Speaker 1: Al Zon Media.
Speaker 2: Hey everybody, Robert here, I wanted to let you know
Speaker 2: that two of our hosts at Zitron of Better Offline
Speaker 2: and Molly Conger of Weird Little Guys, are in the
Speaker 2: running to win the Webbys right now or to win
Speaker 2: Webbys in their respective categories. If you just google their
Speaker 2: names at Zitron, Webby we bb Y or Molly Conger Webby,
Speaker 2: you can find them and vote for them. There will
Speaker 2: be links in the show notes as well, Sophia, you'll
Speaker 2: put them in, so please do vote for them.
Speaker 3: Welcome, Dick it Out and here a podcast. I asked
Speaker 3: the question what happens when the people who are trying
Speaker 3: to help put things back together are also being exploited
Speaker 3: in the process. I am your host, Mio Wong, and
Speaker 3: today we are going to be talking about a union
Speaker 3: that is attempting to do exactly that. And with me
Speaker 3: to discuss this are Jess and Hazeus, who are mentors
Speaker 3: for Friends of the Children PDX and members of the
Speaker 3: Friends PDX union network. Yeah, Jess, Zeus, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm really happy to talk to you both because
Speaker 3: I think this is a very very unique and interesting union,
Speaker 3: especially you know, talk about especially right now. But to
Speaker 3: get people sort of rolling, can you explain what Friends
Speaker 3: of the Children is and what it is that you
Speaker 3: two do.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So Friends of the Children is. It's a national organization.
Speaker 5: It's a nonprofit, but they're there are individual chapters throughout
Speaker 5: different cities. We work out of Portland, which is the
Speaker 5: founding chapter and also the largest one. Some of the language,
Speaker 5: I'll say that it's like used from the website and
Speaker 5: from like the mission statement that really encompasses what our
Speaker 5: role is and also how it is told to like
Speaker 5: our community partnerships and the families and youth that we
Speaker 5: work with. Is that we are committing to youth when
Speaker 5: they are typically around kindergarten age level and they're being
Speaker 5: paired with a mentor and they will have a mentor
Speaker 5: or until they graduate the program, so that usually ends
Speaker 5: up being a total of twelve and a half years.
Speaker 5: And that like within that, we were doing a lot
Speaker 5: of like individualized care and support. We work with them
Speaker 5: in the schools, we work with them outside the schools.
Speaker 5: We help them get into extracurriculars, We help them with
Speaker 5: like social emotional regulation, developing relationships with other youth in
Speaker 5: the program, and really just like being a consistently reliable
Speaker 5: human being. And one of the big pillars of our
Speaker 5: organization is the commitment to long term which sometimes can
Speaker 5: be an issue when you are facing a lot of
Speaker 5: high turnover as an organization. We both have eight kids
Speaker 5: on our roster, as do most mentors, and within that
Speaker 5: we have youth. I personally have youth that have been
Speaker 5: assigned to me that have just started in the program,
Speaker 5: meaning that they were like maybe first grade when I
Speaker 5: was assigned to them. And then I also have youth
Speaker 5: that are middle school level that have had several different
Speaker 5: mentors in the past, some that have stayed there for
Speaker 5: maybe a few years, and like sometimes there's ones that
Speaker 5: have been there for months.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if I can add to that. The kids we
Speaker 4: work with, they're enrolled into the program because they have
Speaker 4: some risk factors in their lives that would lead them
Speaker 4: to needing a little bit of extra support and help.
Speaker 4: So we work with a lot of kids that come
Speaker 4: from immigrant families, from families that have you know, single
Speaker 4: parent households, foster care families, and kids kids that like
Speaker 4: unfortunately are likely to face some challenges that our society
Speaker 4: and the way it's built up will deal to them,
Speaker 4: and our goal is to help them through those challenges,
Speaker 4: just be there for them so that they have a
Speaker 4: chance of you know, graduating high school or entering adulthood
Speaker 4: without having you know, having had kids or facing like
Speaker 4: the justice system. It's kids that we love dearly that
Speaker 4: we work with in a similar way as like you know,
Speaker 4: a program like Big Brothers Big Sisters. But we are
Speaker 4: paid mentors, which is the big difference, right, We're not
Speaker 4: volunteer based. We are employees basically social workers for all
Speaker 4: of the families that we work with. It's honestly, like
Speaker 4: it's a great job, and I think right now, especially
Speaker 4: like super necessary because things are falling apart.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, and yeah, just adding like one that made
Speaker 5: me think of how with in the work, Like I
Speaker 5: think social work is a very apt choice of words
Speaker 5: because we are paired with the youth and it doesn't
Speaker 5: like stop there, like we work like we work with
Speaker 5: the families. We also work with like the siblings too,
Speaker 5: because sometimes you'll have a youth that maybe is the
Speaker 5: only child in that family that for whatever reason got
Speaker 5: a mentor, and then you support also, I mean it's
Speaker 5: a choice, but I would say that most mentors definitely
Speaker 5: opt into being there for siblings and family members in
Speaker 5: the household and making sure that they're also showing up
Speaker 5: for the caregivers to help them create a loving home.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean, you know, I think that you
Speaker 3: can you can look at this and see how it's
Speaker 3: supposed to work structurally, And you know, you were talking
Speaker 3: about like, I mean, this is supposed to be a
Speaker 3: like over a decade long commitment to these kids, right
Speaker 3: that ideally you're working with the same person and you
Speaker 3: know you're forming really deep emotional attachments because you can't
Speaker 3: not do that if we're doing this kind of work.
