Values

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." - Elie Wiesel 


As public policy advocates we value unambiguous plain intention and meaning in language which stimulates and catalyzes positive impacts and effects.  We recognize due process as a distinct protection from indifference, cynicism, discrimination and antagonism.  We strategically organize through methods and practices which buttress and embody direct democracy.  We seek to advance standards of human potential and open opportunities for others to do the same.

Our organizational governing documents guarantee just cause protections for our leadership and staff.  We practice what we preach.


Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We organize for the adoption of public policy and actively endeavor to foster an organizational culture that encourages diversity, equity, and inclusion.

We value equitable treatment for all, regardless of identity or demographic.

Just cause standards reform the present convention of at-will employment that undermine employment based protections from discrimination.  At-will employment is a legal presumption established in jurisprudence in the late 19th century, prior to passage of Women's Suffrage or the Civil Rights Act.  At-will is a pervasive relic of policymaking during a period of xenophobic and discriminatory standards that has never been affirmatively adopted through federal legislation, and has lingered to the present with insidious effect. 

As a metric of common sense for just cause due process job security, surveys document that Americans commonly believe they have more rights at work than we actually do.  Without explicit conditions of just cause protection, American employees remain vulnerable to the whims of bad-actor employers who may impose discipline or terminate employment without notice or rationale, or for covertly discriminatory or inappropriate reasons.

In 1877 Horace Wood, a New York based railroad attorney, published a treatise titled Master and Servant elaborating the at-will employment doctrine.  Corresponding to the recent ban on slavery (the 13th Amended was ratified by Congress on December 6, 1865), Wood postulated that if workers had a "right to quit" without penalty, employers should have the right to dismiss them at any time without cause.  Such unconditional platitudes informed freedmen being fired for simply demanding to be paid what they were owed, or for attempting to vote.  These same at-will standards inform employer-employee relationship dynamics to present regardless of demographics and with disproportionately negative impacts on workers of color.  

This doctrine has not resolved gender pay disparities, prohibited favoritism, eliminated nepotism, halted employment based retaliation, or stopped workplace harassment.  By statutorily limiting arbitrary termination, the American labor force will be bolstered and inherently stabilized.  Covert discrimination and retaliation will be tougher to hide.

Now is the time to end at-will employment and enact long overdue just cause due process job security for working people.


Union Vision

We envision a new national standard that recognizes the fundamental employment rights for workers applied to the scale of industry and its changing patterns, whether they are presently covered by the National Labor Relations Act or represented by a union.  We recognize that equality and innovative production are contingent upon real opportunity.  The contemporary standard of employment rights has long undermined social cohesion, the well-being of American workers and their families, and the productive potentional of industry.  

We recognize: