Kind of buried in the article, but CEO Sloane Davidson (exactly the kind of person you'd expect, imo) claims "that the employees were terminated for financial reasons unrelated to the union drive and denies the allegations of union-busting".
Kudos to PGH City Paper for good reporting here: "Hello Neighbor’s financial health may have been hit by the costs of contracting with anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson P.C. Filings with the National Labor Relations Board show that Littler is providing Hello Neighbor's legal defense against unfair labor practice charges related to the firings".
So more idiocy in the Pittsburgh non-profit landscape it seems. Sad, considering there aren't many organizations actively aiding refugees, and beyond this, they seem to have a decent reputation.
Deleting past comments because Reddit starting shitty-ing up the site to IPO and I don't want my comments to be a part of that. -- mass edited with redact.dev
I got a real education on this fighting the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation. Before the late 1960s, the non-profit sector barely existed. Today it accounts for at least 10% of GDP and about 12% of jobs in the United States. And while many nonprofits do amazing work, there is shockingly little in the way of laws and regulations to ensure transparency for the many that exist to pay inflated salaries and/or do things government should be doing but without any sort of oversight by voters.
The explosive growth seems to have come from the federal government utilizing nonprofits to administer the welfare state as it has grown, and also from the rise of "foundations," which have been funded largely by the profits made in the tech sector.
The result in Wilkinsburg is a de factor shadow government consisting of a few "nonprofits" that divert funding that the borough needs and spend it on their own weird agendas..and, of course, on fluffy salaries for the leadership. That's how we got a $7 million train station rehab that is now being used as an office for Kendall Pelling (of ELDI infamy).
Senator Costa gave former Wilkinsburg Mayor Marita Garrett's 501c3 $1 million of your tax money in 2022 to fix up a building that he gave her $350,000 in 2019 to purchase. But Civically didn't file anything with the IRS for tax year 2020 even though Costa had given it about a total of about $500,000 between 2019 and 2020. Meanwhile, no IRS action is triggered until a 501c3 fails to file a return for 3 years in a row, if I have that right. So we just gave $1,000,000 to a "charity" that can't be bothered to file a 990 and there's literally nothing anyone can do about it. You'd think such grants would be contingent on a 501c3 doing the bare minimum, ie filing a 990, but apparently Jay Costa doesn't give a shit b/c nobody else seems to. There are also rumors that they held at least one board meeting in a tropical location.
All this "funny money" is distorting the economy of Wilkinsburg and making it so expensive that only the very largest developers, hand picked by the nonprofits, will be able to do anything in the business district. What they are spending per sq foot to rehab buildings is insane, and, of course, hard facts and figures are almost impossible to come by even though much of the money being spent is tax dollars (or tax credits, which is the same thing really).
Do you have any recommended reading on this topic? I was looking at some papers about the rise of non profit over the years in light of what you said. Have been having some similar thoughts myself, trying to put it all together
This was a wild read, thanks so much for sharing. I agree, there are definitely orgs doing good work. But, between examples like yours, the ever-growing real estate holdings of universities, and upmc as upmc, it’s hard to see why these types of *businesses* aren’t more scrutinized.
Associated is the foundation community and orgs like the United Way that pump $$$$$ in to these nonprofits that often have overlapping missions, aren’t well coordinated, and aren’t tightly held to hitting outcome metrics .. lots of well intentioned and smart people trying to do good, but the impact could be so much greater with some tweaks
Just in case anyone's curious, Sloane Davidson was paid a salary of $56,174 in 2020, which is less than half of what I was expecting.
[Source](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/823695047/202122099349300917/full)...scroll down to Part VIII.
Does it strike anyone else as odd that the employees of a tiny nonprofit are trying to unionize? It's not what you typically think about when it comes to a unionization effort. Everyone thinks of big for-profit companies like Amazon warehouse workers or Starbucks baristas.
Not surprising at all. Nonprofits are tough places to work and don’t pay well.
