The 'Bird Union' protests the National Audubon Society's alleged 'anti-worker behavior' and 'racist legacy'
On Wednesday, unionized workers represented by the ‘Bird Union,’ a Communications Workers of America (CWA) affiliate, protested outside the National Audubon Society in New York over what the union alleges is ‘aggressive anti-worker behavior’ and ‘stalling’ contract negotiations.
Negotiations began in September 2021, according to the union, and Audubon “has only agreed to seven of the workers’ proposals, out of a total 29.”
In addition, the union accused Audubon’s leadership of deciding to unilaterally cut workers' healthcare benefits amid contract negotiations.
In response, the union stated, the Bird Union’s parent union, the CWA filed three Unfair Labor Practice charges on behalf of the workers against the National Audubon Society with the National Labor Relations Board.
“The day of action was the workers’ latest effort to rebuke the organization’s racist legacy,” the CWA stated.
Although Audubon’s board of directors voted to keep the name of John James Audubon, a notorious white supremacist and enslaver, Audubon workers officially changed their union name to “The Bird Union” earlier this month to demonstrate their commitment to antiracism.
In its battle to obtain a new contract, the union has used the organization’s namesake, French-American bird artist John James Audubon and, as the New York Times describes him, his ‘history as an enslaver with racist views toward Black and Indigenous people’ as a cudgel during its contract campaign.
In mid-March, after the National Audubon Society’s board of directors decided not to change the bird conservation group’s name, which prompted three board members to resign, the union issued a statement accusing the board of “celebrating a white supremacist and to continue to brand our good work with his name actively inflicts harm on marginalized communities, including members of our union who for too long have been excluded from the environmental movement.”
In a statement following the decision to retain Audubon’s name, the organization stated the decision followed a “robust and inclusive evaluation process, which spanned more than 12 months and included input from more than 2,300 people from across the NAS network and beyond—including survey responses from more than 1,700 NAS staff, members, volunteers, donors, chapters, campus chapter members, and partners and more than 600 people across the country with a focus on reaching people of color and younger people.”
“The decision to keep the name bucks a recent trend of social reckoning that had led to renaming schools and streets, and the removal of statues to sever associations with people with racist histories,” reported the New York Times in mid-March, “including fellow bird conservation groups that have recently dropped Audubon from their names.”