WASHINGTON—Workers at the National Endowment for Democracy voted to join Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 2 on Oct. 30. The union said it won by a 7-1 margin after about 10 months of organizing. It will represent about 150 workers, including program and grant officers, compliance experts, auditors, researchers, communications specialists, and public affairs officers. Union supporters said they believed it would help them ensure that the NED, a private nonprofit that funds programs intended to promote democracy around the world, observes the democratic values it espouses abroad in its workplace. “To quote my mother, we are best when we move away from an individualized and arbitrary decision-making process to a collective and transparent one,” senior grants officer Rula Jamous said in the OPEIU’s announcement. “Without a formal collective unit, there was no mechanism for such participation, and so a union was the logical and rational answer.” Local 2 represents 8,000 workers in the Washington area, including those at PartnersGlobal and the National Democratic Institute, who were organized in the last 15 months. Read more
