Press Contact:
Washington, D.C. – This week, the Sierra Club sent notice to its staff union, Progressive Workers Union, notifying the union of its intent to layoff union staff members. Simultaneously, the management sent communications to staff at its regional Chapters across the country, advising that it is opening a Voluntary Severance Program (VSP). Based on management’s approach to layoffs in recent years, the union is assuming that staff not accepting the program will be involuntarily laid off.
If the layoffs go through, it will be the fifth consecutive year Sierra Club has gutted its grassroots organizing staff who do the front-line work of its mission, and the third annual round of layoffs under Executive Director Ben Jealous.
Progressive Workers Union (PWU) heard rumor of layoffs as early as February 2025 and has reiterated demands to impact bargain over both the process to determine who is targeted for layoff, as well as the final decision. In 2023 and 2024, PWU was able to secure improved benefits and prevent some layoffs through the bargaining process. Under Jealous, Sierra Club has used chaotic restructures and aggressive tactics to undermine PWU’s Contract Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Jealous is increasingly embattled at the organization, with union staff conducting a no confidence vote in the leadership of him and his executive team last May, which passed overwhelmingly, and Dr. Robert Bullard, an academic and activist widely hailed as the father of environmental justice, calling on the Sierra Club Board of Directors to vote no confidence in his leadership. Additionally, many of the executive level staff hired by Jealous have left in recent months. Most notably, Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Harris left just days after he was promoted to Director of Strategy, after it was revealed that he had been employed as the Senior Director of Public Affairs and Community Relations of Crypto.com, for the tenure of his time at the Sierra Club, collecting a million dollar a year salary in addition to his Sierra Club income.
PWU is demanding that the Sierra Club Board of Directors take action to prevent layoffs, protect contractual rights and hold leadership accountable.
PWU President released the following statement:
“As Jealous and his executive team continue to dismantle the Sierra Club, PWU remains dedicated to defending our contract and bargaining the best possible outcomes for our hardworking members. Our on-the-ground staff are working tirelessly to resist the Trump administration’s unprecedented attacks on the environment and progressive organizations,” said Walter Keady, President of Progressive Workers Union. “This organization is reaching a boiling point. The front-line staff have lost trust in leadership after years of manufactured budget crises, controversial executive hires and golden parachutes given to high-paid executives upon their departures.. We call upon the Sierra Club’s Board of Directors to reverse course, strengthen our organization, support the rank and file staff who carry out its work, and demand accountability from executive leadership.”
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