Breach Ratifies One of the Most Progressive Union Contracts in the Country

The two-year-old organization is now spearheading efforts to provide resources and support to environmental and climate nonprofit workers’ unionization campaigns 

Portland, OR - On January 30, the staff at the climate justice organization Breach Collective, ratified a highly progressive two-year collective bargaining agreement. The staff unionized with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7901 and worked in partnership with Breach’s Board of Directors to develop the contract, which includes a 32-hour full-time work week, 50 vacation days per year, unlimited sick days, and a wage parity article that dictates the lowest paid employee must make at least 70% of the highest paid employee. 

Danny Noonan, climate and energy strategist at Breach, said: 

“From the beginning, Breach Collective has sought to be an organization that advances connections between the climate and union movements. This contract shows that organizations do not need to choose between furthering their mission and respecting their workers. I’m proud of the foundation this contract lays for improving labor standards within both our own organization and the wider nonprofit sector.”

Breach is the first unionized worker-run climate justice organization in the country. It was born in 2020, in the midst of a successful unionizing campaign at another nonprofit and founded by seven former staff of that organization. Breach’s mission is to partner with communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis to advance justice through locally-driven campaigns rooted in the power of grassroots organizing, legal advocacy, and human stories. 

Jay Monteverde, co-founder and board president of Breach, said: 

“I'm proud of the cooperative way Breach's board and staff worked to build the framework for a strong organization that lives up to its values of expanding justice both in the world and in the workplace.”

Consistent with its team’s experience advocating for workplace democracy in the nonprofit sector, Breach was founded in part to advance a progressive workplace culture and nonprofit workplace model in which workers exercise a high degree of control over the organization’s direction and significant autonomy over their work. Breach has created a progressive nonprofit workplace model that limits hierarchy, avoids worker burn-out, and prioritizes care, connection, and building solidarity and power within labor-climate organizing. 

Caitlin Howard, content strategist with Breach Collective said: 

“I am proud to work for an organization whose internal values align with the values it advocates for in society. Too often in the nonprofit sector organizations that promote justice externally impose harmful employment practices on workers to fulfill their mission. Breach Collective is not one of those organizations, and now we have a contract in place that not only protects but promotes the autonomy and wellbeing of staff.”

Isabel Aries, local organizer with CWA 7781, said: 

“In my work with staff at the Breach Collective, it’s been clear that they not only prioritize advancing environmental justice, but also workplace equity and workers’ rights. As a CWA organizer who works with nonprofits and climate-impacted workers, I’m so excited that they’ve ratified their first contract - this is a massive win that will set the standard for other environmental and climate nonprofits. We’re looking forward to using our collective organizing experience to create a roadmap for similar organizations to use as they look to unionize their workplaces.”

Breach staff believe that the labor movement is essential to driving solutions to the climate crisis that actually benefit working class people and other marginalized communities. In 2023, Breach, in partnership with CWA, will launch an online hub that will house tools and resources for climate and environmental nonprofits throughout the United States. Breach will develop nonprofit sector-specific resources that will help workers – with minimal-to-no outside organizing assistance– organize themselves, find parent unions, and win both voluntary recognition and a strong first contract. These efforts will help grow union membership within climate and environmental nonprofits, as well as other progressive workplaces, and stimulate lateral organizing and relationship-building between bargaining units at different nonprofits. In turn, Breach believes these efforts will help build a larger coalition within the U.S. labor movement that can serve as fierce advocates for a just transition.

Dylan Plummer, Breach board secretary and senior campaign representative at Sierra Club, said: 

“I never imagined I’d be on the management’s side of contract negotiation, but I’m glad to have been able to support the development of a contract that can serve as a model for what workers across the country deserve.”

Josie Moberg, Climate Justice Movement Legal Fellow at Breach, said: 

“Workers in this country are consistently denied fair wages, adequate benefits, and control over their work. That’s usually true whether the employer is a nonprofit or a corporation. But it doesn’t have to be, and we’re proving that at the Breach Collective.”

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