Media

URGE Employees’ Staff Union Receives Voluntary Recognition

December 21, 2020

Rachel Waters

rwaters@urge.org

706-831-1667

Katie Barrows

kbarrows@npeu.org

360-624-6936

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the staff union at URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity, WURGE: Workers United for Reproductive & Gender Equity, announced they received voluntary recognition from URGE management.

“We are proud to have reached voluntary recognition of an inclusive staff union. URGE staff work every day toward achieving our vision of reproductive justice,” said representatives of WURGE. “We look forward to working together with URGE management to create a work environment that embodies our values as a reproductive justice organization.”

“URGE builds young people power for reproductive justice. That vision necessarily includes the interwoven struggles for economic justice and labor organizing, gender justice, and dismantling white supremacy. Every time young people, BIPOC communities, women and queer and trans folks self-advocate, the bricks in the wall of systemic oppression shake loose,” said Kimberly Inez McGuire, Executive Director of URGE. “We are proud to have voluntarily recognized WURGE, and look forward to working together to make URGE the workplace and political home of our liberatory dreams.”

“Congratulations to WURGE,” said NPEU President Kayla Blado. “We applaud the collaboration between WURGE and URGE management on voluntary recognition, and look forward to supporting WURGE as they bargain their first union contract. ”

WURGE will now work with URGE management to collectively bargain a union contract.

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About NPEU:

The Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU) represents professionals employed at more than 20 nonprofit organizations, including employees at Economic Policy Institute, the Center for American Progress, and Community Change. With several hundred members, NPEU gives nonprofit workers a voice to strengthen their workplaces and continue to do work that makes a difference in people’s lives.

About URGE:

URGE envisions a liberated world where we can live with justice, love freely, express our gender and sexuality, and define and create families of our choosing. To achieve our vision of liberation, URGE builds power and sustains a young people’s movement for reproductive justice by centering the leadership of young people of color who are women, queer, trans, nonbinary, and people of low-income. As a state-driven national organization, URGE organizes our communities, provides a political home for young people, advocates for meaningful policy change, and shifts culture, working in states where the challenges and opportunities are greatest.