Another local win in the Bay Area for the Industrial Workers of the World this week, as they have successfully unionized what appears to be all non-management employees of the Ecology Center under the Berkeley Ecological Center Workers Union. The union covers 13 workers and the vote was 12-0, with one ballot challenged (that would have been a yes). This is the second big local win for them in a month's time; last month, the IWW unionized Berkeley's Urban Ore salvage store.
The Ecology Center is noteworthy because although it's a local non-profit, it has a big influence on the city. It runs the city's farmer's markets and the city’s curbside recycling program, and works with the city to meet its climate goals; in many ways, it acts as a de facto wing of municipal government. The non-profit is already familiar terrain for the IWW, though, so it's not a surprise to see them win the remainder of its employees over. The Ecology Center is possibly home to the longest-standing IWW union in modern history, actually: the nonprofit's recycling drivers have been unionized with the IWW since 1989.
Unionizing the other workers at the Ecology Center reportedly began in 2021, according to Berkeleyside. They note that the non-profit's lowest paid workers were struggling with cost of living, and that the posted wage for "store program associate in 2021 ranged from $16.50 to $18.93." Those wages, although above minimum wage even in Berkeley at the time, still come in well below a living wage in Alameda County—$22.35 for someone with no children, if you're wondering. Management has apparently been sympathetic to these concerns, but ultimately employees decided to unionize to ensure they had leverage and bargaining power to enforce their needs. They hope to win "inflation-based cost of living adjustments, worker protections and [addressing] favoritism" in their coming contract.