How We Did It: Organizing for Workplace Safety Measures During COVID

Name: Anna Rodriguez

Role: National Women’s Law Center United union bargaining unit member

Pronouns: she/they

Twitter: @nwlcunion

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The National Women’s Law Center workers’ union (NWLC United) recently announced an agreement on workplace safety measures with the Management of the National Women’s Law Center throughout the pandemic. Together, they came to an agreement on stipends, workplace safety, and job protections for workers. The reported main components of the MOU are:

• Stipends: NWLC United was able to secure both one-time and recurring stipends for Unit members through the end of the year in recognition of the increased costs borne by staff during the COVID-19 pandemic and mandatory work from home.

• Protections for term-limited staff:  NWLC United has in our unit several staff who are on term-limited contracts. To help ensure that these unit members were not left without support if their terms ended during the pandemic, we were able to bargain some short-term job protection for these staff. 

• Safety: NWLC United was able to codify in the MOU that no one will be required to work at the NWLC office until vaccines are widely available. 

• Discipline: NWLC United was also able to codify that, in the absence of a CBA grievance process, unit members would have some protection from being penalized due to work-from-home technology-related challenges.

We reached out to Anna Rodriguez, a NWLC United member, to learn more about their process to create the MOU and what other workers can learn from their experience.

Your union recently organized to create a set of workplace agreements between workers and management during the pandemic, known as your COVID Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Can you tell us a bit about what exactly it is and what it entails?

An MOU generally is usually a short-term contract between the employer and the union to address a pressing issue in the workplace, such as a health crisis/pandemic. We are part of NPEU (Nonprofit Professional Employees Union), and we were able to access model contracts and strategy from other organizations that had gone through similar MOU processes. The COVID MOU we bargained for included worker safety procedures, additional stipends to cover the continuing costs of working from home, and assurances that folks wouldn’t be required to come to the office during the pandemic. 

How did this come about and how long was the process? How did your union support you during the process?

This came about because the union saw a need from our members for continued support during the pandemic. We collected a survey [of workers], talked to folks one on one, and found that people were still struggling with the added expenses and other effects of the pandemic. We used a COVID MOU model that was successfully bargained by another organization, and then we edited it to fit our organization. We looked at average costs associated with working from home and the specific costs for folks at our organization, who often have additional childcare responsibilities or live in DC (which is expensive), for example. 

As a part of the bargaining committee for the union, we brought our proposal to Management and had a conversation for several hours, going back and forth, until we came to an agreement with Management. I think we were lucky because there was not much push back during our MOU negotiations and we were happy with the end result. All in all, drafting the MOU took about a month or so and coming to an agreement took about one or two months. An MOU is usually a direct response to something urgent, so we found that as long as we respected each others’ schedules and came to the bargaining table with good faith, the process went fairly smoothly.

We hear from workers whose offices are already calling them back to the office or are beginning to plan their return. What are tips and lessons learned you'd offer other workers who are looking to organize their own COVID MOU, policies, and practices?

Definitely work with a national or local union that can guide you through the process and offer model contracts to work from. NPEU was an incredible resource to us. They gave us model language, provided training, and came to bargaining sessions to answer questions or support us as needed. 

It’s also super important to stay organized. We were sending draft contracts back and forth, with redlines, comments, edits, etc., and it was super helpful to have a way to organize everything and keep each other accountable. It’s also a good idea to have standing bargaining meetings set up between the union and management since it can get hard to get on people’s schedules when things at work start to pile up.

Another tip: always keep your membership in the loop. It was great to share wins and challenges with our unit and it really grounded us as we went into bargaining. We also got some great narratives that colored the way that we went into bargaining; stories from employees that demonstrated why management had to continue to support workers during the pandemic.

This seems like a big organizing feat! What did you find most challenging about the process?

Staying organized and keeping the momentum going. It’s so important to have a good system going and getting into a rhythm with management so that drafts move back and forth and people have a chance to react to changes. It’s really easy to get confused with drafts and emails going back and forth, while also managing several people’s schedules, outside commitments, and work schedules. Making sure that there’s alway someone responsible to send the next email or draft, for example, is critical to keep things going.

What should workers know going into a process like this?

Depending on the size of your organization and the size of your union, it could be a lot of work. There’s a lot of learning in the beginning; setting up folders/systems for contracts, and information gathering from your unit. It’s important to have the conversation early with management to hopefully get to use some work time to devote to this. But, the more people join the bargaining committee the more you can share the load making it easier to manage. Also, don’t be afraid to join a committee or union if you have no union experience! I’ve never been in a union before this and now am representing our workers in our bargaining committee. It’s a very learnable role and you already have the tools to be an effective advocate because you know what workers want.

It sounds like you love being part of your union.

Being in the union and representing the unit has also been personally rewarding. I feel a lot more responsible and in control of my working conditions. I feel that management has to listen to me and the rest of the unit. It has made me feel more ownership in my job and my workplace and given me a lot of confidence, especially when it comes to working with management.