Democrat National Committee (DNC) employees voted to unionize after getting over two-thirds of eligible staff members to sign union cards, making the vote official on Tuesday, according to Business Insider.
The DNC employees will unionize with SEIU Local 500 after 67 percent of the eligible staff members at the DNC signed union cards, according to the report. The union will now go into formal contract negotiations with DNC management.
During the process, the DNC publicly supported the efforts. Former Democrat Rep. Donna Edwards (MD) was tasked as the “independent observer” to oversee the final card count.
The DNC unionizing — which staff has been trying to do since 2018 — will have lasting effects on the other Democrat-run organizations across the country moving forward since it is the central organizing wing for Democrats.
Insider added:
The DNC’s move to organize is part of a broader effort among Democratic campaign workers and staffers at political strategy firms to unionize as the pandemic forces the nation to reckon with workplace culture.
In October, employees of the digital firm Rising Tide Interactive, which creates social media and email strategies for politicians, voted to unionize with Service Employees International Union Local 500.
Several other firms have organized with the Campaign Workers Guild, founded in 2017 to organize campaigns and the companies that support them. In April, staff at the progressive digital firm Fireside Campaigns voted to unionize with CWG. The next month, workers at Break Something Inc. followed suit and announced in August that that management had voluntarily recognized their union. Act Blue, the primary fundraising platform for Democrats, also unionized with CWG in 2020. The company voluntarily recognized CWG as its workers’ bargaining representative and welcomed the union in a chipper blog post.
DNC staffer and Union Leader Alison Goh said in a statement:
Throughout this process, our aim has been not only to improve the lives of current and future staff at the DNC, but to ensure our staff, no matter where they live, are protected and given the resources they need to thrive in their careers and succeed in our mission to elect Democrats up and down the ballot.
DNC Executive Director Sam Cornale said in a statement that the committee is “proud to voluntarily recognize SEIU Local 500 after a majority of DNC employees expressed their desire for union representation in a mutually agreed-upon bargaining unit.”
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.