Clean Water Action Staff in Ann Arbor, East Lansing Launch Unionization Drive
Staff at Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund announce plans to form the Clean Water Guild union, covering workers in Ann Arbor and East Lansing among offices nationwide.
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN — Environmental advocacy organizations Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund announced Tuesday they are launching a nationwide unionization effort that includes staff members based in Ann Arbor and East Lansing.
The proposed union, called the Clean Water Guild, would operate under The NewsGuild-CWA and encompass administrative, program, and canvass staff across the organizations’ offices nationwide. In Michigan, Clean Water Action has recently opposed the Line 5 pipeline and advocated for a public power utility system in Ann Arbor.
Union Drive Follows Leadership Transition
Jen Schlicht, a member of the Organizing Committee for the Clean Water Guild, said the unionization effort comes after similar movements by other environmental organizations, including the Environmental Defense Fund and the National Resources Defense Council. The timing also follows the organization’s leadership change from former CEO Jeff Carter to new president Lynn Thorp.
“Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund cannot enact change externally if its workers are not unified within and throughout the organization itself,” the organizations said in a press release. “It is essential to the organization’s success in daily operations, and success in the wider environmental movement, that the workers apply the same skills utilized to safeguard the ecological environment in order to protect, nourish, and sustain their workplace ecosystem.”
Support from Existing Unions
The unionization effort has backing from two established unions within The NewsGuild-CWA: the Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild Local 37002 and the Pacific Media Workers Guild Local 39521.
Organizers are asking leadership from both Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund to voluntarily recognize the Clean Water Guild as a national bargaining unit. The move is part of a broader trend of unionization within environmental advocacy organizations nationwide.
Clean Water Action operates offices across the country and has been active in Michigan environmental issues, including campaigns against pipeline infrastructure and municipal utility reform efforts in local communities.
