SAGE Nonprofit Workers Win Voluntary Recognition of their Union

New York, NY - Workers at SAGE , the nation’s largest and oldest advocacy and service organization for LGBTQ+ older people, are thrilled to announce that they have formed the SAGE Workers Union, affiliated with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 153. 

After announcing their intent to unionize on June 3, 2024, SAGE management formally and voluntarily recognized the SAGE Workers Union on June 28th, after a card check showed more than 80% of the 70 eligible staff supported the union on June 28, 2024. 

In an act of worker solidarity, the organizing committee spent much of June advocating to include all eligible members of the wall-to-wall union and providing support and encouragement for those management initially attempted to exclude. After several meetings and further discussions, the workers were able to ensure every eligible position was included - winning back more than half of those initially excluded. 

“On behalf of the entire SAGE Workers Union, I am so proud to have won our Union with a supermajority of cards signed by the social workers, program staff, care managers, facilities staff, policy advocates, tenant coordinators, concierges, communications staff, and the frontline staff that keep SAGE running and able to support our elders,” says Emma Bessire, Campaign Manager at SAGE. “I am looking forward to meeting management at the bargaining table to build a world where the workers that support our community are supported themselves. We won’t stand for routine medical expenses being denied by our insurance, for the pay inequity between frontline staff and management, and decisions that affect our participants and our lives being made without us. As a member of the advocacy team, I have been organizing for a better world since I was a teenager; but today, I am perhaps most proud of the accomplishment of winning our union and preparing to bargain for a contract for all.”

As an organization made up of staff that are predominantly members of the LGBTQ+ community, this is a major victory for the workers at SAGE and for LGBTQ+ nonprofit workers. This move furthers the march towards a more just and visible existence for all LGBTQ+ workers, and the community overall. 

SAGE Workers Union is guided by their passion for serving the LGBTQ+ community and are proud to follow in the footsteps of our Elders who fought not only for LGBTQ+ rights but labor rights. SAGE Workers Union is proud to stand in solidarity and remembrance that LGBTQ+ rights are workers rights and are inextricably intertwined. 

The SAGE Workers Union is glad to hear SAGE management’s support of the union and looks forward to the next steps including negotiating their first contract. In doing so, the union is continuing the long history of the LGBTQ+ community refusing to go unheard.