Building Worker Power in 2025: Organizing Wins Across Greater Cleveland

In 2025, workers across Greater Cleveland showed what is possible when people come together around shared values: dignity on the job, fairness at work, and the belief that workplaces function best when workers have a real voice. From hospitals and nonprofits to cultural institutions and newsrooms, organizing victories this year reflected growing momentum for the labor movement—and pointed to the importance of coordinated, worker-centered strategies to increase the pace and scale of organizing.

These wins come amid a national organizing resurgence. Public approval of unions is at a 50-year high, workers in new industries are organizing, and employees across the economy are demanding safer conditions, fair pay, and respect. In 2022, delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention adopted Resolution 1: Building Worker Power to Increase the Pace and Scale of Organizing, calling on the labor movement at every level to make organizing the central priority of all our work. In Greater Cleveland, that directive is being reflected in real campaigns and growing infrastructure.

One of the most significant wins of the year came from MetroHealth behavioral health nurses, who voted overwhelmingly to join the Ohio Nurses Association/AFT. Facing chronic understaffing, workplace violence, and limited input into decisions affecting patient care, nurses organized not just for better wages, but for the ability to document unsafe assignments, challenge retaliation, and advocate effectively for their patients—especially as mental health services face continued funding pressures.

Workers at Kinnect, a Cleveland-based nonprofit serving children and families across Ohio, also secured an important victory in 2025. Coming together as Kinnect United, employees voted overwhelmingly to unionize with OPEIU. Workers organized around the belief that an organization dedicated to stability and support for families should reflect those same values internally. Their campaign echoed a growing national call—also reflected in Resolution 1—for nonprofit employers to respect workers’ rights to organize without union-busting.

At the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, employees organized as CMNH Workers United and voted to join AFSCME Ohio Council 8. Workers cited chronic understaffing, wage transparency, and the need for a stronger voice in decision-making, particularly as the museum entered a new chapter following a $150 million renovation. Their win mirrors a national wave of cultural workers organizing to ensure that institutional investments include the people who make those institutions possible.

Journalists at Signal Ohio also organized this year, securing voluntary recognition and joining the Northeast Ohio NewsGuild. More than 80 percent of eligible employees—including every full-time reporter—signed union cards before leadership chose to recognize the union. As nonprofit journalism expands across the region, workers organized to ensure equity, sustainability, and transparency in a rapidly evolving industry.

Additional victories in 2025 included UFCW Local 880 at Terrasana Cannabis, Operating Engineers Local 18 at Cummins, OAPSE at Shaker Heights Schools, Teamsters Local 507 at the Cleveland Metroparks, and Teamsters Local 436 in Olmsted Township. New organizing efforts also launched, including physicians at University Hospitals—an effort that drew national attention—and baristas at Rising Star Coffee.

What connects these campaigns is not a single employer or industry, but a growing ecosystem of solidarity, coordination, and organizing capacity across Northeast Ohio. In line with Resolution 1’s call to prioritize organizing in all labor movement activity, the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor has focused on strengthening the conditions that allow organizing to succeed: convening unions across sectors, aligning support, nurturing worker activism, and helping ensure that workers are not organizing alone.

That long-term strategy came into clearer focus in 2025. The Federation convened a regional organizing roundtable, bringing together leaders from multiple industries to share lessons and coordinate support. Cleveland also welcomed the AFL-CIO’s Organizing Institute for the first time in nearly 25 years, training more than 40 organizers—half from Northeast Ohio—in the fundamentals of building worker power, from one-on-one conversations to leadership development and issue-based campaigns.

At the same time, the launch of UnionizeCLE.org created a clear front door for workers looking to take the first step toward forming a union or finding a union job or apprenticeship. Envisioned as Greater Cleveland’s union organizing hub, UnionizeCLE.org is a Federation initiative designed to make organizing more accessible and less intimidating. The site connects workers directly with organizers, provides clear information about workplace rights, and helps workers pursue fair pay, safer conditions, and the benefits and protections that come with union membership.

A union jobs board—currently under development—is powered by the Federation’s economic development arm, the United Labor Agency (ULA). Founded in 1971 by the Cleveland AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the ULA has a long history of helping unemployed and underemployed workers access union careers and apprenticeships.

These victories didn’t happen by accident,” said Brian Pearson, Executive Secretary of the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor. “Workers are organizing because they’re ready—and our responsibility as a labor movement is to meet that moment by removing barriers, building infrastructure, and making sure every worker who wants a union knows where to turn.

Together, these campaigns show what is possible when workers have the tools, support, and confidence to organize. In 2025, Cleveland’s labor movement didn’t just talk about growth—it delivered. And the work to increase the pace and scale of organizing is only accelerating as we head into 2026.