Employees of the Barack Obama Foundation and Presidential Center have taken the first steps toward forming their union withAFSCME Council 31 in Illinois.
A letter from 68 employees was delivered to the full workforce on Wednesday announcing the union organizing effort.
“We are the workers who spend our days fulfilling the vision and values of the Obama Foundation,” they wrote. “We strongly believe in the mission to ‘inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world,’ and now we’d like to change ours.”
Employees are now signing union authorization cards for the purpose of seeking voluntary recognition from foundation management. The new AFSCME affiliate, once formed, would represent about 250 employees who work in all aspects of Obama Foundation operations, including at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, at the foundation’s Washington D.C. offices, and throughout the country.
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