Saying that workplace organizing is a natural outgrowth of their work, employees of the Resource Center of the Americas have joined a union.

Jorge Flores is a case in point. As an organizer for the Resource Center's Centro de Derechos Laborales (Center for Worker Rights), Flores assists immigrant workers in asserting their rights on the job.

'If we are a union organization, we can practice what we are preaching,' he said.

The Resource Center, based in Minneapolis, was founded by a handful of activists in 1983 to challenge U.S. military intervention in Central America. Since then, its mission has grown to encompass the entire hemisphere and it has added more than two dozen staff and thousands of volunteers and members.

In 1999, the center moved into its own building in south Minneapolis where it operates a library, bookstore, caf?, classrooms and public meeting space. Staff are engaged in publications, educational activities, cultural events and activist campaigns around issues such as sweatshops and globalization.

Card check recognition
After a majority of the 25 staff members signed cards indicating an interest in being represented by The Minnesota Newspaper Guild/Typographical Union, a local of the Communications Workers of America, the management and board of the Resource Center recognized the union. Workers are now putting together a negotiating committee and preparing for their first contract bargaining session.

'I think we're all going to learn a lot,' said Pam Costain, Resource Center executive director. 'This gives us an opportunity to interact in a new way with the union community.'

The union also is approaching talks in a positive manner, said organizer Marty Demgen. 'The Guild is very excited to be working with such a decent, cutting-edge agency. We support the Resource Center's work in the communities they serve.'

Staff at the Resource Center become the second group of employees at a progressive nonprofit to organize in recent months. Workers at the Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action (MAPA) have joined AFSCME, the public employees union.

Having a voice
The Guild was a natural choice because the union has experience in representing workers at nonprofit agencies, said Chip Mitchell, an editor at the Resource Center. 'Even though we are a progressive nonprofit organization, we as workers have the same issues as workers everywhere,' he said. 'We want not only a voice, we want a powerful voice in determining our pay, benefits and working conditions.'

Membership and Volunteer Coordinator Sarah Horstmann said she supported the organizing effort because she believes it will benefit the Resource Center and its mission.

'From the very beginning, we saw this as an opportunity not only to practice what we preach, but to create a better work situation for everyone,' she said.

Costain said that now that the Resource Center is organized, she hopes that unions and other progressive groups will take advantage of the center's unionized caf? and catering service, which specializes in cuisine from around the hemisphere. For more information, contact the Caf? of the Americas, 612-276-0803.