Speaker 3: But then also, you know, in order for that to work,
Speaker 3: I think it's you know, you can see this the outside, like,
Speaker 3: in order for this to work, this has to be
Speaker 3: a job that you could stayably do for a decade, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Yeah, which I will say we do and I
Speaker 5: want to do. I want to give so many props
Speaker 5: to one of our mentors who has stayed for twelve
Speaker 5: years and has graduated their youth. But of of all
Speaker 5: of our co workers, I believe it's only one that
Speaker 5: has currently been able to do that and has stayed
Speaker 5: there as long as I have.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, And the truth of the fact, like, yeah,
Speaker 4: a for any job, twelve and a half years is
Speaker 4: a really long time, right, I mean six years is
Speaker 4: a really long time. And with this job, we're like
Speaker 4: we're an emotional sponge for a lot of things. Right,
Speaker 4: So our kids go through everything that you could imagine,
Speaker 4: and and within that, like everything good and everything bad
Speaker 4: that you could imagine. And our job a lot of
Speaker 4: times is like we can't solve the things that are
Speaker 4: affecting these kids, but we can take in some of
Speaker 4: those negative feelings and that grief, that anger, We can
Speaker 4: take it in and almost like dissolve it a little bit, right,
Speaker 4: But within that, like it can affect us so so much.
Speaker 4: And that's where Yeah, the sustainability part of like twelve
Speaker 4: and a half years in this job, like that is
Speaker 4: a lot and and you we need a lot for
Speaker 4: that to like at all be be possible.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like that there's this way in which
Speaker 3: you're effectively what this job is is like you're the
Speaker 3: person who is trying to like mitigate the impact of
Speaker 3: like all like literally all of the structural systems of
Speaker 3: violence that exist in this entire country and how like
Speaker 3: how they're just sort of targeted down on these kids
Speaker 3: and your job is to like try to like protect
Speaker 3: them as much as possible. And that's unbelievable amount of
Speaker 3: like physical and emotional labor. And then also like, I
Speaker 3: don't know, it seems pretty bad that there's only been
Speaker 3: one coworker who's been able to graduate their kids, like.
Speaker 5: Just to clarify for history that's been in like our time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if like over.
Speaker 5: The thirty years, I hope that other people have, but yeah,
Speaker 5: in recent years it's only been the one. And also like, yeah,
Speaker 5: this is a job where you are not necessarily able
Speaker 5: to like undo the systems at play, but trying to
Speaker 5: support them. And like we as mentors are inevitably also
Speaker 5: facing those systems against ourselves. And like, one of the
Speaker 5: reasons that I think people gravitate towards this job is
Speaker 5: their empathy because they have those shared experiences. One of
Speaker 5: the things that is kind of heavy in the culture
Speaker 5: of friends is being asked your why when you start,
Speaker 5: like why did you choose friends? And for a lot
Speaker 5: of people, it is because of wanting to be the
Speaker 5: person that they needed when they were going through those
Speaker 5: periods of time. So there's bound to be like a
Speaker 5: lot of like reactivation of feelings inside yourself that I
Speaker 5: think we all, like I want to say, like every
Speaker 5: mentor I've worked with an incredible job of like handling
Speaker 5: that and like taking good care of themselves. But it
Speaker 5: is definitely something that like takes a lot of regulation,
Speaker 5: and I think empathy is one of the greatest skills
Speaker 5: in this job. But it also yeah, it also then
Speaker 5: leads to us need greater needs of self care and
Speaker 5: things like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And like I'm I guess like people this in
Speaker 3: perspective for like people listening to this as like, Okay,
Speaker 3: your job is to be the person like in the
Speaker 3: friend group who like manages like when someone's like having
Speaker 3: an emotional crisis, like you have to like help them
Speaker 3: deal with it. And that is your job for like
Speaker 3: eight kids like the worst shit in the world, like
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ's Oh good Lord.
Speaker 4: It's honestly, like like hearing this, it's always really helpful
Speaker 4: to hear someone's outside perspective of our job, right because
Speaker 4: we get so so into it, so into the muck
Speaker 4: of like what this job can be and I think
Speaker 4: like overall, like like social work, it's not just like
Speaker 4: our our job, but like I'm sure other social workers
Speaker 4: and people in care industries like we have that like
Speaker 4: continuous like vicarious trauma that makes us forget like how
Speaker 4: how our job is sometimes and then it's helpful to
Speaker 4: hear other people mention it because it's like, yeah, wow,
Speaker 4: our job is kind of crazy, and and the work
Speaker 4: we do is like really important and really important for society.
Speaker 4: And also yeah, like it's hard. It's hard work.
Speaker 5: It's it's hard, and it doesn't like really have an endpoint.
Speaker 5: Like we have the hours we work with kids, and
Speaker 5: then we have the hours we think about them and
Speaker 5: the things going on in their lives. And sometimes it's
Speaker 5: like sweet things. Like a lot of times it's sweet things.
Speaker 5: We're I'll see something and be like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 5: you know who love that? And like things like that
Speaker 5: are like oh, great idea, or oh, let's go see
Speaker 5: this movie. And a lot of times it's like worrying
Speaker 5: though too, and knowing that there is there is only
Speaker 5: so many things we can control and some things we
Speaker 5: just have to be the person that's there as they
Speaker 5: have to go through something which Yeah, it's it's hard
Speaker 5: because we all so obviously, like developed such loving relationship
Speaker 5: with these kids.