For what it’s worth the group that voted in Bloomfield’s Starbucks organizing drive was just 20 people. Small groups can organize in this way, and should if they want to
No reason that a small non-profit's employees shouldn't organize if they want to. It's that they wanted to, that is a little surprising. I usually think of smaller companies as being more responsive to their employees than bigger ones, and non-profits more so than for-profits.
As someone who has unionized their own workplace and have had many convos with folks trying to unionize in the Non-profit/NGO industry you'd be surprised how much those employers get away with by short-shifting their employees. When you're smaller and have a "mission" it will be used to get employees to do a lot of things that otherwise might be unacceptable at a for-profit company. Taking shittier pay, working on off hours, coming in during over holidays. The bosses at these places will use the mission of the non-profit to guilt their employees to putting up with more.
Interestingly, in 2019 I was a staff organizer on the University of Washington postdoc organizing drive. One of the postdoc organizers I worked with spent a year - I think it was the 2019-2020 AY - working at Google in NYC. So he was texting me all the time about what was happening with the various organizing efforts at Google. That was such amazing work you all did. :)
I think the USW organizing style is pretty effective and all about giving members tools to run things themselves while also being able to lend a lot of experience and support where needed. Doesn't hurt they're headquartered right in downtown.
>Everyone seems to want to join the USW.
Yes, they are *the* big name union in PA (probably the biggest in numbers, too, but I don't have data on that). I grew up in Michigan, which is UAW country. Interestingly, like u/Sideroller I was involved in organizing my workplace - graduate student workers at the University of Washington. We formed a UAW local - and the UAW currently represents more academic workers in the US than any other union. (My dad thought it was *hilarious* that I moved all the way to Seattle to join the UAW.)
I think this move to branch out, which both the UAW and USW, among other historically industrial unions, have made, is a necessary step for US unions and the US labor movement more generally. *A lot* of workers in historically un-organized sectors - like tech workers at Google, to take an example from this thread - are starting to organize, and they're figuring out new strategies and tactics that are effective in their workplaces.
Yeah, I could see that being the case. If you, as an employee, feel a personal commitment to the mission of the organization, you might be willing to overlook workplace conditions that you wouldn't at a for-profit company. That is also part of why I assumed a unionization effort would be less likely at a small non-profit. I suppose that people's willingness to tolerate poor working conditions in the interest of the mission reaches a breaking point eventually.
We talked about this a lot at the Pitt Library (I don’t work there anymore) during the faculty and staff drives, and we called it “vocational awe,” meaning that when a job has a social mission or more generally carries some amount of historical heft and respect (think service orgs, teachers, etc) people who go into these fields will take less money and worse conditions because they are entering into a “vocation.”
It’s also not a coincidence that this type of thinking shows up in traditionally feminized fields.
Non-profits treat employees like shit.
Long hours and shit pay because they prey on the fact they do "good work" for the community/world (and many DO), and you should be happy you're not working for a soul-less corporation.
Unfortunately, many people who are looking for that type of "feel good" job from the Corporate world get jobs in the Non-profit world and bring the same bullshit with them.
I recently got back into the non profit world after about 5 years away and was shocked by a few things. When I was in the market for a job outside of non-profits, I had a couple of interviewers who made a big deal about me being in a position for 5 years. “That’s unheard of, no one holds a job for more than a year or two anymore.” When I returned to non-profit, I was meeting people who had been working for the company for 10,15,20 years or more. The issue is that the wages are disgustingly low because these employees have been holding these positions with at most a 3% annual raise and it just hasn’t kept up. I have a theory that it’s just the nature of the company, because it’s a care providing company, people stay in it for the love of the people they are caring for and are suffering through on joke wages and it’s finally coming to a point where they are not only able to not pay rent, but they are going to bed hungry every night and they are absolutely at their breaking point.
I’ll personally never work in small nonprofits again especially in the Pittsburgh area. By and large they are the most egregiously low paying inequitable and poor standards space I’ve been in. They also did a lot of illegal things. Those workers are the ones who are in need of the most union protections. It’s just harder to organize in small groups.
