We respectfully and formally request community support in ensuring that Adoption STAR:
1) We represent a majority, so recognize our union or remain neutral as we pursue a union election to gain a seat at the table as we negotiate for our wages, conditions, and policies at work with the support of CWA local 1122.
2) Reinstate the 4 employees illegally fired under section 8(a)(1) & (3) of the National Labor Relations Act to right the Unfair Labor Practice committed.
Adoption STAR is an agency we have all poured our days, nights, and weekends into while we maintain our own families. Ethical adoption agencies are hard to find in a field with so many historical wrongs, so much exploitation and trauma to address - and we are truly proud to build and maintain STAR. We provide a unique and ethical service of pro-choice pregnancy options counseling and adoption planning, helping to unite expectant moms in an unexpected pregnancy with a family she can trust and maintain a relationship with. We find homes for older children who are unable to unite with their birth families and enduring the instability of foster care. We run a small international program. We prepare families painstakingly for all of the above.
From the office, the field, to the hospital, we field calls, maintain confidentiality and legal compliance, and are with people as they go through life-changing events in their families.
💔 But some of us struggle when we try to grow our own families, or even to make ends meet. 💸
🚑👨👩👧👦 We do not receive any assistance with cost-sharing for our dependents in our healthcare plan, severely cutting into our wages. One of our workers makes only a few hundred dollars in her paychecks despite being a full-time master's level professional, to insure her family.
🤱🤯 We do not have a standard for parental leave, leading to inconsistent and inadequate solutions when we become parents.
📝💰 We face strict compliance and administrative tasks as a child welfare agency, but these positions salaries and supports are inconsistent and low compared to local standards. We found that a new member of this team was making the same amount as a worker who had been here 3 years.
😷🦠 We have not received employee health specialist fittings for N95s for our clinical staff that goes into hospitals. One worker has contracted COVID and then had to be off work from her vulnerable expectant clients for extended time.
☎️🕐 We regularly work on-call without guaranteed coverage to make up the hours that burn us out, and always without compensation.
When we began organizing, we knew we would make the agency an even more ethical place we were proud to serve at. Instead, four employees who spoke up about our COVID exposures, wages, and unmanageable caseloads were illegally fired. Another worker resigned out of opposition. As of the time of our election, three more pro-union workers overwhelmed with being lied to and intimidated daily, while still faced with inadequate compensation, left.
These staff were given no reason or warning of the action taken against their livelihoods, alarming our clients and STAR’s remaining employees. Together, they've given years of service and built their programs, and leave behind several urgent and active cases. This action has increased all of our urgent workloads drastically and unexpectedly. This action has damaged the agency’s reputation, connection to our clients, and ongoing cases. It has the potential to damage our relationships to the entities who partner with us. This action, as it was taken without warning or explanation, has left the remaining staff fearful with no guidance on how to maintain our own employment.
We ethically cannot leave the families, moms, dads, and children we serve in the dark. We are organizing because we love Adoption STAR... and we ARE Adoption STAR. Please support our efforts. Thank you for your solidarity - we are going to make it through this together. 🧸⭐️
