“Not to sound like a broken record, but what IS our team’s plan to make C-Suite understand the urgency here? Every time they delay it hurts us all. How are our vertical leaders ensuring upper management faces the consequences of their bad-faith bargaining? I have been giving it my all and this is a slap in the face. It took six weeks for management to return a proposal on wage increases. This is beyond unacceptable and not something any of us deserve.”

“I am echoing a sentiment of deep disappointment and concern here. Six weeks really underscores an apparent disparity in accountability. I have heard many of our leaders say they are committed to this in their values. I would love to have a clear answer in the next 24 hours of how we are effectively communicating to upper management the urgency of addressing this issue. We have diligently contributed to this orgs mission throughout the year. We need to see management reciprocate with a genuine commitment to good faith bargaining.”

“Trevor, whoever you are, you need to prove you are trustworthy.”

“I see the responses here, and in #org-announcements… but I can only hope it has been made abundantly clear that this is a collective wound. A wound that is deepening in many of us the realization that our hard work, loyalty, and commitment is continually met with indifference… that all of our words are being minimized to the belief that the problem is “Management disagreeing with the union.” Management’s empty-handed presence at the bargaining table, their responses in the channels we’ve been silenced from responding in… these things resonate as betrayal, as disrespect, and they’re dehumanizing. It is a blatant disregard for the sacrifices we’ve made throughout FY23. It is a painful reminder that our aspirations for fair treatment and recognition remain unfulfilled. For many of us, this stands as a stark symbol of shattered hopes… shattered hope for ourselves as workers, for the young queer kids we once were, for the young people who we are still here for. Silence, or half-hearted responses, are echoing louder than any words spoken. For anyone genuinely listening, please understand that we are not merely seeking raises… we are yearning for the acknowledgement, the respect, and the fair treatment we all deserve.”

The post The Trevor Project Workers Mobilize for Dignified Wages appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.

We are deeply disappointed by leadership’s decision in July to lay off 12% of our union siblings without providing any proof of financial hardships to the union and during active negotiations with our representatives.

We demand the transparency and open communication that The Trevor Project leadership claims a commitment to. We demand accountability. We demand answers. We demand fair treatment for ALL workers, especially those who have been hit hardest by these layoffs. 

We will continue to provide updates as soon as they come about. In the meantime, if you’d like to follow the case, you can follow the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) case filing here.

The post Second Unfair Labor Practice Filed Against The Trevor Project appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.

The post The Trevor Project Management Silences Their Volunteer Workforce appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.

Friends of Trevor United-CWA 1180 workers are strongly united in the fight for our first-ever union contract! We’re fighting for a better future for ourselves, the LGBTQ+ young people we serve, and the organization we care so deeply about. But management is dragging their feet and claiming financial hardship to justify recent layoffs that disproportionately targeted union leaders, union members, and public union supporters-even as they’ve refused to provide us with their financial data.

Join us in calling on The Trevor Project leadership to quit union busting and start bargaining in good faith!

Support our Mutual Aid: Venmo: @Trevor-Comrade 

This Mutual Aid is created by the workers, for the workers, and exists to provide immediate relief to our Trevor Project and 988 comrades who were impacted by union busting or are otherwise struggling financially. Join us in supporting these impacted workers!

Volunteer Solidarity: Ally & Supporter Logos

Our volunteer supporters are so crucial to our movement! Our union works to improve working conditions for all and that includes our incredible volunteers. We know Trevor management’s ongoing union busting and lack of internal transparency has been particularly frustrating and we invite all the support and action taken on by volunteers. We invite volunteers to showcase solidarity internally by changing your slack profile pic to a supporter/ally photo, engaging in convos asking for management accountability, and/or resharing our posts here- any bit of solidarity means the world to us💗

At this time we have not called for a halt in donations or calling on folx to refrain from volunteering.

The post How To Support Friends of Trevor United-CWA 1180 appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Belonging

• Concretize the dignity, respect, and safety of our Black, AAPI, Latinx, MENA/SWANA, and Indigenous staff through zero-tolerance racism and discrimination policies, continuous anti-racism and bias training, and equitable hiring practices.

Safety & Protection For LGBTQ+ young people

• A focus on the quality of the services we provide to LGBTQ+ young people.
• The development and commitment to anti-carceral policies and procedures.
• Realistic and trauma-informed metrics, expectations, and working conditions for crisis service staff.

Equity, Wellbeing, & Dignity for All Workers

• Implementation of comprehensive and responsive accommodation processes for disabled and neuro-divergent employees.
• Access to best-in-class healthcare including gender-affirming services with no preconditions.
• Transparent, fair, and equitable pay bands and compensation; guaranteeing a living wage for all.

