Unionizing Could Be Next in the Return-to-Office Power Struggle
As companies keep shifting remote work policies, white-collar office workers want a formal seat at the table.
When a group of workers at the National Women’s Law Center broke the news to their boss that they’d agreed to unionize in February 2020, they did it in the form of a greeting card: “Congratulations on your baby union!” After a tense few months of deliberation, management told the group they’d voluntarily recognize the 50-plus member bargaining unit, now one of nearly a dozen workplaces that have unionized with the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union this year.
While the two sides have yet to reach a first contract, the timing of the unionization drive—a month before the pandemic hit—was prescient. By April 2021, as vaccines became available and bosses started dreaming of fully inhabited offices, the NWLC union was able to negotiate the terms of a potential return to work. Together with management, the employees established a “memorandum of understanding” surrounding Covid-19 policies. This meant that no matter when the organization asked employees back to the office, they would be guaranteed eight weeks’ notice.