Chris Beck is an architect and member of the newly formed BA Union at New York-based Bernheimer Architecture, which recently ratified a collective bargaining agreement as the industry’s first union at a private-sector U.S. architecture firm. 

Writing for The Progressive Magazine, he says their mission would be considered a failure if not moved successfully from their office and into others across the industry. As other attempts have failed controversially, Beck claims architects’ influence within the building industry has eroded and that "technology is completely dominant, strangling out the artistic skills fostered in the studio environment." Those criticisms echo many brought up in our coverage of Architectural Workers United and other labor groups. 

The terms of the BA Union’s ratified contract have yet to be publicized, though they will undoubtedly serve as a primer for the ten or more union efforts thought to be underway currently as architectural workers take note. Less than 10% of workers in America are organized in unions currently. Designers, in particular, "have the opportunity to contribute in unique ways to the labor movement at large."