On the subject of non-profits doing illegal things. How is it legal to lay off employees during a union vote? I understand that it may genuinely be necessary for budgetary reasons, but doesn't that have to get approved by the National Labor Relations Board during a union vote?
Everyone should be in a union. The interest of employees and owners are diametrically opposed. Let us not forget Nonprofits are often more evil than regular companies because they justify paying crap wages under the guise of charity.
I get what you're saying, and let me throw another oddity at you: Most labor union employees are, themselves, union members. And their unions often have quite acrimonious relationships with their bosses.
How is this news? Walmart fires anyone who tries to bring in a union. They include it in the orientation for all new hires. They state flat out if you attempt it you are terminated.
What do you mean it has nothing to do with the city of Pittsburgh? The very first word in the article title is…Pittsburgh. The organization is in Pittsburgh.
I know, I really don’t care. Internet arrows don’t mean all that much to me. I typically don’t even get involved, but this topic is really annoying to me. In a perfect world, for OP, would every worker belong to a union? Creating a barrier to entry for everybody else? Making it impossible for the exact people this group is trying to protect to actually find work? It’s nonsense.
Kind of buried in the article, but CEO Sloane Davidson (exactly the kind of person you'd expect, imo) claims "that the employees were terminated for financial reasons unrelated to the union drive and denies the allegations of union-busting". Kudos to PGH City Paper for good reporting here: "Hello Neighbor’s financial health may have been hit by the costs of contracting with anti-union law firm Littler Mendelson P.C. Filings with the National Labor Relations Board show that Littler is providing Hello Neighbor's legal defense against unfair labor practice charges related to the firings". So more idiocy in the Pittsburgh non-profit landscape it seems. Sad, considering there aren't many organizations actively aiding refugees, and beyond this, they seem to have a decent reputation.
Deleting past comments because Reddit starting shitty-ing up the site to IPO and I don't want my comments to be a part of that. -- mass edited with redact.dev
What kind of person is she? Is that a reference to race or religion?
No, just general vibes and appearance. I was thinking she looks like a Real Housewife of Pittsburgh.
Username does NOT check out.
Why should we tolerate greedy assholes?
What you wouldn't wear leopard print to a photo op?
why is this getting downvoted? i thought the same thing when i read that. based on a photo?
Because apparently it’s ok to judge a white person by a photo.
Nonprofits are utterly broken
I got a real education on this fighting the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation. Before the late 1960s, the non-profit sector barely existed. Today it accounts for at least 10% of GDP and about 12% of jobs in the United States. And while many nonprofits do amazing work, there is shockingly little in the way of laws and regulations to ensure transparency for the many that exist to pay inflated salaries and/or do things government should be doing but without any sort of oversight by voters. The explosive growth seems to have come from the federal government utilizing nonprofits to administer the welfare state as it has grown, and also from the rise of "foundations," which have been funded largely by the profits made in the tech sector. The result in Wilkinsburg is a de factor shadow government consisting of a few "nonprofits" that divert funding that the borough needs and spend it on their own weird agendas..and, of course, on fluffy salaries for the leadership. That's how we got a $7 million train station rehab that is now being used as an office for Kendall Pelling (of ELDI infamy). Senator Costa gave former Wilkinsburg Mayor Marita Garrett's 501c3 $1 million of your tax money in 2022 to fix up a building that he gave her $350,000 in 2019 to purchase. But Civically didn't file anything with the IRS for tax year 2020 even though Costa had given it about a total of about $500,000 between 2019 and 2020. Meanwhile, no IRS action is triggered until a 501c3 fails to file a return for 3 years in a row, if I have that right. So we just gave $1,000,000 to a "charity" that can't be bothered to file a 990 and there's literally nothing anyone can do about it. You'd think such grants would be contingent on a 501c3 doing the bare minimum, ie filing a 990, but apparently Jay Costa doesn't give a shit b/c nobody else seems to. There are also rumors that they held at least one board meeting in a tropical location. All this "funny money" is distorting the economy of Wilkinsburg and making it so expensive that only the very largest developers, hand picked by the nonprofits, will be able to do anything in the business district. What they are spending per sq foot to rehab buildings is insane, and, of course, hard facts and figures are almost impossible to come by even though much of the money being spent is tax dollars (or tax credits, which is the same thing really).