Speaker 1: It's hard to see kids that you care about so
Speaker 1: much that sometimes the most you can do is just
Speaker 1: be there. Yeah.
Speaker 5: It definitely is a job that, like to some degree,
Speaker 5: is sort of always with you.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We have a joke about this with this job, where
Speaker 3: it's likely if do what you love and you'll never
Speaker 3: be free for a single second of your entire life
Speaker 3: because you're just always awes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's so true. Yeah, as you say this, I
Speaker 4: worked till like nine point thirty last night because I
Speaker 4: was like, you know what, I'm enjoying this so much
Speaker 4: checking out with my guys, So I'm just going to
Speaker 4: keep working. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So, speaking speaking of keeping working, we need to
Speaker 3: go to ads and then we will come back and
Speaker 3: talk about the ways in which this job that requires
Speaker 3: an incredible amount of structural support to keep people there
Speaker 3: for like over a decade, is failing to do that.
Speaker 3: And we are back. So Okay, now now that we've
Speaker 3: sort of talked about what this is, let's talk about
Speaker 3: the actual union. It was just the thing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, so can can you talk about sort of
Speaker 6: how how did organizing for this union start and what
Speaker 6: were the sort of issues that could have brought everyone
Speaker 6: to be like, Okay, we need.
Speaker 4: To do this, yeah for sure. So we first brought
Speaker 4: about our petition to unionize in March of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 4: so that was two years ago, a long time ago, right,
Speaker 4: But the work for unionization, obviously, the organizing behind it
Speaker 4: had started like much before that. When I first joined Friends,
Speaker 4: it was in September of twenty too, and I knew
Speaker 4: that the work had already been like happening the summer before.
Speaker 4: What was the catalyst was post covid.
Speaker 1: A.
Speaker 4: Obviously a lot of people left, given what COVID did
Speaker 4: to a lot of industries and especially care work. But
Speaker 4: then likewise, a lot of people were fired and where
Speaker 4: many would say like fired without like a full on,
Speaker 4: like deep process that included a program manager who you
Speaker 4: know was was really listening to friends and advocating for
Speaker 4: the mentor role and they were let go, which spurred
Speaker 4: a lot of people to want to start organizing. Some
Speaker 4: of the issues that we face, like the pay obviously,
Speaker 4: like within social work in general and nonprofit work, like
Speaker 4: it's never going to match up and never gonna really
Speaker 4: be as good as like the cost of living, especially
Speaker 4: here in Portland, but the pay compared to like all
Speaker 4: of the emotion, the work and all the work that
Speaker 4: we do was just not there and not sustainable. It's
Speaker 4: why people were not able to stick around because frankly,
Speaker 4: we were looking at the same issues that our families
Speaker 4: were facing of, like you know, food of insecurity and
Speaker 4: needing to like get food stamps, or like needing like
Speaker 4: rental and like housing assistance because our pay was just
Speaker 4: not up to par. Those are a few of the issues, Jess,
Speaker 4: I don't know if you have other thoughts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you touched on a lot of them.
Speaker 5: I think it's hard to stay in this job if
Speaker 5: you are looking to have a family. There's been issues, yeah,
Speaker 5: with pay, with insurance, with other sorts of things that
Speaker 5: have led to mentors leaving rather than like staying there
Speaker 5: even if they like really wanted to stay there, just
Speaker 5: wouldn't necessarily allow for them to have maybe like the
Speaker 5: life they wanted and also just honoring. I think with
Speaker 5: like bereavement leave and critical issue leave has been areas
Speaker 5: that haven't really been addressed. We have had very tragic
Speaker 5: things happen in the in our working community with the
Speaker 5: families that have drastically affected. Yeah, the well being of
Speaker 5: mentors and staff members alike.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean, you know, this is a job
Speaker 3: that structurally is designed to be a kind of like
Speaker 3: like again, if the goal is to have one person
Speaker 3: from like kindergarten to on healthy like a graduating high school, right,
Speaker 3: like that is something that requires like nineteen fifties nineteen
Speaker 3: sixties style forwardism, Like you have one job for decades,
Speaker 3: and the only way you can to that is if
Speaker 3: people are incredibly well supported. And it's like the fact
Speaker 3: that it's like, Okay, you're trying to do this, but
Speaker 3: you're not paying people enough money to fucking afford food,
Speaker 3: Like what the hell, like Jesus Christ.
Speaker 4: Yeah, just like yeah, oh my god, yeah, or even
Speaker 4: I mean it's still something that we're fighting. But like
Speaker 4: our our workplace like doesn't provide health insurance for dependence,
Speaker 4: which I think, oh my god, she's really ironic, giving
Speaker 4: how much we care for kids. And then some of
Speaker 4: our mentors and other coworkers that have kids, like have
Speaker 4: to spend so much money on health insurance for their
Speaker 4: own personal.
