Promotoras successfully unionize at Westwood nonprofit Re:Vision
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DENVER — The promotoras at Re:Vision have unionized, after months of organizing against what they described as unfair treatment from Mariana del Hierro, the executive director of the Westwood-based food equity nonprofit.
“There is some type of favoritism that she shows towards others, and we all just want to be treated the same. Mariana would always act out from her emotions. Her words can hurt people, and she doesn’t recognize it,” said one promotora in the union, who spoke on the condition of anonymity over fear of retaliation.
Re:Vision’s promotoras provide food and health education to their community, staff a no-cost grocery store and teach their neighbors how to grow produce at home.
The nonprofit has employed a promotora model for community health since 2010. Del Hierro became executive director in 2022.
The majority of the organization’s promotoras joined UFCW Local 7, the local chapter of the United Food & Commercial Workers labor union. This move gives the promotoras more leverage in negotiations with Re:Vision management.
In a press release, del Hierro said the nonprofit is “excited to move forward together with UFCW Local 7 and continue building an organization that lives its values inside and out.”
The National Labor Relations Board is closed due to the government shutdown, which started Oct. 1. Because of the NLRB’s closure, the promotoras and UFCW couldn’t hold an official election to certify the union, which would have forced Re:Vision to recognize it.
Instead, a group of promotoras, community members and representatives from UFCW Local 7 delivered a letter to del Hierro Oct. 28, asking the organization to voluntarily recognize the promotoras as part of the union.
Re:Vision recognized the union Oct. 31.
“Now, the nonprofit organization is going to have to listen,” UFCW organizer Jimena Peterson said. “They’re going to have to come to the table. They’re going to have to pay attention and no longer just push them aside and say, ‘yeah, we’ll look into it’ or not even respond.”
It’s been a months-long journey for the promotoras to reach this milestone. Current and former employees of the nonprofit began speaking up about their negative experiences at work after del Hierro terminated then-education director Mayra Olivas in May.
Olivas joined Re:Vision in 2011 as a promotora under different leadership. Her termination came a few days after she sent an email to Re:Vision’s Board of Directors requesting an investigation into del Hierro’s behavior towards her.
In her email, Olivas expressed fear that she might face retaliation for speaking to the board.
Olivas noticed a pattern of del Hierro pushing out employees who no longer had a good personal relationship with her. She said del Hierro would isolate these employees or put them on an improvement plan with no clear path forward, as a way to justify letting them go.
“The promotoras were so proud of their work, and then, when they were going through so many injustices and being treated this way, they were losing their light,” Olivas said in Spanish. “They continued to do the best work they could because they are very committed to the community.”
One current promotora told Rocky Mountain PBS that a lack of communication and clarity from leadership made her job harder than it needed to be.
This year, del Hierro ran for a seat on the Denver school board in District 2, representing southwest Denver. Despite an endorsement from Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, she lost to incumbent Xóchitl "Sochi" Gaytán in the Nov. 4 election.
The dozen organizing promotoras, all of them women, met with the board in July to address the problems they had with del Hierro’s leadership.
“As always, it felt like they were listening to us, but they didn’t want to do much about it,” one of the promotoras at the meeting said.
After their meeting with the board, the promotoras created a website to make their concerns public and share updates. By the end of the summer, the promotoras decided unionization was their best option to advocate for themselves.
In a press release, Re:Vision said it found out about their employees’ plan to unionize when the promotoras delivered the letter to del Hierro in late October. A current promotora agreed their request to unionize was a surprise to the nonprofit.
Though Olivas is not an employee at Re:Vision anymore, she’s been an active supporter of the current promotoras’ unionization efforts, helping them connect with resources like UFCW.
“I think working in a nonprofit organization, you expect that you will be treated well, and you will simply be valued as a human being,” Olivas said in Spanish.
“I think it’s a good time for all of us to know that we shouldn’t just feel that as immigrants or people of color, we should be grateful to have a job, but that we deserve respect and dignity.”
The next steps for the organized promotoras is to negotiate their first union contract with Re:Vision. UFCW will support the women during those negotiations.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.