Workers at the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, a shelter that serves the unhoused community and more than 22,000 families and individuals a year in Denver, voted to unionize Wednesday.
The vote comes after an almost year-long organizing campaign by staff. They cited low pay, high employee turnover, and inadequate resources required to serve the community as reasons for unionizing.
“I think that people in social work, people often say that ‘We’re not in it for the money,’ and while that’s also kind of true, I think that this idea that we also don’t need our needs met just like our clients, creates a bigger division between us,” Sarah Pfister, a peer specialist at the Coalition for the Homeless, told Denverite…