Leadership Accountability & Organizational Transparency

• An influential role in decision-making about our workplace and an end to
  top-down leadership.
• Transparency and safeguards around layoffs, department restructures, and severance benefits.
• Clear and direct accountability from management and C-Suite leadership.

During the live stream, leadership shared some emojis and backgrounds to use in tandem with their values… but we prefer they commit to concretize those new values into a fair union contract!

We continue to urge you to be loud and proud with your union support. WE are the union, WE are Trevor; no matter how many times they try to say otherwise and WE will get that contract.

The post Post-Values Launch: Silenced Voices Can’t Shatter Silos appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.

Following The Trevor Project’s contentious staff layoffs, workers are sounding the alarm on the nonprofit’s anti-worker behavior, demanding management bargain in good faith

Workers file ULP in response to Trevor’s targeted retaliation and disciplinary action against union leaders

NATIONWIDE – Following The Trevor Project’s decision to lay off nearly 12% of bargaining unit employees, Trevor Project workers and members of CWA Local 1180 (Friends of Trevor United) are taking action to call out the organization for its increasingly aggressive anti-worker behavior. Just last week, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge on behalf of the workers with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in response to management’s unlawful threats and coercive attempts to silence workers. The Trevor Project workers have also released a petition, linked here, demanding the nonprofit stop its flagrant union busting and start bargaining in good faith.

The Trevor Project leadership announced last month’s layoffs suddenly while union representatives were in an active bargaining session. A disproportionate number of the 44 bargaining unit employees that Trevor laid off were prominent and vocal union advocates, with one third of union leadership being laid off at once. In addition to nearly wiping out the entire Lifeline Training Team – who provide crucial support to counselors carrying out Trevor’s core mission of protecting LGBTQ+ youth – the layoffs heavily affected the union’s trans and BIPOC members. To make matters worse, management failed to adequately respond to information requests regarding how workers were selected, while refusing to make any form of compromise on their arbitrary selection criteria.

“Earlier this year, my colleagues and I saw what collective power looks like when we united together and stood strong in our demands for union representation,” said Ruby Zenteno, who works in the Clinical Operations Department, helping to provide crisis intervention services. “But the layoffs made it clear that our fight for a more equitable workplace is far from over. The Trevor Project management’s decision to lay off nearly 12% of its essential staff and a third of union leadership has shown us, after years of mistreatment, just how little they care about the health and wellbeing of their workers. The Trevor Project’s anti-worker behavior stands in direct opposition to our mission and the important work that we, as its staff, have devoted our lives to carrying out. We won’t be silenced, and you better believe we’ll keep fighting until management meets us at the table to secure a fair contract that all workers deserve.”

The layoffs come just months after Trevor workers won union recognition in April of this year. Since then, The Trevor Project management has actively threatened and silenced union members and advocates in nefarious ways, including prohibiting workers from discussing their working conditions on the job and, instead, forcing them into one-on-ones with management that often lead to workers being disciplined for airing their concerns. Recently, six workers were illegally disciplined by Trevor Project management for attempting to correct misinformation about union negotiations in an all-staff meeting. In their ULP charge, the union underscored that management’s decision to discipline these workers violated union members’ NLRA Section 7 right to concerted action.

“When I co-founded The Trevor Project, I did so to create a resource for LGBTQ+ youth who are struggling to express their identity and feel accepted in a world where being gay or trans can feel terrifying. The Trevor Project is about supporting each other, and to see the way these workers have been treated by management – for engaging in their right to organize – is appalling and completely unacceptable,” said Trevor Project co-founder Celeste Lecesne, who has since left the organization. “The workers being targeted have saved lives and helped countless members of the LGBTQ+ community feel heard. It’s time that management hears these workers and joins them in their fight to create a more equitable workplace.”

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About Communications Workers of America:

The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, nonprofits and other fields.

Press Contact
CWA Communications
(202) 434-1168
news@cwa-union.org

The post The Trevor Project Workers Speak Out Against Anti-Union Attacks and Blatant Mistreatment, Fight to Secure Nonprofit’s Core Mission to Support LGBTQ+ Youth appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.

The Trevor Project leadership continues to provide misleading and false information surrounding their bad faith bargaining with the union; all while preventing our members from responding to these lies by shutting off comment access to their internal org-wide posts.

On July 13, The Trevor Project leadership held an all-staff meeting in which they prohibited staff from asking questions during the meeting, shut off access to chat and comment options, and disabled meeting Q&A functionality.

Our union leaders engaged in their federally protected right to concerted action in order to combat the blatant misinformation being spread by Trevor Project leadership.

