Architects at a New York Firm Form the Industry’s Only Private-Sector Union

A union campaign dating back two years and involving workers at several New York-based architecture firms has notched its first victory. Employees of a 22-member firm, Bernheimer Architecture, announced Thursday that they had formed what appears to be the country’s only formal union at a private-sector architecture firm.

The architects will join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers — and the firm, which specializes in affordable-housing and other residential projects, has recognized the union voluntarily.

“We recognize that both the employer and employees in the field of architectural work face constraints and challenges beyond the control of any individual firm,” the employee group BA Union said in a joint statement with the firm. “By working together we can uplift the profession and industry in ways that we could not by acting alone.” Read more in the NY Times.