Speaker 3: Kids friends of some of the kids apparently how this works,
Speaker 3: I can't say.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and honestly like big big picture thinking,
Speaker 4: Like the reason why we like started this whole unionizing
Speaker 4: project was because we care so much about our kids, right, Like,
Speaker 4: I when I first started working at Friends Like, I
Speaker 4: think was the first mask mentor to be hired in
Speaker 4: a fairly long time, after a lot of firings of
Speaker 4: other mass mentors and two of the youth that actually
Speaker 4: it's more than two of the youth, but the first
Speaker 4: two youth that I was matched up with, they hadn't
Speaker 4: had a mentor for over two years, jeez, which is
Speaker 4: a really long time. Like when you you know, are
Speaker 4: five six years old, and you're used to one person
Speaker 4: consistently picking you up every single week and hanging out
Speaker 4: with you and spending time with you for several hours
Speaker 4: for six or seven years, and then just like next day,
Speaker 4: next week, maybe even that same day, you find out like, oh,
Speaker 4: you no longer have a mentor, and you're not going
Speaker 4: to have a mentor for two more years because people
Speaker 4: keep leaving. People aren't wanting to apply for this job
Speaker 4: because the pay isn't high enough. Right That then like
Speaker 4: creates like a lot of issues with the kids that
Speaker 4: we're dealing with. It's not like we are these like
Speaker 4: saviors or like anything like along those lines, right, But
Speaker 4: when someone has consistent support and then that support is
Speaker 4: lost for a long time, especially when you're a young
Speaker 4: kid where it's been the majority of your life you've
Speaker 4: been having that consistant support, that then creates like a
Speaker 4: lot of trust issues and like overall like attachment issues
Speaker 4: that I you could face. And for me, that was
Speaker 4: the main thing, like working with these kids and having
Speaker 4: to like regain that trust was something that's like still
Speaker 4: to this day is like really emotionally like daunting. And I, like,
Speaker 4: I will keep saying this. I love my kids so much,
Speaker 4: like I like can't stop thinking about them, And I
Speaker 4: want to be with my kids until they graduate, which
Speaker 4: would mean me staying at this job for another eight years,
Speaker 4: which it's a long time, right, but I want to
Speaker 4: do that. So I want to you know, get paid,
Speaker 4: have time off when one of my sadly this is
Speaker 4: something that did occur where you've passed away that I
Speaker 4: worked with and like didn't have time off to like
Speaker 4: really grieve that hard stuff. And I just want to
Speaker 4: be able to stay there until they're done with the program.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's like there's just just like a litany
Speaker 3: of horrors where it's like one, it's like you know
Speaker 3: what when there is like it's not you know, like
Speaker 3: turnover in a normal job sucks, but this is like
Speaker 3: when there's turnover because people can't afford to live their lives.
Speaker 3: It's like you're just like ripping a hole in these kids,
Speaker 3: like the fabric of their social lives. And then also
Speaker 3: it's like, yeah, one of these kids that is literally
Speaker 3: your job to care for dies. You just have to
Speaker 3: fucking go to work the next day. Like it is
Speaker 3: so hideous, and it's just like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: Like it makes sense that, like yeah, if people are organizing,
Speaker 3: because it's like, you know, like this organization is just
Speaker 3: systemically failing both the people that are trying to help
Speaker 3: and the people whose job it is to like help them.
Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: I think one of the things that is like hardest
Speaker 5: to see while like working there is the ways in
Speaker 5: which this like job that you do, like that like
Speaker 5: I care so much about and love doing, but like
Speaker 5: seeing this like institution in a way be like part
Speaker 5: be part of the problem because if we aren't like
Speaker 5: having it so that employees feel supported in the way
Speaker 5: that they need to.
Speaker 1: Like, life happens.
Speaker 5: Sometimes people leave and like move and get a different
Speaker 5: job for various reasons. But a lot of the times
Speaker 5: it's it's because it's not sustainable and it's really hard
Speaker 5: to leave, and like it's heartbreaking thing because I, like,
Speaker 5: I want to graduate many of my youth and it
Speaker 5: is something that I think about of like how feasible
Speaker 5: is that, Like I want to do it, and like also, okay,
Speaker 5: then that means I got to be frugal and all
Speaker 5: these other ways are et cetera. And yeah, and working
Speaker 5: with youth that have already kind of experienced loss and
Speaker 5: wanting to continue to show up for them.
Speaker 1: The job itself feels so.
Speaker 5: Sacred and like I feel so lucky to be in
Speaker 5: these kids' lives. And I think just a lot of
Speaker 5: the turnover has been out of like lack of sustainability
Speaker 5: for yourself, like for your well being.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And I mean the turnover numbers were pretty well.
Speaker 4: I think one time we calculated it and mentors where
Speaker 4: it was like a forty something like turnover mentors. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And a lot of that happened because in this two
Speaker 4: year time period where we've been fighting for constrect they
Speaker 4: also froze wage increases. So I've had the same the
Speaker 4: same wage for the past two years, two and a
Speaker 4: half years that I've been working here, you know, and
Speaker 4: in that same time period, inflation has been prettique crazy
Speaker 4: and rent for me. Yeah, yeah, which which you know gladly.
Speaker 4: Now we're we have this fight and we're at the
Speaker 4: two year mark and not at the zero year mark
Speaker 4: and not looking forward to two more years of doing this.
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's it's been hard to sustain this when
Speaker 4: everything is increasing in price and our wages are completely stagnant. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So let's take one more ad break and then
Speaker 3: we will come back to talk about, Yeah, how how
Speaker 3: unionization efforts are going. And yeah, we are back. Yes,
Speaker 3: let's let's talk about how this campaign is going. So
Speaker 3: you said you've been in barketing for two years.
Speaker 5: So we had our petition for recognition on March twenty third,
Speaker 5: twenty twenty three, so that was over two years ago.