The interim CEO and Founder, Peggy Rajski, resorted to publicly berating and chastising staff members and union leaders, threatening them with disciplinary action for exercising their rights – a clear violation of labor law under Section 7 of the NLRA.

Despite being unlawful, Trevor Project leadership and managers chose to move forward with the targeted retaliation against our union leaders. They mischaracterized the concerted activity as “abusive behavior and bullying” in a company-wide email.

In this email, leadership stated that “our entire community relies on communication channels like these meetings to stay informed and connected,” yet they actively prevent staff members from asking questions in meetings, they spread misinformation, and they have barred staff access to the meeting recording.

Under NLRA Section 7, it is unlawful to:

• Threaten employees with adverse consequences if they engage in protected, concerted activity.
• Discharge, constructively discharge, suspend, layoff, fail to recall from layoff, demote, discipline, or take any other adverse action against employees because of their protected, concerted activities.
• Prohibit employees from talking about the union or workplace concerns during working time, if you permit them to talk about other non-work-related subjects.

The post The Trevor Project Violated Labor Law appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.

The post Worker-Led Mutual Aid appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.

At 9:15 am pst, as many of our members and overnight staff were still sleeping, The Trevor Project announced layoffs effective immediately… while our union representatives were in an active bargaining session regarding the terms of these layoffs.

Trevor lawyers refused to bargain around how unit members would be chosen in these layoffs. Instead of considering our proposals of a voluntary program or even seniority, they cherry picked who they wanted to let go, many being our FTU organizers. 

Trevor lawyers threatened to proceed with layoffs and withhold severance in order to pressure our representatives into accepting a lesser package. This is bad-faith bargaining and blatant union busting.

Trevor leadership continues to release announcements with misinformation stating they gave the union notice “well in advance” regarding the layoffs and “responded promptly” to our requests to bargain.

Again, this is a lie.

Trevor lawyers finally provided us with a formal layoff plan late on Thursday June 29, leading into an administrative holiday weekend, knowing many organizers and representatives would be out of office.

They intentionally rushed bargaining.

As of now, we are still receiving word of who these layoffs have impacted, with members having to check their personal email at the top of every hour hoping they still have a job.

There is still no transparency regarding how these decisions were made.

Our union made every attempt to bargain in good faith.

We gave Trevor leadership an opportunity to demonstrate care, compassion, and basic decency in this process and they refused.

Trevor has again strayed from its values and mission. They’ve chosen “business-needs” and profit over care for the very LGBTQ+ community they are meant to serve.

Trevor publicly boasts of the importance of BIPOC mental health, Trans visibility and inclusion, the critical need for disability justice, yet they actively and consistently harm their BIPOC, trans, and disabled staff. 

In the deadliest year for our LGBTQ+ community, Trevor leadership has made it clear we’re nothing but a line item in their budget.

The post Mass Layoffs Amid Active Union Bargaining appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.

We have learned that Trevor leadership expects to immediately layoff between 40 to 45 union employees, which is about 15% of our bargaining unit in the first week of July.

On May 30th, Trevor leadership carelessly made their first mention of layoffs during the closing comments of our Trevor Community Meeting.

Trevor claims they informed the union of layoffs “well in advance to making their announcement.”

This is a lie.

Our CWA representatives reached out to Trevor’ attorney on May 31st, after the Mobilizing Committee informed our reps of this announcement. Trevor’s attorney claimed they did not have information regarding layoffs.

Our union has yet to receive a formal notice of the layoff plan. Trevor leadership would like to continue layoffs on the first week of July but cannot legally do so until they engage in effects bargaining with the union.

Trevor leadership claims that fiscal hardship caused by “unsustainable expansion” has created an immediate need for layoffs at this time.

But why has leadership suddenly noticed this now?

1. We just won recognition and became the first ever union at The Trevor Project as Friends of Trevor United-CWA 1180.
2. We just concluded elections yesterday for our historic Bargaining Committee.
3. We have filed a formal request to negotiate the effects of these layoffs, one of our rights as a union.

Trevor leadership has held multiple captive audience meetings, shutting down our access to our general staff slack channel, disabling meetings Q&A functionality, and closing meeting comment sections.

Leadership has undermined the union, labeling our collective action as “disruptive,” “uncourteous,” and “resentful.”

Trevor leadership has prioritized public optics rather than providing transparency, access to financial information, or effective communication to our union.

Trevor leadership has the power to reduce the harm of these layoffs are a result of their own negligence.

If they won’t… call it what is it then: UNION BUSTING.

The post Layoffs Are Union Busting appeared first on Friends of Trevor United.