For many immigrants, fighting for higher wages or for better working conditions can be challenging. Many workers who were born outside of the U.S. — and especially those who are undocumented — are vulnerable to experiencing discrimination or exploitation that may be tied to their immigration status.
Unions are a way for workers to collectively work towards common goals and can protect workers on the job, regardless of whether they are citizens or immigrants.
A labor union consists of at least two or more workers who want to work towards common goals. These goals could include raising wages for workers, having better health benefits, receiving paid sick leave, improving work schedules, or ensuring safer work conditions.
Workers gained the right to form unions in 1935, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act. To protect these rights, the government also formed the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency that helps oversee and solve disputes between management and workers, that oversees and holds fair union elections, and that punishes employers for unfair labor practices.
Also Read: Is Your Job Unsafe? Start a Workplace Safety Committee
These laws forbid employers from demoting, firing, or otherwise punishing employees for joining a union. It also bars union organizers from bullying or threatening workers if they do not want to join a union. To fund the services and bargaining done by unions, workers make regular payments, also known as dues to the union.
Over the years, unions have helped bring about the 8-hour workday, minimum wage, child labor laws, and unemployment insurance and employer-based healthcare benefits.
Your rights as an immigrant worker to be part of a union
The NLRB protects workers’ rights to form unions, regardless of their immigration status. This means that undocumented immigrant workers have the right to join or vote for a union and to talk to one another about their salary or their treatment at work. The NLRB does not ask for the immigration status of workers, and workers do not need to share any information about their own immigration status or that of others.
How does forming a union work?
If you want to start a union, you can start by speaking to your co-workers about common issues at work and by forming an organizing committee. You can then get in touch with some established unions to seek guidance or organize as an independent union on your own.
You can find names of unions on a website from the Department of Labor, though it would be better for you to contact a worker center or other nonprofit that could connect you to a union in your industry because not all unions are actively recruiting new members.
After that, you can collect union authorization petitions from your co-workers, which are cards that each worker can sign to show their support for forming a union. Most non-managerial New York-based part-time and full-time workers in the private sector can be part of a union, though domestic workers, independent contractors, and agricultural workers are excluded. In New York State, most public sector workers are also eligible.
If you collect cards from the majority of all workers, you can go to your employer and ask them to recognize your union. If they do, you can proceed to bargain, meaning the union can proceed to negotiate a work contract that covers wages, hours, and other conditions of employment.
After a union is formed, the employer and the union are supposed to discuss employment issues in good faith, meaning that both parties have to meet regularly and do so collectively. The process can be lengthy and if the employer and the union cannot reach an agreement, the NLRB might need to step in and, in extreme cases, the NLRB may ask a federal court to weigh in.
Get started
Some New York organizations that can support you when forming a union at your workplace:
- Workers Justice Project
An organization that aims to empower low-wage immigrant workers - New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE)
An organization that is dedicated to empowering new immigrants and that offers programming for immigrant workers - Flushing Workers Center
A membership organization open to workers of all background that aims to better working and living conditions for people in the Flushing area - Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association
A membership organization founded by Chinese restaurant workers in the late 1970s - Laundry Workers Center
A non-profit organization that advocates and provides leadership development for low-wage immigrant workers - Brandworkers
An organization that supports New York and New Jersey-based food manufacturing workers - Cornell Labor Law Clinic
A legal clinic where legal students and professor from the Cornell Law School provide assistance to workers
