(NEW YORK CITY) - New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) management and the Union seeking to represent dozens of Workers employed at the organization have reached an agreement for voluntary recognition pending a third-party review of Workers’ Union Authorization Cards.

But the agreement kicks the can down the road on a central issue that created the original dispute between management and the nascent Union - determining what the exact number of workers in the Bargaining Unit will be.  

Under the agreement, management has withdrawn its petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold an election that was originally scheduled for this week and the Union has removed its Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) Charge alleging NYIC was bargaining in bad faith, according to a management official and Sam Heyne, a Staff Organizer and Business Agent at the Office & Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 153.

But a dispute remains between management and OPEIU over 10 Workers who NYIC does not think legally should be in the Union, Heyne said.  

“We did get back a handful of people,” Heyne said. “There's still ten contested Employees." 

More than 40 NYIC Workers notified management in June that they intended to Unionize with Local 153 and in the weeks that followed, NYIC and the Anti-Union lawyers they hired pushed to exclude over a dozen Members of the Bargaining Unit, including the entirety of the Non-Profit's Communications and Development Teams.

Members accused management of weaponizing the law and vowed to fight so that all of their Co-Workers could be included in the new Union.  

The reached agreement solidified that some of the originally excluded Workers will be a part of the Union, but the remaining 20% of Workers who the Union wants to include in the Unit will still have to be bargained over, which the Local 153 is hoping will work out in their favor.

The compromise agreement allows the voluntary recognition process to move forward and for the two sides to begin bargaining for a first contract once that process is completed.

"This is a really positive development,” Heyne said. “We are going to resolve the eligibility question for those ten people at the bargaining table." 

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