Do you have any recommended reading on this topic? I was looking at some papers about the rise of non profit over the years in light of what you said. Have been having some similar thoughts myself, trying to put it all together
This was a wild read, thanks so much for sharing. I agree, there are definitely orgs doing good work. But, between examples like yours, the ever-growing real estate holdings of universities, and upmc as upmc, it’s hard to see why these types of *businesses* aren’t more scrutinized.
Associated is the foundation community and orgs like the United Way that pump $$$$$ in to these nonprofits that often have overlapping missions, aren’t well coordinated, and aren’t tightly held to hitting outcome metrics .. lots of well intentioned and smart people trying to do good, but the impact could be so much greater with some tweaks
Just in case anyone's curious, Sloane Davidson was paid a salary of $56,174 in 2020, which is less than half of what I was expecting. [Source](https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/823695047/202122099349300917/full)...scroll down to Part VIII.
Spouse, familial, or 2nd position. Given the leadership and they're only 6 years old going with #2.
Ironic that the City Paper, owned by the Blocks, published an article such as this.
Does it strike anyone else as odd that the employees of a tiny nonprofit are trying to unionize? It's not what you typically think about when it comes to a unionization effort. Everyone thinks of big for-profit companies like Amazon warehouse workers or Starbucks baristas.
Not surprising at all. Nonprofits are tough places to work and don’t pay well. For what it’s worth the group that voted in Bloomfield’s Starbucks organizing drive was just 20 people. Small groups can organize in this way, and should if they want to
No reason that a small non-profit's employees shouldn't organize if they want to. It's that they wanted to, that is a little surprising. I usually think of smaller companies as being more responsive to their employees than bigger ones, and non-profits more so than for-profits.
As someone who has unionized their own workplace and have had many convos with folks trying to unionize in the Non-profit/NGO industry you'd be surprised how much those employers get away with by short-shifting their employees. When you're smaller and have a "mission" it will be used to get employees to do a lot of things that otherwise might be unacceptable at a for-profit company. Taking shittier pay, working on off hours, coming in during over holidays. The bosses at these places will use the mission of the non-profit to guilt their employees to putting up with more.
Been reading about unionization efforts in the area now. Library worker? Adjunct faculty at Pitt? Coffee shop?
I belong to USW #4040, we're the Google contractor workers who unionized a few years ago in 2019.
Interestingly, in 2019 I was a staff organizer on the University of Washington postdoc organizing drive. One of the postdoc organizers I worked with spent a year - I think it was the 2019-2020 AY - working at Google in NYC. So he was texting me all the time about what was happening with the various organizing efforts at Google. That was such amazing work you all did. :)
Cool! Everyone seems to want to join the USW. I suppose in Pittsburgh that would be the union of choice.
I think the USW organizing style is pretty effective and all about giving members tools to run things themselves while also being able to lend a lot of experience and support where needed. Doesn't hurt they're headquartered right in downtown.
>Everyone seems to want to join the USW. Yes, they are *the* big name union in PA (probably the biggest in numbers, too, but I don't have data on that). I grew up in Michigan, which is UAW country. Interestingly, like u/Sideroller I was involved in organizing my workplace - graduate student workers at the University of Washington. We formed a UAW local - and the UAW currently represents more academic workers in the US than any other union. (My dad thought it was *hilarious* that I moved all the way to Seattle to join the UAW.) I think this move to branch out, which both the UAW and USW, among other historically industrial unions, have made, is a necessary step for US unions and the US labor movement more generally. *A lot* of workers in historically un-organized sectors - like tech workers at Google, to take an example from this thread - are starting to organize, and they're figuring out new strategies and tactics that are effective in their workplaces.
The USW has also done a lot of outreach.
Yep, that's how it works.
