Social Policy Workers United Holds 3 Day ULP Strike at MDRC

Members of Social Policy Workers United (SPWU), the staff union at MDRC, held a three-day Unfair Labor Practice Strike on Thursday, Friday, and Monday to protest withheld wage increases that target members of the union. MDRC is a social policy research organization focused on programs and policies affecting people with low incomes. SPWU organized in 2021 to create a fair, equitable, and just workplace.  

After nearly two years of bargaining, MDRC Management decided to withhold year end wage increases to union members, while implementing them to employees outside the bargaining unit, presumably to pressure the union. This violates MDRC’s longstanding policy and behavior earlier in negotiations, and has caused undue hardship on MDRC’s union employees, when many are struggling to make ends meet. Each day that MDRC Management chooses to withhold wage increases, they cause more harm to over 170 MDRC workers. SPWU filed Unfair Labor Practice Charges against MDRC in early May. Workers picketed MDRC's headquarters in Manhattan as well as satellite locations in Washington, D.C. and Oakland, CA.

"Our members have gone nearly a year and a half without receiving raises, while the cost of  living continues to skyrocket," said Colin Hill, SPWU Vice President. "While MDRC stalls, we still have rent checks to write, bills to pay,  and groceries to buy. MDRC must remedy the financial harm caused by its unfair labor  practice." Follow the workers' fight here for future opportunities to show support.