Speaker 3: And then our chez Yeah yeah.
Speaker 5: Our employer didn't formally recognize us, but through the process
Speaker 5: of like voting, we got over ninety three percent of.
Speaker 3: Wow, Yeah, that's an incredible. That's incredible.
Speaker 5: It's super great, and it's also like, wow, we all
Speaker 5: really need it. Yeah, And like there were some other barriers,
Speaker 5: including like not being formulaly recognized. Like we also had
Speaker 5: management contest a few positions that I believe most, if
Speaker 5: not all, we were able to successfully happy part of
Speaker 5: our unit. And then we didn't have our first bargaining
Speaker 5: session until September of twenty twenty three, so like almost
Speaker 5: six months.
Speaker 1: I think if I did the math right.
Speaker 5: After we formally presented our letter for recognition, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: and like throughout that process, so now it has been
Speaker 5: like Haesus is quite good at keeping track of it.
Speaker 5: But I think as of today we're about at five
Speaker 5: hundred and eighty days of bargaining.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's been a long one and it hasn't been
Speaker 5: It's been like also a choppy journey where there has
Speaker 5: been delays in scheduling, delays in just getting different articles
Speaker 5: back in time. One of the biggest ones obviously was compensation.
Speaker 5: And I think I can't quite remember the period of time,
Speaker 5: but we presented it over a year ago. I think
Speaker 5: maybe I could be wrong, and it took like it
Speaker 5: took several several several months for us to get anything
Speaker 5: back from management, which yeah, was.
Speaker 1: A big bummer, amongst other things.
Speaker 3: It sucks. It sucks, like.
Speaker 4: And obviously that's the one that we have yet to finalize,
Speaker 4: like a yeah, as we're talking right.
Speaker 1: Now, Yeah, it is.
Speaker 5: Insurance and compensation are still our last two articles left.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and some of the like the difficult things. I
Speaker 4: mean when you are working on a project, I mean,
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be surprised given like really when these conversations started,
Speaker 4: if we're looking at like over nine hundred or one
Speaker 4: thousand days of like really talking about this, but then
Speaker 4: when you're dealing with bargaining for five hundred and eighty days, like,
Speaker 4: it's exhausting. It is so exhausting. We have regular meetings
Speaker 4: that we attend to that our bargaining meetings were specifically
Speaker 4: scheduled outside of work hours, so that like the people
Speaker 4: on our bargaining team and other union members would have
Speaker 4: to put in that extra time outside of our forty
Speaker 4: hour week. Yeah, and within that, like the hardest part
Speaker 4: is when you directly confront right your managers and your
Speaker 4: bosses about like the rights and the things that you need.
Speaker 4: So much of it like boils down to respect, right
Speaker 4: and your respect as like a worker and the value
Speaker 4: that you have as a worker in your organization, and
Speaker 4: when there is the pushback on that, it honestly is
Speaker 4: like for me at times was debilitating. Right when you're
Speaker 4: doing this work and your workplace is stretching things out
Speaker 4: for so long, yeah, and you're pouring your heart out
Speaker 4: your kids, like really trying to do the best that
Speaker 4: response from our you know, our supervisors and managers, like
Speaker 4: it really was hard. What was hard for me was
Speaker 4: hard for other union organizers in our workplace, and was
Speaker 4: hard for all of our workers where we started thinking
Speaker 4: like dang, like what is the value that we have
Speaker 4: like in this workplace? What is the value that we
Speaker 4: intrinsically have in the work that we're doing with our kids?
Speaker 4: It's a lot, And it's a lot when you're facing
Speaker 4: all these systems that our kids are facing and like
Speaker 4: taking those things in and then are trying to change
Speaker 4: those systems. Finally able to try to change those systems,
Speaker 4: and we learned that like, oh wait, like the place
Speaker 4: that we're working is actually part of these systems too,
Speaker 4: and it's doing the same things that we're like fighting
Speaker 4: to have our kids, like have better lives, Like we're
Speaker 4: facing it right now from inside the house.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I wanted to add into yeah very much,
Speaker 5: realizing that like our management is also in a way
Speaker 5: operating you know, maybe like a corporation, which isn't the
Speaker 5: hope you would have for a nonprofit. And one of
Speaker 5: the steps we had to take as a union was
Speaker 5: filing a UOP so unfair labor practice, which cited like
Speaker 5: I had mentioned before, like delays and scheduling and also
Speaker 5: regressive bargaining, which just means that like the way in
Speaker 5: which they're presenting things would have lessened our like quality
Speaker 5: of conditions. So definitely not what you want to be getting,
Speaker 5: not what you want to be handed across from the
Speaker 5: bargaining table.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Within this process, they were currently
Speaker 4: sourly workers, but they tried to change just to hourly workers.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: Yeah, which again like we're always working, you know, we're
Speaker 5: always working, so unless you want to pay me for
Speaker 5: twenty four.
