August 26, 2024 | Burlington, NC – Workers at Down Home North Carolina (DHNC), represented by the Campaign Workers Guild (CWG), have ratified their first collective bargaining agreement with Management. DHNC is North Carolina’s largest rural organizing movement, working to build power for rural, multiracial, working-class people in the state.

This contract significantly improves wages and working conditions for organizers, fellows, campaigners, and office staff and enshrines workers’ rights and codifies respect on the job. Additional provisions include robust disciplinary protections, codified grievance procedure, experience-based and annual Cost of Living-based raises, reimbursement for long commutes, two additional paid holidays, additional sick leave, strong health & safety language including mandatory de-escalation training, and employee representation on the DHNC Board.

Campaign Workers Guild represents workers at the Harris for President Campaign, the North Carolina Democratic Party and Coordinated Campaign, and many other campaigns and progressive nonprofits both throughout the South and around the country. 

“From the coast to the mountains, there is nothing like organizing in beautiful North Carolina to build real multi-racial working class power. We are moving forward in the rich traditions of organizing set by those who came before us in our great state as union workers, and it demonstrates just one of the ways Down Home NC as an organization lives its values. This contract will help set the standard for organizers across the South, setting the framework for others to follow,” said Ryan Wegener, a Field Organizer and Union Bargaining Committee Member.

There is a long history of campaign workers and organizers being overworked and underpaid. Provisions like mileage reimbursement, a monthly phone stipend, and an office stipend significantly reduce Employees’ burden to “pay to work.” An extended time period to take earned compensatory time, a professional development stipend, and protected school activity and parental leave help ensure workers are able to be supported on and off the job. The benefits and protections in this contract raise the bar when it comes to ensuring workers have respect on the job.

Wegener said, “Knowing the protections we have won in our CBA, we can organize with more confidence and vigor to move forward with the vision our members set out in our organization’s platform.”

Todd Zimmer, founder and co-director of Down Home, said, “This contract is a historic achievement, not only for Down Home’s members and staff, but for North Carolina and southern movements. We couldn’t be prouder to be a union workplace.”

Dream Caldwell, Down Home’s other co-director, added, “We’re excited to be a unionized employer, and we believe this contract equips our Down Home employees, staff, and members to be an even stronger movement than before.”

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The Campaign Workers Guild (CWG) is an independent non-partisan national union representing non-management workers on electoral and issue-based campaigns and other political and organizing workplaces