On June 3, 2024, SAGE received a request from SAGE staff to voluntarily recognize SAGE Workers Union, a newly formed union affiliated with the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 153, as the exclusive bargaining representative of a group of SAGE employees who have chosen to organize.
As an initial matter, SAGE wants to emphasize that it supports its employees’ right to unionize and sees great value in voluntarily recognizing the Union once the scope of the bargaining unit is agreed upon and majority support is established. With our Staff, we stand together in serving and advocating with, and on behalf of, our community’s older adults. Our organization deeply values the dedicated work of our Staff for our diverse community of elders and the importance of what each of us brings to our shared cause. We join our Staff in the sober recognition that our community faces growing threats, and our work is vital to protect our community.
We look forward to working with the Union to learn more about its request for voluntary recognition—namely, which employees the Union seeks to represent— and agreeing upon the specifics of a card check arrangement through which a neutral third party can confirm whether the Union has majority support of the agreed-upon bargaining unit. Once these matters are decided, and majority support is confirmed, SAGE fully intends to voluntarily recognize the Union and begin bargaining in good faith to reach a collective bargaining agreement as thoughtfully and expeditiously as possible.
“The SAGE leadership team has always supported the right of our staff to form or join a union if they so choose. For this reason, even before being approached by SAGE Workers Union and OPEIU Local 153, it has always been the intent of SAGE to voluntarily recognize any union that sought to represent an appropriate bargaining unit of SAGE employees after majority support was established,” said Michael Adams, SAGE’s CEO.