Speaker 3: Hours, you know you're talking about like, yeah, that they're
Speaker 3: behaving like a corporations, Like oh yeah, this is exactly
Speaker 3: what like by employer did to me, which is like
Speaker 3: like one of like one of the largest media companies
Speaker 3: in the world, and they dragged out negotiations for two
Speaker 3: years and like, you know, you're talking about this sort
Speaker 3: like just like oh, they're like the filling of disrespect
Speaker 3: where they're just not getting stuff back to you. And
Speaker 3: it's like I remember, you know, like we'd be sitting
Speaker 3: there for a bargaining meeting and they wouldn't and they
Speaker 3: would be an hour late, and they'd be an hour
Speaker 3: late because they hadn't like bothered to beforehand spend time
Speaker 3: drafting out what their responses were going to be, so
Speaker 3: they were frantically trying to get it done before we
Speaker 3: were there, and we're all just sitting there for literally
Speaker 3: an hour waiting for them to show up. But it's like, Okay,
Speaker 3: there are people in this unit whose job it is
Speaker 3: to stand next to car bombs, like and you can't
Speaker 3: show up on time to your to this to this
Speaker 3: meeting that you have know was going to happen for weeks.
Speaker 3: Like it's just I say this. Every single level of
Speaker 3: these episodes was like this is an incredibly common Unielistic
Speaker 3: tactic is draw out the first contract because that's that's
Speaker 3: like the second point where unions fail after like the
Speaker 3: after after you get like recognition votes is like here, yeah,
Speaker 3: for sure, you know, Like I mean I think there's
Speaker 3: something that we expect corporations to do this, but it's like, Okay,
Speaker 3: this is an NGO that's like the point of which
Speaker 3: you're supposed to be like helping underprivileged, underprivileged youth, and
Speaker 3: then they're like we're going to turn around and we're
Speaker 3: going to screw over different underprivileged youth.
Speaker 4: Like yeah, it sucks, yeah, And I think that's like
Speaker 4: for me, one of the things that just like mess
Speaker 4: with my mind the most is that, like we're not
Speaker 4: selling a product, right, We're not trying to like get
Speaker 4: revenue or anything along those lines. Right. So, like our
Speaker 4: job is a job that we actually like fully love
Speaker 4: and like want to stick around, like not not just
Speaker 4: for our own like financial you know, peace and our
Speaker 4: own like financial security. Like we want to stick around
Speaker 4: this job because we care about the job. And you
Speaker 4: know that's not to like like other you know, businesses
Speaker 4: and other workplaces that unionize, a lot of times people
Speaker 4: want to do that because they want financial security, right,
Speaker 4: And I think for a lot of NGOs, nonprofits and
Speaker 4: care work, like we unionize because we want to stick
Speaker 4: around both because of financial security, right, but also because
Speaker 4: we just like care so much about the work that
Speaker 4: we're doing and to be faced with actions by our
Speaker 4: workplace that you know, try to dissuade us from that,
Speaker 4: try to like you know, in a sense, like it
Speaker 4: felt like stopping us from wanting to stick around like
Speaker 4: that again really hard, really hard, And I think like
Speaker 4: a really like psychologically hard part that comes with unionizing
Speaker 4: in the care work field in the like nonprofit space.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like, this isn't a job that people are going
Speaker 5: to take for the money, but we do need to
Speaker 5: be receiving like equitable pay and benefits so that we
Speaker 5: stay at this job like this by all means, and
Speaker 5: like still like this is the same way I feel
Speaker 5: about it to this day. I remember like reading the
Speaker 5: little like job description for this role and was like, Oh,
Speaker 5: this is dude, this is like my dream job. This
Speaker 5: is like one hundred percent what I want to spend
Speaker 5: my energy towards. Yeah, and yeah, I think that's a
Speaker 5: huge part of why we were able to get like
Speaker 5: that ninety three percent and to have also like routine
Speaker 5: support for different actions and stuff is just because we
Speaker 5: have people that care so much about wanting to stick around.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's the thing that ngngos, you know, and
Speaker 3: you see this in abortion work, you see this in like,
Speaker 3: you see this in nursing, you see this in all
Speaker 3: of these different fields. Is like, that's the thing that
Speaker 3: these NGOs used to exploit people, is you know, like
Speaker 3: is the basic human see and love and care that
Speaker 3: we have for the people who were caring for and
Speaker 3: there and these people are like, aha, look at this. Aha,
Speaker 3: these people they care about the thing that they're doing.
Speaker 3: We could underpay them and overwork them. It's like, why
Speaker 3: is there system work like this?
Speaker 7: Like it's just.
Speaker 3: What a terrible way to decide an economic system.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just good lord.
Speaker 3: Oh, let's talk a little bit about, like, you know,
Speaker 3: what kinds of organizing things you all have been able
Speaker 3: to do, and the kinds of things you've been able
Speaker 3: to accomplish by you know, working together even in these
Speaker 3: really kind of like I don't know, structurally difficult conditions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we've had.
Speaker 5: We've had a multitude of different actions over the past
Speaker 5: you know, over the past one hundred and eighty days.
Speaker 5: I think one of our one of our biggest ones
Speaker 5: by far, which was I think also was just one
Speaker 5: of our most beautiful in a way was no member
Speaker 5: of Last year, we did an info picket and it
Speaker 5: was one of those things too where it was very
Speaker 5: well planned out, but also even with the best of planning,
Speaker 5: midway through we had a shift location based off of
Speaker 5: just changing information we were getting, and we had one
Speaker 5: of our little bits. It's because our union is called fun.
Speaker 5: A lot of our posters were SpongeBob themed, so instead
Speaker 5: of imagination, you know, it's compensation.
Speaker 1: And the rules.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think it's indicative of like also how
Speaker 5: much people that work with us are playful and sweet
Speaker 5: and why we're are good at our jobs of working
Speaker 5: with kids. And yeah, we had very high turnout. I
Speaker 5: think we had forty something people within our own organization
Speaker 5: that showed up for that. We've done smaller actions too,
Speaker 5: by just asking for community support, like we've had caregivers
Speaker 5: write letters of support to different people in management.
