The staff of Sustainable South Bronx has voted to form a union to help chart the direction of the environmental organization after a dispute over–among other issues–its signature job training program.
After the National Labor Relations Board cleared the way, the employees voted 8-0 with one abstention in January to form an independent union. They have now decided to affiliate with the Communications Workers of America, Local 1180.
Negotiations, slated to begin in April, will include discussions of the fate of two workers fired by the organization, Jon Santiago and Jesusa Ludan, who charge they were terminated for their efforts on behalf of the union, a charge Miquela Craytor, Sustainable South Bronx’s executive director, denies.
“Sustainable South Bronx does not fire workers for union related activities,” Craytor said, and added that the firings were due to “performance related issues.”
Santiago ran a program teaching young people to use tools and technology while Ludan headed Sustainable South Bronx’s affiliate SmartRoofs LLC, which installs and maintains green roofs.
Ludan said she was concerned that by hiring people who had not come from its BEST job-training program, the organization was forsaking its mission to train and find jobs for unemployed people from the neighborhood.
“There’s a disconnect between the economic and social justice they talk about and the way they act,” said Ludan.
According to Craytor, however, trainees do the installation and construction, while more experienced people are hired to do administrative work.
The union’s shop steward, Environmental Policy Analyst Jaime Stein, sees the new union as “a model for the green economy.”
“We’re touting the green economy and we want to make sure the green economy provides living wage jobs,” Stein said. “Unions are the way to get those jobs.”
Craytor says Sustainable South Bronx is sensitive to the demands of its workers, and has never tried to stand in their way. “We recognized the union very quickly after the NLRB’s decision,” Craytor said.
“It’s a learning curve because we’ve never had a union before,” she added.