Quick Take
Staff members at Santa Cruz nonprofit The Diversity Center voted 5-2 last week to unionize, citing concerns over wages, burnout, workplace safety and protections for gender-affirming care.
The staff of The Diversity Center in Santa Cruz is now unionized after five out of seven members voted last week to form a bargaining unit.
Lead Program Specialist Nic Laflin told Lookout the staff organized for higher wages and pay transparency, better treatment to prevent burnout, workplace safety concerns and protections for gender-affirming care.
“We were so excited, we hugged each other,” said Laflin, who uses they/them pronouns. “We want to be able to negotiate for both economic and non-economic areas that can improve our conditions … for the kind of autonomy and freedom that all trans and queer people want.”
The Diversity Center is a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ residents of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties and provides services, education and events for the communities. Laflin, who has worked at the center for nearly three years, said the staff is made up of nonbinary and gender-expansive workers.
Laflin and four other staff announced their intention to unionize on April 2. After about two weeks, The Diversity Center board called for an election for the staff to vote on whether to authorize forming the union. Last Wednesday, five of the seven staff members voted in favor. Laflin said the next step is to bargain for their first contract but no dates have been set.
The center’s board says it respects its employees’ rights to be represented by a union and will bargain in good faith, according to a statement provided to Lookout by Executive Director Cheryl Fraenzl.
“We have always tried to provide wages, benefits, and working conditions that reflect our values and support our staff, while also balancing the financial realities faced by a small advocacy-driven nonprofit,” the statement reads. “We will continue supporting our employees, serving the LGBTQ community, and providing the same quality services that our community has relied on for years.”
Laflin said some workers started discussing their working conditions and realized they were feeling burdened by their workload and that they didn’t make enough to afford living in Santa Cruz. They said a team of workers lives in Monterey and commutes to Santa Cruz regularly but don’t receive a reimbursement for gas. Laflin added they want more transparency around salary schedules and raises as well as more detailed job descriptions. They also hope to bargain for gender-affirming care like hormone replacement therapy.
Laflin emphasized that the workers don’t want the unionization effort to be viewed as antagonistic.
“This is definitely not an attack on anyone or anything,” they said. “This is a way to provide a pathway for resolving inequities. Not to create conflict.”
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