United for Respect Education Fund (UREF)

Background

The United for Respect Education Fund is an activist organizing group that demands higher wages for retail workers and tighter regulations on businesses. Its activities mirror the efforts of labor unions, but the group is not itself a labor union. Rather, it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that receives tax benefits reserved for public charities. ¹

The organization derived from a labor-union-backed “United for Respect” advocacy campaign launched in 2011 when a group of 100 workers and activists demonstrated outside of Walmart’s headquarters, calling on the company to raise hourly wages and implement better working conditions. ¹

Activities

The United for Respect Education Fund operates like a labor union, coordinating demonstrations and advocacy campaigns with and on behalf of retail workers and other hourly workers. It is committed to aggressive left-of-center discourse, writing things like, “The retail industry is made up of over 16 million people whose hard work makes a handful of greedy billionaires even richer” and “We’re taking on those billionaires” on its website. ^{1 2}

The organization negotiated for laid-off employees of Toys ‘R’ Us to receive shares in a financial fund with the private-equity firms that owned the business at the time of the layoffs. ^{1 3}

In 2018, United successfully agitated for Walmart to raise its base hourly wage to $11. In 2023, the company raised it to $14. As of 2025, United sought a raise in the base hourly wage to $25. ¹

As of 2025, United for Respect’s Fair Workweek Initiative had convinced 12 retail businesses to provide a “stable workweek” to their employees. It claims credit for the fact that multiple cities, including New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, had passed scheduling regulation laws. ¹

In 2025, its main campaigns were directed at Walmart and Amazon. It said any time it challenges Walmart, the group is “changing the entire service economy,” and it characterized Amazon as a “high-tech sweatshop.” ²

Financials

In 2023, the United for Respect Education Fund reported $6,459,858 in revenue, $8,231,883 in expenses, and $1,324,969 in net assets. ⁴

Funding

In 2024, the United for Respect Education Fund received a $5 million grant from the Ford Foundation. The funds would be transferred over a five-year period and were earmarked to support United for Respect’s mission of “ensur[ing] industry leaders and policymakers provide family-sustaining jobs for all working people in the US and core support for institutional strengthening.” ⁵

United received a second grant of $250,000 from the Ford Foundation in 2024 to support its efforts “to educate low-wage workers on their voting rights across states with focus, as low wage workers are facing heightened levels of misinformation and intimidation.” ⁶

Leadership

As of 2025, the United for Respect Education Fund was led by co-executive directors Bianca Agustin and Terrysa Guerra. It was steered by a board of trustees that included co-president of Global Fund for a New Economy Brian Kettenring, Walmart associate Carolyn Davis, Fair Workweek Initiative consultant Carrie Gleason, founder and CEO of Synergy Power Consulting Jen Epps-Addison, and managing director of Berlin Rosen Lynsey Kryzwick. ¹