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Indybay Feature

APTP Workers Union Sends Letter to Executive Director

by via APTP Workers Union
On December 11, 2024, a majority of eligible Anti Police-Terror Project staff officially requested recognition from APTP's Executive Director for our union with The Industrial Workers of the World Bay Area (IWW) as our bargaining agent.
Logo for APTP Workers Union

We are excited to announce the formation of the APTP Workers Union!

On December 11, 2024, a majority of eligible staff officially requested recognition from Anti Police-Terror Project's Executive Director for our union with The Industrial Workers of the World Bay Area (IWW) as our bargaining agent.

Our union gave APTP leadership until January 8th to respond, and we hope they will follow in the steps of a growing number of progressive organizations across the country in the granting its workers voluntary recognition.

We are deeply committed to following Black Leadership. We also recognize that the Black community is not a monolith, and our union comprises Black staff, as well as brown, queer and disabled staff, all of whom deserve to enjoy the benefits of a union.

Motivated by a deep love and respect for APTP’s mission, history, and work, in forming a union, our goal is to make APTP stronger, more sustainable, and more resilient for the future.

Read our letter requesting recognition & follow this page to get updates!

Letter from APTP Workers Union Requesting Recognition

December 11, 2024

Cat Brooks
Executive Director
Anti Police-Terror Project
Re: Petition for Voluntary Recognition of APTP Workers' Union

The Anti Police-Terror Project is a Black-led, multiracial, intergenerational coalition that seeks to build a replicable and sustainable model to eradicate police terror. For over a decade, APTP has supported families and community members surviving police terror in their struggles for justice and healing. APTP's groundbreaking programs serve as examples for the entire country, and its founders and workers — who until recently were all volunteers — have worked tirelessly to run those programs with compassion, care and dedication.

We are proud of this work and legacy, and we believe in living the values we champion in our workplace. In that spirit, we are proud to announce the formation of the APTP Workers Union.

We, the majority of non-supervisorial, non-confidential APTP staff members, are petitioning APTP directors to voluntarily recognize our union and The Industrial Workers of the World Bay Area (IWW) as our bargaining agent.

We are motivated by a deep love and respect for APTP's mission, history, and work. In forming a union, our goal is to make APTP stronger, more sustainable, and more resilient for the future.

The IWW's deep legacy as a union that helped launch International Workers Day (May 1st) through rebellions called for by AfroLatina labor advocates like Lucy Parsons, makes it a union we feel aligns with our values and mission. We chose the IWW specifically because it is the most radical union in the country and the only union we can say with certainty has zero affiliations with any law enforcement entity, as well as no cooption by local politicians or the Democratic or Republican party.

When we began this transition, APTP leadership said you did not want to reproduce the harms of the Nonprofit Industrial Complex. Our union will help guard against those harms and be deeply grounded in healing justice, which is only possible if frontline workers have a voice. As we move from an all-volunteer organization to a nonprofit institution, it is vital that APTP workers have the vehicle of a union to exercise our workplace rights.

We are deeply committed to Black self determination and to following Black Leadership. We also recognize that the Black community is not a monolith, and our union comprises Black staff as well as brown, queer and disabled staff, all of whom deserve to enjoy the benefits of a union. We hope you recognize that our union is NOT an outside third party; the union is us: APTPs workforce, its beating heart, the people who make the work of our organization possible.

Through our union, we hope to bolster workplace morale; address and improve volunteer retention; ensure the personal and professional development and growth of all employees; establish clear rules and procedures that maximize fairness, honor the dignity of all staff, and foreground a principled, transformative approach to workplace conflict; give staff the voice and power to improve the organization through our collective agency; foster an environment of open, honest and healthy collaboration and discussion; run effective, functioning, sustainable and fully-staffed campaigns and programs; ensure the health and wellbeing and promote healthy work-life balances for all staff; build lasting infrastructures for organizational accountability, democracy, and transparency; and foster a workplace that honors its staff, where we can all thrive, learn, and grow together.

