Addressing "Idealism Exploitation" through Unionization: Causes and Outcomes of Nonprofit Worker Labor Organizing

Background and Purpose: Nonprofit human services workforce has suffered from chronic low pay, high workload, and poor working conditions which result in high staff turnover and compromised quality of client services (Parrott & Kramer, 2017). One reason behind it is nonprofit employers’ financial dependance on funders who often expect unrealistic low personnel costs (Gregory & Howard, 2009). Historically, labor unions did not have a significant presence in nonprofits (Karger & Lonne, 2013). Without a collective bargaining agent that can leverage the power of workers, individual employees are left with limited choices but accepting low wages (Parrott, 2022). There has been a surge in unionization efforts in the nonprofit sector (Rendon, 2023) recently. Limited research on nonprofits and unions reveals an argument held by nonprofit management that unions would not help improve wages because nonprofit employers do not control the prices like for-profit companies do (Zhao et al., 2023). Would unionization help address the pay and working conditions issues of nonprofit workers? What do unions mean for nonprofit workers who chose to unionize? No known empirical research exists in studying this recent nonprofit worker unionization development in the U.S. and it is this study’s attempt to answer these questions.

Theories and Method: To answer these questions, we reviewed labor union theories and theories explaining the labor donation norm and sacrificing ideology existing in the nonprofit world. We then conducted in-depth interviews with 19 nonprofit union organizers (from both nonprofit service organizations and unions that unionize them) in New York City. The included nonprofit worker union organizers are from organizations that are either recently unionized in the past five years or are in the process of unionizing without a union contract in place yet. We utilized Atlas.ti, a qualitative data analysis tool, in coding and analysis of interview transcripts and memos. The Thematic Coding approach was adopted to identify major themes of the findings.

Results, Conclusions, and Implications:We found that chronic low pay, substandard working conditions, and a concern for compromised services to clients were major drives for workers’ labor organizing. Existing unionization efforts yielded significant wins for workers, including improved pay, benefits, and working conditions such as remote work options—this suggests that management does have some control over labor expenses despite the constraints imposed by funders. Unionization also benefited management in some respects, including favorable work policies being applied to them and reduced staff turnover.

Literature suggests that the labor donation norm and the sacrificing culture is a barrier to labor organizing for mission-driven workers. Workers’ mission commitment could weaken their bargaining power. Our study, however, shows that workers were overcoming this internalized sacrificing logic, and they began to align workers’ rights with clients’ rights. They had realized that they needed to be able to live and exist so they could better carry out their mission. What workers won through unionization have profound implications to gender, racial, and economic equalities in the country, considering that nonprofit unionization most benefits frontline, lower-paid staff which are predominantly women and people of color.