NYIC United Overwhelmingly Wins Card Check and is Certified as a Union!
New York, NY (August 5, 2026) - With overwhelming majority support, we are proud to announce that the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) union is officially certified. On August 4th, a card check was conducted by a third party arbitrator who confirmed 92% support from all eligible workers. This is a historic moment for NYIC workers, many of whom are immigrants and children of immigrants themselves, and see the labor movement as inherently a facet of the immigrant rights movement.
Many workers were eager to form a union to demand more for each other through collective bargaining. They also see their union drive as strengthening the work that they do daily in pursuit of justice for the immigrant communities they come from and serve. Moreover, several NYIC workers knew the union difference, coming from immigrant union families and growing up with parents in NYC unions. As workers built this campaign, they were relentlessly determined to demand union protections including security and stability for each other, knowing that they deserve better conditions for the incredible work they do at the NYIC.
This win comes after NYIC leadership repeatedly employed union busting tactics in attempts to intimidate and exclude workers from the unit. Management with Kauff McGuire & Margolis (KMM), a union-busting law firm, sought to schedule a hearing and an election at 26 Federal Plaza. NYIC United workers fought back, in solidarity with each other, to demand both be dropped. Both were ultimately cancelled, because workers did not want to be dragged into the lengthy NLRB process under the Trump administration, when management was originally open to voluntary recognition and the support for the union was clear from the majority of workers.
NYIC United workers with the support of OPEIU Local 153 staff navigated a months-long campaign in the midst of increasing attacks on immigrant workers and communities. We are at a moment in our country, where immigrant rights are increasingly under attack and the importance of linking immigrant and workers’ rights could not be more clear. NYIC workers are on the frontlines doing defense and community work day in and day out to protect immigrant communities across New York state. These workers deserve union representation and security in their jobs and now the bargaining begins!
Hear from our workers directly about what this win means to them:
“I’m very happy and proud of all that we have accomplished! This is my first time in a union so everything was so new to me. Hearing the stories of what my colleagues went through and my own personal experience, was the driving force for my participation. I look forward to a workplace environment that respects the workers time, energy, efforts, and compensates them accordingly. We still have a long road ahead of us but it’s important to stop and smell the roses of our success!” - Amani Ahmatt, Finance & Administrative Associate
“I’m still fairly new at the organization but it’s an honor to stand with my incredibly hardworking union brothers and sisters. My union eligibility was initially challenged by management but our union fought hard for me and many others. They’re still a number of my colleagues whose eligibility is being contested so this fight still isn’t over.” - Laszlo Toth-Medina, Manager of Digital Communications and Content
“The labor movement has delivered for immigrant families, in fact, I know the power of a union job here in New York City. It means protection in the workplace, economic mobility, and solidarity. My mother is a proud, nearly 20-year member of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), where she delivers babies and cares for new mothers at Queens Hospital, delivering the next generation of babies born to immigrant families. I have come to understand that the stability, safety, and dignity my mother, and by extension, my family have experienced is due to my mother’s union job, despite having vulnerable immigration statuses. Today, I am proud to step into the lineage of my mother, and thousands of immigrant workers across New York, who have joined the labor movement. Unions are for everyone, regardless of immigration status, and as a DACA recipient and TPS holder from Nepal, I am proud to be forming a union with my incredible coworkers at NYIC. I am proud to work at an organization that champions immigrant justice and I believe that with a collective voice at the table, we can strengthen our work and deliver stronger protections for our communities.” - Devashish Basnet, Senior Manager of Immigrant Rights Policy
“At NYIC, we work day in and day out to see a New York where immigrant communities are met with the dignity and humanity we deserve. In our work, neighborhoods and homes, we, as advocates, are seen as the experts in understanding what it takes to create a people-powered movement strong enough to propel forward holistic protections. Though today, I proudly look to another advocate in our movement: my mother, a housekeeper and 12-year Hotel Trades Council (HTC) union member. Through never-ending language barriers, varying immigration statuses and unity, my mother and her housekeeper sisters fought for a new path forward to create the very protections, benefits and true growth opportunities hundreds of families, including mine, see today. I am proud to follow in my mother and my HTC aunties footsteps today. At an organization made by immigrants, experts and advocates, the most organic step forward for NYIC is the one in lockstep with union-strong families to bring true equity to our homes and workplace, the way we sow into our communities everyday.” - Jahaira Roldan, Manager of Organizing & Strategy
Local 153 welcomes NYIC workers into our Local. We are proud to be building the labor movement alongside these workers. Together, we will continue to demand dignity and respect for both workers’ rights and immigrant communities in NYC and across NYS.
Read more about the campaign and timeline:
“New York Immigration Coalition Employees Win Union Recognition” by Amir Khafagy, July 31, 2026
“New York Immigration Coalition management seeks to shrink workers’ new union” by Harper Freeman, July 15, 2026
“NYIC Leadership Welcomes Trump Administration into the Workplace to Union Bust; OPEIU Local 153 Rallies, Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge,” OPEIU Local 153, July 14, 2026
“New York Immigration Coalition Employees Push for Union Recognition” by Amir Khafagy, June 9, 2026
“New York Immigration Coalition Staff Launch NYIC United, Forming First-Ever Union in Organization’s History,” OPEIU Local 153, June 9, 2026
ABOUT OPEIU LOCAL 153
OPEIU is a union of more than 103,000 employees in technology, credit unions, hospitals, insurance agencies, colleges and universities, hotels, administrative offices, and more. As the founder of the Nonprofit Employees United initiative, OPEIU supports thousands of nonprofit workers across the country in forming unions and negotiating strong contracts. OPEIU is committed to advancing economic justice for all working people.