Speaker 1: We've also done a few pack the.
Speaker 5: Rooms for bargaining sessions, like especially when there have been
Speaker 5: times that have felt like there's been some semblance of stalling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, those are just some of them chime in with others.
Speaker 4: Yeah, within that and I think, like an interesting thing
Speaker 4: about nonprofits. Our revenue comes from donors, right, so we
Speaker 4: have to play this like fun game of like, Okay,
Speaker 4: how do we communicate with our donors, right, so that
Speaker 4: we make sure that they know that, like you know,
Speaker 4: this is part of like what they're donating to. But
Speaker 4: then within that also like you knows, ask for money
Speaker 4: as well, right, because we do want you know, better
Speaker 4: pay and better benefits. Right. So we've contacted donors and
Speaker 4: will still plan to do that with both that ask
Speaker 4: of like support the union and support our organization, right,
Speaker 4: because the thing that we care about the most is
Speaker 4: the work that we do with our kids, and for
Speaker 4: that to happen, we wow our organization to like stay
Speaker 4: afloat truly, right, Yeah, some of the wins that we've gotten.
Speaker 4: I mentioned earlier that they were trying to have us
Speaker 4: be hourly workers, and that was a big campaign that
Speaker 4: we like were fighting back on for a long time.
Speaker 4: It's also like what precipitated the ULP filing. I made
Speaker 4: too many buttons.
Speaker 1: That said you.
Speaker 3: Could never have peuty buttons.
Speaker 4: Truly that said I worked forty plus hours a week
Speaker 4: because one of the people on the bargaining team for
Speaker 4: management at the bargaining table asked if we even worked
Speaker 4: forty hours a week while we were talking about this,
Speaker 4: And that's like one of those instances that I mean
Speaker 4: like yeah, wow, that's like a little disrespectful and like
Speaker 4: really bites. So we all were wearing these pins regularly.
Speaker 4: We you know, we signed a strike pledge where we
Speaker 4: had like eighty something percent of the unit say that
Speaker 4: like if we came to voting for a strike, people
Speaker 4: would strike. And the big win was like, Okay, great,
Speaker 4: we get to stay a salaried workers because they walk
Speaker 4: back on that on that threat. We our time off.
Speaker 4: We have a time off contract or agreement now that
Speaker 4: like some of my co workers that have been around
Speaker 4: a long time, once the contract gets ratified, they'll have
Speaker 4: like two more weeks of time off.
Speaker 3: Hell yeah, hell yeah.
Speaker 4: Because they haven't. They've been around for seven years and
Speaker 4: they're still at the same amount of time off basically
Speaker 4: that I'm at and that I've been at since the beginning. Yeah,
Speaker 4: And when it comes to wages, like, well, we're still
Speaker 4: figuring that out, but some of the gains that we
Speaker 4: are potentially looking at is like incredible. Like I looked
Speaker 4: at the numbers yesterday of like what hopefully given like
Speaker 4: where we're at right now in in the agreements, like
Speaker 4: what I would hopefully get and I straight up like
Speaker 4: teared up looking at the number because it felt like
Speaker 4: such a big change in my financial status. Right and yesterday,
Speaker 4: like as I said, I worked on nine thirty pm
Speaker 4: with my kids, probably because I had this like massive
Speaker 4: like weight of you know, this financial doom that I'm
Speaker 4: looking at somewhat lifted at the hope of the winds
Speaker 4: that we might get from this contract. So it's been
Speaker 4: incredibly hard, incredibly long, way too long, and all of
Speaker 4: it is so is going to be so worth it, right.
Speaker 4: I hope that's something that the listeners really get that,
Speaker 4: like this is hard work, but in the end, like
Speaker 4: is the change that we were hoping for, you know.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And recently, one of the things that we did
Speaker 5: do just like a run through of just to kind
Speaker 5: of boost morales andceparketing has gone on for so long,
Speaker 5: was compile all the wins that we have so far
Speaker 5: just through Tha's so still tentative, but yeah, it did
Speaker 5: map out a lot of huge things. One of the
Speaker 5: things we do a lot in this job is drive
Speaker 5: and we don't have many things in policy about cleanings
Speaker 5: or repairs. When something happens in your car with a youth,
Speaker 5: like say they throw up, it happens with kids like
Speaker 5: that isn't necessarily something that would have been like covered.
Speaker 5: We would have had to just pay for that cleaning ourselves.
Speaker 5: And like mileage is a huge thing where one of
Speaker 5: our potential like big wins is that we'll get like
Speaker 5: full mileage covered rather than having to like deduct time
Speaker 5: from like this illusion of having an office where we
Speaker 5: would have to minus some mileage in whatever way made
Speaker 5: sense with where our buildings were located. Despite even if
Speaker 5: our kids were like totally somewhere else where we were
Speaker 5: picking them up, it definitely wasn't like the most sensible
Speaker 5: way for us to be like be fully reimburse for
Speaker 5: what we were doing.
Speaker 1: And those are all.
Speaker 5: Huge wins that we do have, Like obviously compensation insurance
Speaker 5: are two of the biggest that we're still working on.
