Recent Successful Organizing and Bargaining Campaigns
Human Service Workers at Persad Center Vote to Join the USW
Workers at Persad Center, a human service organization that serves the LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS communities of the Pittsburgh area voted on December 5, 2020, to join the USW.
The unit of 24 workers, ranging from therapists and program coordinators to case managers and administrative staff, announced their union campaign as the Persad Staff Union last month and filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The Persad workers join the growing number of white-collar professionals organizing with the USW, especially in the Pittsburgh region.
Their membership is also in line with the recent work the Steelworkers have been doing to engage LGBTQ+ members and improve contract language regarding issues that affect their lives.
RWDSU/UFCW Babeland Workers Ratify First Contract
RWDSU/UFCW members who work at Babeland in New York unanimously ratified their first contract on Feb. 13.
Babeland is a mission-driven, queer-owned sex toy boutique, and the contract covers the company’s sex educators and retail sales associates who work in three New York stores.
Under the new contract, workers will receive health benefits, general wage increases and adjustments, as well as signing bonuses and post-probationary wage increases.
Most significantly, the contract includes added safety and security trainings and protocols to protect Babeland’s predominately LGBTQ and female workforce.
Pleasure Chest Workers Fight Back and Win
Workers at Pleasure Chest locations in New York City have voted to be represented by the RWDSU in their fight for a voice for fair treatment in the workplace, security protections and procedures, and fair wages through a collective bargaining agreement.
The RWDSU’s newest members at Pleasure Chest, who are part of a predominately LGBTQ and women workforce in the highly emotionally intimate retail stores, faced the largest union busting campaign ever launched by the industry.
Workers held strong in their convictions for representation by the RWDSU in the face of over 10 hours of captive audience meetings with management at the direction of both Jackson Lewis and Labor Relations International, two union-busting consultants.