Ratified contract serves as a milestone in efforts to give full, fair voice to all Club employees
Press Contact:
Washington, D.C. – Members of the Progressive Workers Union (PWU) Sierra Club Chapter Unit overwhelmingly voted today (April 30) to ratify a new contract, merging their unit with the PWU Sierra Club National Unit and expanding benefits for their members. The new contract, which extends the existing National Unit Contract to 2029, will be the first time that all PWU-represented employees will share a collective bargaining agreement.
“This new contract is a major step towards the realization of our goal of wall-to-wall Sierra Club union representation, and will help us to ensure equal pay and benefits for all of the Club’s PWU-represented workers,” said Jadine Sonoda, Chapter Unit Head Steward and Bargaining Team member. “After close to two years of near continuous bargaining on behalf of the Chapter and National Units, we are eager to begin implementing this new contract across the organization to ensure living wages and a healthy workplace for all Sierra Club workers.”
Chapter members are distinct from Sierra Club’s National staff in that they work for regional entities of the Club, often at a state or partial state level, and report to local supervisors. The Sierra Club has 64 Chapters nationwide, which vary widely in structure and number of staff. Including these workers in a single collective bargaining agreement will help assure a fair voice and treatment for even the smallest Chapters’ staff.
The merged contract means Chapter employees will gain:
- Improved Equal Opportunity Protections: Stronger definitions of discrimination, harassment, bullying, retaliation, and toxic behavior under the organization’s Equal Opportunity Policy, providing greater clarity and accountability.
- Enhanced Compensatory Time: Improved criteria for earning and utilizing compensatory time, ensuring employees are fairly compensated for additional hours worked.
- Strengthened Leave Benefits: More sabbatical opportunities and expanded paid leave options, including increased leave lengths and broader types of leave available to employees.
- Improved Parental Leave: Up to 20 weeks of parental time with no tenure requirements to access Pregnancy Disability Leave and parental leave, ensuring that all employees can fully benefit from family support policies.
It also will also create critical organizational unity as the Sierra Club fights back locally, regionally and nationally against the Trump administration’s disastrous policies, while diminishing the chances for disruptive management tactics that prolonged National unit contract negotiations in 2023 and 2024.
The unification of the Chapter and National unit comes on the heels of the incorporation of Sierra Employees Alliance, which had represented the Club’s Oakland, California, headquarters staff since the 1990s, into the PWU National Unit.
“While our union is still consistently fighting contract violations, we believe that this victory brings us closer to establishing labor peace at Sierra Club, and will allow our members to better serve our organization’s mission in the face of the Trump administration’s attacks on the environment,” said Emma Brown, PWU Chapter Unit Representative and Bargaining Team member. “Expanding our unit will also give us greater leverage at the bargaining table in future negotiations, to assure that all of our members are shown the respect and gratitude they deserve for carrying out the essential front-line work of the Sierra Club.”
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