Rose Brooks employees voted to unionize. What comes next for the domestic violence shelter and its staff?

Rose Brooks Center Union rally. // Photo by Kaylynn Mullins

Rose Brooks workers devote their time and livelihood to helping families and individuals escape domestic violence through crisis hotlines, shelters, job advocacy, and childcare. While incredibly necessary, social and non-profit work remains difficult, and many in the industry want to see change. When employees began unionizing to obtain benefits such as maternity leave and livable wages, they experienced pushback.

After some turbulence with management that resulted in unfair labor charges being filed, the Rose Brooks Union won its election and finally became a recognized union. With the encouragement of the Kansas City Council, excluding two members, the Rose Brooks workers voted to unionize with a 2/3 majority on May 23. 

After the unfair labor charges filed against Rose Brooks on May 20, the workers and union representatives await their trial with the National Labor Rights Board. Despite the claims, those who filed the charges don’t wish for Rose Brooks’ downfall. Caitlyn Adams—Executive Director of Missouri Jobs With Justice—fought for this union alongside the employees. “They care so deeply about that place, but to not invest in themselves is harming Rose Brooks,” Adams says.

The Rose Brooks employees’ decision to unionize isn’t an attack on the organization. Housing and Rose Brooks Economic Advocacy Case Manager Katy Bielski says, “It was never meant to demonize. We just want everyone at our organization to be healthy so that we can give our best to survivors.”

Missouri Jobs with Justice Communications Director Crystal Brigman Mahaney says, “Employees really do love Rose Brooks and want to be there for the long run.” 

With the pushback from management, the unionization process only made the Rose Brooks workers’ jobs harder. “We were spending so much energy on combating misinformation. The thing that motivated me to keep going was knowing that change doesn’t happen without discomfort and struggle. And it was worth the fight,” Bielski says. 

Crisis workers face a lot of emotionally intense situations in their careers, and without the proper tools to sustain themselves, many quit due to burnout or unlivable wages. “For me, it was about voice and wanting to be heard. In any hierarchy, there’s a big disconnect between the people at the top and the people who do the work on the ground. And I think a union can remedy that,” Bielski says. “We can’t help survivors if we’re in survival mode.”

Bielski’s experience with management and co-workers against the union left her discouraged, but she continued to fight for the community. “It made not only forming a union more difficult than it needed to be, but it made it really difficult to show up and be present for our clients,” Bielski says. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been a part of, but it was worth it.”

Bielski, who opened up about the adversity they faced during this process says, “You could just feel like a sense of discomfort with certain members of management. But there were a few people who were openly aggressive.” Bielski says she was verbally assaulted by two different co-workers over the union. “It only happened a couple of times, but then it creates the fear of, when is this going to happen again? So I’m in fight or flight, worrying about that and trying to help a client who’s in fight or flight. It just doesn’t go together,” she says.

Tensions have been high between co-workers, management, and upper management at Rose Brooks, but the union remains hopeful that the two can still work through these issues together. “We want to make sure that we’re setting a tone during bargaining that the workers who perform this lifesaving care should be treated with respect to the negotiation table,” says Laborers Local 955 Representative Andrew Hutchinson. 

“This is the type of organizing that keeps people from leaving. We can build sustainable workplaces where they feel like they have the resources to stay and to survive,” Hutchinson says. Many women-dominated fields like social work suffer similar issues, such as unsustainable wages and lack of personal time off, and Rose Brooks workers want to see a shift in this dynamic. “We are on the start of a new movement for nonprofits, social workers, and government workers in the state of Missouri.”

“I’m hoping that it inspires other anti-violence workers. I want them to know that I want them to have the courage to do the same because I know that this is a problem across the field,” Bielski says.