Happy Monday! What do you all think? Did the “elephant in the zoom” catch its own tail? Did the mission-mirroring crack the looking glass? What’s to be done?!
NEA’s Staff Union Is on Strike—Halting NEA’s Biggest Annual Gathering https://lnkd.in/eSg3fTtX The staff of a union strikes against their own union. Stopping their convention. Cancelling a speech to their members from the U.S. president. Halting the union’s political agenda. The workers are striking to be treated according to “union values” by the management of their union-employer. They says they’ve been treated poorly and unfairly by the union itself in their own contract bargaining. This could be interpreted as a continuation or evolution of a dynamic described in the 2022 article, “Elephant in the Zoom: Meltdowns have brought progressive advocacy groups to a standstill at a critical moment in world history” (The Intercept, June 2022). https://lnkd.in/gxCfvVQW It could also be interpreted as a continuation of “mission-mirroring”, where values-based nonprofits fall into the trap of creating internally the very problems they seek to address externally in the world through their missions. (David Allyn, “Mission Mirroring: Understanding Conflict in Nonprofit Organizations”, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, June 2010). https://lnkd.in/e8t-PnVW Some of the questions this brings to mind for us in terms of investing in the nonprofit workforce…. — How can organizing and empowerment of workers in nonprofits strengthen their organizations, rather than weaken them? — How can unionizing and other internal change efforts within nonprofits not use an us versus them framing that pits “workers” against “bosses”? — How can nonprofit c-suite leaders do a better job of listening, learning, and responding to their staff about workplace conditions? And explaining the limitations under which they operate? — How can funders help grantee executives to use grant funds to proactively invest in the workforce, to address the needs of nonprofit workers intentionally and in a timely fashion, so that they can “live their values” and avoid harmful conflict? What questions does it raise for you? Tell us in the comments.
