OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA (Feb. 23, 2022) – A supermajority of employees at Impact Justice (IJ) have formed Impact Justice United (IJU), and today requested from their employer voluntary recognition of their union with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 29.

"The energy we have invested into organizing with our colleagues is a direct reflection of our commitment to our work at Impact Justice," said IJU in its letter requesting recognition from the founder and president of the criminal justice reform organization, Alex Busansky.

"Forming a union strengthens our collective pursuit of dreaming of a humane and restorative system of justice in the United States," the letter continued. "We draw inspiration from Impact Justice’s core values and guiding principles — each of which speak to the necessity of unionizing."

The unit of 56 employees seeking recognition of their union is continuing a national trend of nonprofit employees organizing for better wages, benefits and working conditions at mission-based organizations. 

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 3, 2022) – A supermajority of eligible employees at Nava PBC today requested from their employer voluntary recognition of their union with OPEIU Tech Workers Union Local 1010.

The unit of 171 employees at Nava, a public benefit corporation that focuses on solving digital issues in the public sector, are unionizing to promote transparency in internal company policies, ensure pay equity, increase staff well-being and retention and to attract new talent in a highly competitive space.

In requesting voluntary recognition, Nava United is asking management to bypass the lengthy, convoluted and skewed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) process in favor of a collaborative approach that will lead to a stronger staff and organization and lives up to the stated mission of the company.

Sharon Warner, a senior software engineer at Nava since November 2016, said the company's growth has made the prospect of a union contract ever more appealing. "As I've grown as a software engineer, I've seen the company grow by hundreds of people," she said. "One unfortunate side effect of that growth is the distance between workers and leadership has grown, too.