ACTBLUE/ATS

For Immediate Release: July 9

Contact: Rachel van Raan | rvanraan@cwa-union.org | (347) 225-7540

Tech Workers at Progressive Electoral Company ActBlue Ratify First Union Contract

SOMERVILLE, MA – 100 members of CWA Local 1400 have reached an agreement with their employer, ActBlue, for a first union contract. This tentative agreement was reached after 19 months of negotiations, supported by mobilization of union members.

Union members have met to review the tentative agreement and voted overwhelmingly today in favor of ratification by 95% of the membership. The contract will be valid from July 8, 2024 through June 30, 2027.

Top issues heading into negotiations included workplace protections, establishing grievance and arbitration procedures, and codifying benefits to prevent discrimination and harassment.

The industry-leading agreement includes significant wage increases for each year over the life of the contract; a first-of-its-kind prohibition on any kind of surveillance of staff work or work activities, including the use of employee-monitoring technology; a process for layoff and recall procedures; professional development fund and tuition reimbursement; worker protections regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence; changes to parental leave allowing workers to take leave either continuously or intermittently in their first twelve months; establishment of just cause, union representation, grievance, arbitration, and progressive discipline procedures; assurance that ActBlue management will remain neutral if any non-union-represented employees choose to unionize in the future.

"ActBlue has always been a tool for progress, utilized by leaders in the progressive and democratic space,” said Kathleen Moorman, ActBlue worker and member of the Bargaining Committee. “Now this contract ensures that those very same ideals we pride ourselves on empowering via our tools are reflected in a workplace rooted in respect and dignity. We are so incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished together!"

"By exercising our solidarity and collective power, our union has won a contract with solid protections that will meaningfully impact our working conditions and our lives,” said Cynthia Mancha, ActBlue worker and member of the Bargaining Committee. “Though we’ve faced a lot of adversity throughout the bargaining process, we’ve endured and are proud of this milestone we’ve reached as a unit! It’s a precarious time for workers in this country, and tech workers have been subjected to that precarity with increasing frequency and callousness over the last few years with an uptick in layoffs across the sector. We’re excited not only about how our contract wins will govern our workplace, but also about how they might inform and influence organizing efforts in the tech industry and beyond."

ActBlue tech workers drive the core internal work keeping the fundraising platform running and helping to expand the organization’s mission. The tasks performed by these workers has taken on even more significance in advance of the 2024 Elections, in which thousands of campaigns are collecting donations and raising funds through ActBlue’s small donation platform.

“These workers are absolutely essential to the backbone of our democratic process,” said Don Trementozzi, President, CWA Local 1400. “We all know how big this election is this year, and it was very important to us to settle a strong, fair contract so that these workers can have a voice in their workplace, and to have a strong contract that protects them on the job. The tech world is changing fast, and we need to make sure that workers are not left behind as more companies move towards things like AI and more automation.  This contract will set standards for tech workers throughout the country—I couldn’t be more proud of this agreement.”

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CWA District 1 represents 145,000 workers in 200 CWA local unions in New York, New Jersey, New England, and eastern Canada. CWA members work in telecommunications, health care, higher education, manufacturing, broadcast and cable television, commercial printing and newspapers, state, local, and country government.