Jackie Hurst, who works as a bilingual administrative assistant, says that her department, part of the immigrant-justice project, had been chronically understaffed. After taxes and other deductions, Hurst took home just $1,100 for two weeks of work. She earned so little that she lives 54 miles away from the group’s Decatur, Georgia, office, where housing is cheaper. “Our pay was not sustainable,” she says.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is far from alone. Nonprofit cultural institutions, advocacy groups, and social-service organizations have all had employees unionize. That includes big names like the Philadelphia Museum of Art and smaller ones like the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. Even as the economy cools and fears of recession grow, both union organizers and consultants who advise nonprofit leaders on the issue say nonprofit staff are continuing to unionize at...