Daring to Speak: How we won our union and why collective action is needed at nonprofits
On December 9th 2021, we, the staff of PEN America, wrote to management to demand voluntary recognition of our union PEN America United (PAU). After five months of negotiations and nearly an entire year of organizing, we are proudly celebrating the signing of our official recognition agreement. This is an important milestone in our unionization effort and takes us to the next phase of the process: the bargaining table.
PEN America is an organization that stands at the intersection of literature and human rights. Its mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible, through advocacy campaigns, literary events, and fellowships supporting writers from diverse backgrounds.
Every staff member was drawn to PEN America’s mission to defend the rights of people persecuted for their art, their words, and their speech. As writers, human rights advocates, and supporters of the arts ourselves, we want to build sustainable careers that allow for a healthy work-life balance, access to adequate housing and healthcare, and fair compensation for our labor.
We want to address the present conditions at PEN that have contributed to an untenable work environment and threatened our ability to sustainably continue PEN’s vital work: the low wages, scarce opportunities for growth and professional development, lack of transparency in organizational decisions, and ensuing rapid staff turnover, among others.
Unionizing our workplace has allowed us to formalize our collective vision by creating a space to build community and solidarity among workers. PAU serves as a democratic mechanism to address workplace issues going forward, which ensures that our voices will now be represented in organizational decision-making.
We want to work towards a PEN that commits to providing fair and equitable compensation, including clear and consistent policies around salary minimums, increases, and promotions. A PEN that adequately addresses the root causes of burnout and secondary trauma, and promotes an organizational culture of transparency, equity, and responsiveness.
Since March 2020, we have planned and executed one virtual gala, two in-person galas, two virtual festivals, one in-person festival, welcomed four fellowship cohorts, published over a dozen reports, and continued the daily operations of sending out newsletters, editing blog posts, moderating panels, coordinating volunteers, and managing social media campaigns.
In the past two years, PEN has also broadened most of its core teams and program areas, which has meant we have taken on hiring, onboarding and managing remote interns, fellows, and staff, and transitioning PEN’s extensive events calendar to new remote and hybrid models. In short, our roles have expanded, our workloads have significantly increased, and we continue to work under immense pressure.
Like so many workers across the country and the world, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a collective reimagining of our relationship to our labor. In this new pandemic reality and in the midst of so much upheaval, PEN America’s management has made little effort to provide clarity and transparency around organization-wide salary baselines, pathways for growth and professional development, and truly equitable remote work policies.
PAU has organized to address these inequities and advocate for a workplace where staff input is regularly encouraged and sought out, work-life balance is prioritized, and return-to-office policies are safe and equitable for all. As workers at a free expression advocacy organization that has proudly stood behind the right to protest for nearly a century, we look forward to making our voices heard through negotiations in the coming months.
To the management of peer organizations — particularly those working across the arts, literary publishing, human rights advocacy, and journalism sectors — it is evident that the labor of your staff makes possible the impact you seek to have in the world. Bargain in good faith with the workers, creators, artists, researchers, writers, producers, assistants, managers, and countless others who bring your missions to life.
Recognize and listen to our collective voice at the negotiating table.
Defend our right to have a say in the terms of our working conditions.
Voluntarily recognize our unions.
Lastly, to our peers working in these industries and beyond, we call on you to continue the conversation about your workplace’s conditions, engage your coworkers, and organize a union. Our ability to bring these vital missions to fruition depends on it.
In solidarity,
PAU