The historic effort by staff at Bernheimer Architecture to form the industry’s first union at a private-sector U.S. architecture firm is now complete after their ratification of a collective bargaining agreement in the firm's New York office this week. The vote on Thursday was unanimous. Founder and 2023 AIA NY Medal of Honor recipient Andy Bernheimer is said to have worked openly with organizers to meet a mutual understanding on the contract, whose finalized terms are still forthcoming.
The process began in the summer of 2022 following the failed effort of workers at SHoP to form their own union, an episode that vaulted the conditions of architectural labor into the broader national media spotlight. The BA Union, as it is so-named, is part of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), which has over 646,000 active members in the United States and Canada.
Groups such as Architectural Workers United are hailing its formal establishment as a major victory for the industry. It comes the year after major strides were made at other firms and as a product of their organizing. Many of the areas highlighted by the BA Union's contract (salary transparency, working remotely, visa employee protections, the distribution of different roles within the structure of project teams, among others) will be of great importance to the other ten or so union efforts thought to be underway at present.
"Architecture is a creative and wide-ranging discipline, bringing together many of the sectors and challenges we face today. Within this discipline, BA has been a progressive office at the fore-front of design, craft, and quality, affordable housing. Though we are stepping into uncharted territory in many ways, we are overwhelmingly excited, and hopeful, to bolster the values that make BA special. We encourage and invite other practices to join us in this endeavor to reshape the industry at large," the group shared after its initial formation in 2022.
Archinect has more information about the unfolding union movement in architecture, including the thoughts of The Architecture Lobby founding member and Yale SoA professor emerita Peggy Deamer, who is considered one of the leading experts on the industry's labor conditions and their bearing on professional practice, here.
2 Comments
It's fitting that as your office politics turns more Soviet, so does the architecture.
It would be so great to see a real, non-socialist NYT arch critic take apart these new McUrbanist apartment buildings. They are expensive, inefficient and compare poorly with pre-war NYC buildings that were 100x better designed.
Congratulations to all involved! Very eager to learn more about the contract (fingers crossed) or at least lessons learned during the negotiations.
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