The majority of eligible, non-supervising, non-confidential APTP employees are requesting APTP's leadership to voluntarily recognize The Industrial Workers of the World Bay Area as our bargaining agent.

We request that you respond to this petition by Wednesday, January 8, 2025 and address your response to this email with IWW's email CC'd.

We invite management to collaborate with us on this historic step to help APTP more fully live into our values and vision. We're looking forward to working with management on a fair, constructive and timely bargaining process.

In solidarity,
APTP Workers Union

[ Published to Instagram on January 7, 2025. ]

§APTP Management Fails to Respond to APTP Workers Union
by via APTP Workers Union
Page 1 of APTP Workers Union Follow Up Post
APTP Workers Union is disappointed to share that Anti Police-Terror Project management has failed to respond to our request for voluntary recognition by the given deadline of January 8, 2025.

APTP Workers Union is disappointed to share that APTP management has failed to respond to our request for voluntary recognition by the given deadline of January 8, 2025. While many nonprofit unions typically give employers only a week to respond, we gave APTP management 4 weeks and they have left us on read.

Rather than filing immediately for election, we chose to go directly to management with our request for voluntary recognition because we wanted to launch our union from a place of mutual respect and collaboration. Our union effort is completely driven by staff who are deeply invested in the work of this organization and want it to thrive for years to come. We believe an abolitionist organization has a duty not to replicate the harms of the capitalist nonprofit industrial complex, and in that spirit, APTP staff all deserve the protection and benefits of a union.

We hoped APTP leadership would follow in the steps of other progressive organizations that have swiftly given their staff voluntary recognition, such as Black Feminist Future, whose leadership granted voluntary recognition to its staff union only a few days after the request was sent.

APTP Workers Union will now begin preparing to file for a Union Election with the National Labor Relations Board. APTP management's decision not to recognize our union will drag out the process by sending it to the NLRB, making us reconfirm our votes with the state, in spite of our established majority, no matter the results, the radical labor history of the IW shows us that we don't need certification from the state to be official—our union is here, and we are ready to start this year with a strong collective voice to help create a healthier and more sustainable organization.

[ Published to Instagram on January 9, 2025. ]

§APTP Volunteer-Worker Solidarity Statement of Support for APTP Workers Union
by via APTP Volunteer-Worker Solidarity
Page 1 of APTP Volunteer-Worker Solidarity Statement of Support
We are self-organizing to urge APTP management, Black Leadership, and the Board of Directors to voluntarily recognize the Union brought forward by its workers.

To: APTP Leadership
From: APTP Volunteer-Worker Solidarity

As APTP Committee Volunteers, we believe deeply in the mission and vision of Anti Police-Terror Project, Mental Health First, and its other programs. We honor its impact on the community, something we constantly and personally witness.

It is with this belief in mind that we are self-organizing to urge management, Black Leadership, and the Board of Directors to voluntarily recognize the Union brought forward by its workers.

An organization is its people. The value of an organization is found with them.

Although the Union does not cover volunteers, there is significant overlap in the work we all do together, and we acutely understand the need for employees to be supported, protected, and have a seat at the table regarding the work they are engaged with.

All of this inevitably affects volunteers, volunteer retention and workload, and our capacity to keep Mental Health First and other vital programs at APTP running and reputable.

Once again, we urge Anti Police-Terror Project Leadership to recognize the APTP Workers’ Union as soon as possible, as the date requested in their December letter to leadership has passed.

We will be following up shortly with a list of signatories.

In Solidarity,
Your Volunteers

If you are a volunteer at APTP, active or inactive, who would like to sign onto this letter of solidarity with the workers at APTP, please email APTPvolunteersolidarity [at] gmail.com

And if you are a current or former volunteer of programs at APTP and would like to share an anonymous testimony, we would love to hear from you.

Image description: A series of text boxes with red border (text is posted here). Above the text in each box is a red circle with black text that reads “APTP volunteer-worker solidarity”. A black star sits above and below the text.

[ Published to Instagram on January 10, 2025. ]
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