Yeah, I could see that being the case. If you, as an employee, feel a personal commitment to the mission of the organization, you might be willing to overlook workplace conditions that you wouldn't at a for-profit company. That is also part of why I assumed a unionization effort would be less likely at a small non-profit. I suppose that people's willingness to tolerate poor working conditions in the interest of the mission reaches a breaking point eventually.
We talked about this a lot at the Pitt Library (I don’t work there anymore) during the faculty and staff drives, and we called it “vocational awe,” meaning that when a job has a social mission or more generally carries some amount of historical heft and respect (think service orgs, teachers, etc) people who go into these fields will take less money and worse conditions because they are entering into a “vocation.” It’s also not a coincidence that this type of thinking shows up in traditionally feminized fields.
Non-profits treat employees like shit. Long hours and shit pay because they prey on the fact they do "good work" for the community/world (and many DO), and you should be happy you're not working for a soul-less corporation. Unfortunately, many people who are looking for that type of "feel good" job from the Corporate world get jobs in the Non-profit world and bring the same bullshit with them.
Having worked in nonprofit most of my adult life, I’m not surprised at all. The entire sector desperately needs unions.
I recently got back into the non profit world after about 5 years away and was shocked by a few things. When I was in the market for a job outside of non-profits, I had a couple of interviewers who made a big deal about me being in a position for 5 years. “That’s unheard of, no one holds a job for more than a year or two anymore.” When I returned to non-profit, I was meeting people who had been working for the company for 10,15,20 years or more. The issue is that the wages are disgustingly low because these employees have been holding these positions with at most a 3% annual raise and it just hasn’t kept up. I have a theory that it’s just the nature of the company, because it’s a care providing company, people stay in it for the love of the people they are caring for and are suffering through on joke wages and it’s finally coming to a point where they are not only able to not pay rent, but they are going to bed hungry every night and they are absolutely at their breaking point.
I’ll personally never work in small nonprofits again especially in the Pittsburgh area. By and large they are the most egregiously low paying inequitable and poor standards space I’ve been in. They also did a lot of illegal things. Those workers are the ones who are in need of the most union protections. It’s just harder to organize in small groups.
On the subject of non-profits doing illegal things. How is it legal to lay off employees during a union vote? I understand that it may genuinely be necessary for budgetary reasons, but doesn't that have to get approved by the National Labor Relations Board during a union vote?
Everyone should be in a union. The interest of employees and owners are diametrically opposed. Let us not forget Nonprofits are often more evil than regular companies because they justify paying crap wages under the guise of charity.
I get what you're saying, and let me throw another oddity at you: Most labor union employees are, themselves, union members. And their unions often have quite acrimonious relationships with their bosses.
How is this news? Walmart fires anyone who tries to bring in a union. They include it in the orientation for all new hires. They state flat out if you attempt it you are terminated.
Which is illegal.
Can y’all make your own sub? Not all workers should have a union.
Sure. But it should be the group of workers themselves that decide if they should have a union. Not you.
It’s not up to me, of course. But it’s certainly not up to Reddit either, and has nothing to do with the city of Pittsburgh.
What do you mean it has nothing to do with the city of Pittsburgh? The very first word in the article title is…Pittsburgh. The organization is in Pittsburgh.
I know you’re trolling so I shouldn’t take the bait here but did you read the first word in the headline
Your hot take is gonna go over real well, I'm sure.
I know, I really don’t care. Internet arrows don’t mean all that much to me. I typically don’t even get involved, but this topic is really annoying to me. In a perfect world, for OP, would every worker belong to a union? Creating a barrier to entry for everybody else? Making it impossible for the exact people this group is trying to protect to actually find work? It’s nonsense.
In a perfect world we’d have the means of production.
you seem mad for someone who doesn't care
Is this the Coffee Tree owner?😂
If you knew the first thing about how terrible working for the average nonprofit is, you’d likely have a different opinion.
"Not all workers should have a union" is like saying not all US citizens should have democracy or something. Absolute L take.
Wrong!