Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images
Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous speaks with a reporter at the environmental advocacy group’s offices in Washington, October 26, 2023.
The Progressive Workers Union (PWU), one of two unions representing employees of the environmental nonprofit Sierra Club, has authorized the organization’s first-ever strike, according to a June 27 press release. The vote was held last Wednesday night, with 82 percent of the union’s 189 members voting in favor. The strike is set to begin tomorrow.
The strike authorization vote comes after PWU, alongside Sierra Club’s other union, Sierra Employee Alliance (SEA), sent a letter to the organization’s board of directors demanding they replace executive director Ben Jealous and his executive team. The letter was sent after members of both unions voted in favor of a resolution of “no confidence” in executive leadership.
Both the vote to strike and the vote of no confidence come amid repeated staff layoffs and organizational restructurings. Jealous and his executive team have been accused of mishandling funds, violating the terms of the unions’ labor contracts, and cutting staff positions to save money rather than trimming their own salaries.
PWU and SEA have accused Sierra Club leaders of various labor violations within the past year, with PWU filing nine separate unfair labor practice charges (ULPs) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), according to a June 5 press release.
The labor turmoil for the longtime environmental advocacy group comes in advance of a critical election season, and could damage the ability of the group to have a voice in a campaign with stark differences on climate policies between the candidates. Donald Trump has threatened various aspects of Joe Biden’s clean-energy investments and regulations, particularly mandates for electric vehicles. He has vowed to ramp up oil exploration in the U.S. and reportedly asked oil company executives for $1 billion in donations in exchange for regulatory relief.
This past May, a list of 30 employees that Sierra Club’s leadership planned to lay off was leaked. Three of these employees were on the national unit bargaining team, and two were on PWU’s executive committee. Erica Dodt, national unit representative and bargaining team member, was among those who appeared on the list. Dodt said that leadership let her go in retaliation for her bargaining efforts during last year’s layoffs, despite knowing that she is pregnant.
“I … have also been the lead negotiator on the pregnancy and disability articles during contract negotiation, in which we won additional parental time and have tentatively agreed to some additional time as well as the payout for parental time if someone were to be involuntarily laid off,” Dodt told the Prospect in an interview.
Dodt, who is set to officially be laid off this month, said that Sierra Club leadership has denied her and another pregnant employee these benefits, despite tentatively agreeing to them during contract negotiation.
Sierra Club had multiple rounds of budget cuts, layoffs, and restructurings in the years before Jealous was hired, largely a result of the pandemic. In those cases, staff members who wanted to leave could take a voluntary severance package to prevent involuntary layoffs of other staff members, as per the union contract. But that changed after Jealous took over, says Dylan Plummer, acting representative of the Sierra Club national unit.
“They basically only offered the voluntary severance program to employees who were already slated for involuntary layoff,” Plummer said. “They said you can either accept a voluntary layoff that has extra incentives, or you’ll be involuntarily laid off. It’s just a greater severance package, basically.”
Jealous, Sierra Club’s first African American executive director, has an established career as a progressive activist and nonprofit leader. He was president of the NAACP from 2008 to 2013, and president of People for the American Way from 2020 to 2021. He also ran for governor of Maryland in 2018, losing to Republican incumbent Larry Hogan, who is now running for U.S. Senate.
Former colleagues from Jealous’s prior organizations, some of whom work with him on Sierra Club’s executive team, have spoken highly of his work. For example, Roger Vann, who has worked alongside Jealous at the NAACP and People for the American Way, told E&E News that he “has a penchant for taking over organizations that are in some need of change. Wherever he goes, he’s going to shake things up.”
On top of a series of layoffs, Sierra Club had experienced a few controversies, including a rape case brought against a former employee and reports of a toxic workplace. So, given his reputation within progressive circles, Sierra Club employees initially celebrated Jealous’s hiring. But, as some employees told The New Republic, the organization’s culture has changed dramatically since he was hired, and is now marked by an air of uncertainty and intimidation.
Jealous has repeatedly denied these allegations and defended his decisions as necessary for the expansion of Sierra Club’s environmental work. In fact, he has countered these claims by accusing union staff of spreading misinformation and disrupting Sierra Club’s work. He has even suggested that the criticisms he’s received are racially biased.
“Their tactics in attacking the brand of this organization for years are unique,” Jealous said to E&E News. The outlet also reported that Jealous “accused the union of sending reporters to Sierra Club’s leaders with ‘multiple lies’ that ‘follow racist tropes about Black leadership.’”
It should be noted, Dodt said, that there is no evidence that Jealous has filed any formal complaints regarding racism through Sierra Club’s official channels.
Neither Ben Jealous nor members of his executive team could be reached for comment.
