SAINT PAUL, MN: The staff of Jewish Community Action (JCA) won recognition for their newly formed union on Tuesday after the organization’s executive board agreed to authorize the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 12 as their representative for collective bargaining. The entire staff delivered a petition requesting voluntary recognition on Monday, June 8th.
The full petition for voluntary recognition can be read here.
The JCA staff organizing committee made the following statement:
“We are excited to announce that this week the Jewish Community Action (JCA) staff has formed a union with the Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 12. We look forward to entering negotiations towards our first contract in early July.
We repair the world as a “bnai brit--covenantal partners.” Forming a union binds us in covenantal relationship with one another and commits us to take responsibility for one another as fellow workers. It also allows us to make more explicit the implicit covenant that forms our relationship with JCA as an organization and with our members.
We are looking forward to entering this new covenant, one that brings us all towards a just world, together.”
The JCA staff union currently has seven members including several community organizers, a business/office manager, a communications director, and an outreach and engagement manger. Jewish Community Action's mission is to bring together Jewish people from diverse traditions and perspectives to promote understanding and take action on racial and economic justice issues in Minnesota. JCA was founded in 1995 and is a member organization of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable and an affiliate of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice.
OPEIU Local 12 is a union representing, organizing, and empowering working families throughout the Upper Midwest. OPEIU Local 12 unites over 2500 members in healthcare, nonprofits, credit unions, education, and other professionals. Nonprofit Employees United is a collective of thousands of nonprofit employees affiliated with OPEIU working in advocacy and social service organizations nationwide.