ACLU Staff United Reaches First Collective Bargaining Agreement Further Strengthening Workplace Rights and Protections
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ACLU Staff United, represented by the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, IFPTE Local 70 (NPEU), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are proud to announce the ratification of their first collective bargaining agreement, a historic milestone for the hundreds of ACLU employees who make up the bargaining unit. This agreement follows the ACLU’s voluntary recognition of ACLU Staff United in May 2021, representing a shared commitment to workers' rights and the continued pursuit of civil liberties.
The four-year contract, retroactively effective from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2028, establishes a robust foundation of workplace protections, transparent and fair pay, and equitable policies that benefit all bargaining unit members. Key provisions include salary increases, improved work-life balance measures, and expanded benefits.
The contract builds upon the pay and benefits package the ACLU already offered its employees prior to the negotiation of the contract, which included: 4 weeks paid vacation; 16 weeks of paid family leave; 15 holidays; gender affirming healthcare for all level of employees; travel expenses for staff members seeking abortion care; family forming services, including IVF and surrogacy; long-term disability coverage for mental health conditions through retirement; backup day care; breast milk delivery; reimbursement for caregiving expenses while traveling for work; and transparent and competitive salaries, including a living wage for support-level roles well exceeding $70,000.
“We are incredibly proud of the contract we’ve secured with the ACLU, which not only provides concrete improvements in pay and benefits but also reinforces a culture of transparency, mutual accountability, and equity,” said Eva Lopez, a member of the union bargaining committee. “This contract represents the shared values of the ACLU and its staff to create a fair, inclusive workplace for all.”
“The ACLU, founded in the wake of the Palmer Raids targeting labor activists, is now more reflective of that early commitment to the rights of labor,” said Alejandro Ortiz, another member of the union bargaining committee. “In the six years I’ve been here, we have agitated and organized in service of mutual aid and collective bargaining, inspired to set an example for others to follow. This contract is the worthy product of that effort. It represents a milestone in the ACLU’s storied history and advances its commitment to fulfill the ideals of its founders. We could not be prouder.”
Key highlights of the agreement:
Guaranteed Wage Increases: The contract includes annual wage increases of 3.5% in FY2026, 4% in FY2027, and 4% in FY2028, in addition to retroactive pay adjustments for FY2024.
Enhanced Paid Leave Policies: Employees now have 20 weeks of 100% paid family, medical, and parental leave, inclusive of chosen family, spouses and domestic partners, children, parents, siblings, and grandparents.
Work-Life Balance Improvements: The ACLU has committed to a 2-days-per-week hybrid work policy, with an option for permanent remote work status, through 2028, as well as flexible work schedules, protections against excessive off-hours communication, and for employees who have been with the ACLU for 7 years or longer a paid self-care leave (i.e., sabbatical) policy for up to 75 days.
Stronger Layoff and Severance Protections. The ACLU must provide increased notice, higher severance packages, career counseling services, and three months of health care coverage (including gender-affirming care and family planning benefits) in the event of layoffs.
Expanded Health and Wellness Benefits: Enhanced benefits include a new Roth 401(k) option, immediate 401(k) vesting, health insurance from day one of employment, and support for student loan repayments.
“The ACLU has enjoyed a collaborative working relationship with its unionized employees spanning nearly five decades. Our first collective bargaining unit in ACLU headquarters (represented by the UAW) was established in the 1970s and we’ve had a productive, decades-long relationship with that union,” said Terence Dougherty, Deputy Executive Director and General Counsel, ACLU. “We were pleased to voluntarily recognize our second collective bargaining unit (represented by IFPTE) in 2021 — through a cooperative card-check process and this contract underscores the extent to which the ACLU’s management deeply values its workers and provides essential benefits to all of its employees.”
“We are enormously proud that the ACLU and the ACLU Staff United, which represents 375 staff members, have reached a collective bargaining agreement after a respectful and open series of bargaining sessions. This landmark contract underscores the ACLU’s continued commitment to both workplace justice and civil liberties and sets a powerful example within the nonprofit sector,” said Charizma Williams, Chief Operating Officer, ACLU.
For more information, please contact:
Valeria Mejia-Guevara, VP for Communications, NPEU: vmejiaguevara@npeu.org
Lauren Weiner, Director of Media & Strategic Engagement, ACLU: lweiner@aclu.org
About the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union, IFPTE Local 70
The Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU), a local of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, AFL-CIO represents professionals employed at more than 50 nonprofit organizations in DC and across the United States. With thousands of members, NPEU gives nonprofit workers a voice to strengthen their workplaces and continue to do work that makes a difference in people’s lives. More information is available at npeu.org.
About the American Civil Liberties Union
For 105 years, the ACLU has been our nation’s guardian of liberty, working in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
Whether it’s achieving full equality for LGBTQ+ people, establishing new privacy protections for our digital age of widespread government surveillance, ending mass incarceration, preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion, fighting for immigrants’ and women’s rights and protecting the right to express one’s views, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties and civil rights cases and issues to defend all people from government abuse and overreach.
With millions of members, activists, and supporters, the ACLU is a nationwide organization that fights tirelessly in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C., to safeguard everyone’s rights.
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