On February 1, only a few months after the Brooklyn-based Bernheimer Architecture (BA) formed the first private-sector architecture union in the country, the Center for Architecture in New York hosted a panel discussion addressing ongoing issues surrounding unionization in the profession. At the sold-out “Unionization in Architecture” event organized by AIA New York’s Emerging New York Architects and Future of Practice committees, BA principal Andrew Bernheimer and project designer Kolby Forbes were joined in conversation by Andrew Daley, an architect and activist who serves as associate organizer with Architectural Workers United (AWU), and organizing veterans Jennifer Dorning of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFO-CIO)and New York Labor Council president Vincent Alvarez.
Panel moderator Andrea Lamberti, a partner at Rafael Viñoly Architects and AIANY’s 2022 president, kicked off the talk with a broad question for the group: why do people want to join unions? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022 alone, union membership increased by 273,000, the first membership growth in five years.
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