Speaker 5: I think recently, like almost within this week, we've started
Speaker 5: to tip in a way that feels like we may
Speaker 5: be close to having a contract soon, which I do
Speaker 5: want to say, like you know, as inspiration to everybody
Speaker 5: out there that works for a nonprofit like unionize, and
Speaker 5: you know what, you might it might farewell for you.
Speaker 5: I have hope for everybody, and like right now I
Speaker 5: think a lot of are, like a lot of my
Speaker 5: coworkers are starting to have hope again because I do think,
Speaker 5: like you said, it is totally a manipulation tool to
Speaker 5: have it drawn out so long. And yeah, it is
Speaker 5: exhausting to be basically stalled in your wage for two
Speaker 5: and a half years. But we are like gaining some
Speaker 5: traction again, which I do think is something that we're
Speaker 5: still being you know, cautious with just because right now
Speaker 5: it does feel like management is working with us a
Speaker 5: little bit more.
Speaker 1: But I also think that there.
Speaker 5: Are reasonings around that, Like we're about to have in
Speaker 5: a few weeks our biggest fundraiser for our work, because
Speaker 5: like Casue said, we are majority donor based, and I
Speaker 5: do think there's an appeal to management to have a
Speaker 5: contract by then. Ye, it adds to the whole we're
Speaker 5: doing good work and we treat our employees as well.
Speaker 5: I hope that that is something then that is fulfilled
Speaker 5: by them in an honest way, not just a superficial way,
Speaker 5: because we are still pushing for a little bit more
Speaker 5: right now, and have bargaining coming up next week. So yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm really hoping that what they're showing us isn't just performative,
Speaker 5: that we really might be able to get to a
Speaker 5: point where there is something that is truly good for us,
Speaker 5: because we're all ready we're all ready for a contract.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as you know, as someone who got our contract,
Speaker 3: like it doesn't. It doesn't magically solve everything, but like,
Speaker 3: my god.
Speaker 7: It should make your life better, like it is, it
Speaker 7: is absolutely worth it. Yeah, Okay, So how can people
Speaker 7: support y'all both sort of locally here and then just
Speaker 7: like broader because most of the people are not.
Speaker 5: Here Honestly, most of our like people in like management positions.
Speaker 5: Information is public if you want to email them in support,
Speaker 5: go for it. Also, just like encouraging either your workplace
Speaker 5: if you work in kind of a social work setting,
Speaker 5: or like you know, if you know people that are
Speaker 5: because this whole field of work takes such a toll
Speaker 5: on people and it is the most necessary work, and
Speaker 5: I think it's really easy to fall into the mindset
Speaker 5: of I'm doing this for the greater good, not you know,
Speaker 5: not for money, not for these things but like you
Speaker 5: also deserve to feel okay and taken care of and
Speaker 5: like have the things you need to be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, hey, says anything else do you want to add?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I would add that, Like we have
Speaker 4: an Instagram right as friends PDX Union Network. It's a mouthful,
Speaker 4: but will link then inscription, Yeah great, And then within that,
Speaker 4: like if you're in Portland, like make sure to like
Speaker 4: follow us and like pay attention to what we're posting
Speaker 4: because we you know, hopefully we do not have to
Speaker 4: get to a point in striking, especially the place that
Speaker 4: we're at right now with our contract, but in truth,
Speaker 4: like we're looking at five hundred and eighty days and
Speaker 4: that is quite a long time.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And then also like if if listeners do have the
Speaker 4: ability to donate, if they could donate some funds for
Speaker 4: Friends of the Children Portland and somehow in their notes
Speaker 4: be like I support the union, Like I think that
Speaker 4: could also be a really interesting way to show the
Speaker 4: support that like are supporters have, like for both the
Speaker 4: work that we're doing on the youth level, but then
Speaker 4: also like in the union side of things too, there's
Speaker 4: been a lot of like communication of like, oh, this
Speaker 4: is really going to impact like the development side of
Speaker 4: our organization and like all of the things that like
Speaker 4: our fundraising team is going to have to do to
Speaker 4: like meet these which again I think, yeah, that would
Speaker 4: be more true if like our executive director wasn't making
Speaker 4: like what like five times as much money as I
Speaker 4: am Zeus Christ. Yeah, but yeah, showing that support, like
Speaker 4: it doesn't have to be a lot, but showIn our
Speaker 4: bosses just how much like the populace like is supporting
Speaker 4: our unionization efforts like that power do you really don't too?
Speaker 4: And and then also like it impacts our kids, like
Speaker 4: our kids, like that's the truth of it all, Like
Speaker 4: I want my kids to have the best life that
Speaker 4: they could possibly have, and sadly we live in a
Speaker 4: world where money really dictates that.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, so those are will we will
Speaker 3: we will, we will have links in the description to
Speaker 3: all of that, And yeah, thank you too both so
Speaker 3: much for coming on the show and hope I hope
Speaker 3: you win, and yeah, I hope you get to go
Speaker 3: back to caring for these kids and not and also
Speaker 3: while not having to worry about like being able to
Speaker 3: live your lives.
Speaker 4: Thanking me it's so much.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, thank you so much for having us. Yeah,
Speaker 5: of course, honestly, it's been great talking about the work
Speaker 5: because it is it is really important work, and I'm
Speaker 5: happy we get to do it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's wonderful and yeah, and so this is yeah,
Speaker 3: this is bin. It could happen here, and yeah, i'd
Speaker 3: also go unionize your workplace. You can do it. I
Speaker 3: guarantee it.
Speaker 1: It could happen.
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