When you have a union at your workplace, you have a real voice in decisions that affect your job, your pay, and your daily life.
NYSUT represents more than 700,000 workers across New York — in public schools, colleges, healthcare, and more. We're affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the National Education Association (NEA), and the NYS AFL-CIO. We're here to help you build power where you work.
What a Union Can Do for You
Every NYSUT local negotiates its own contract, with support from a Labor Relations Specialist, a union representative who specializes in contract negotiations. That means each contract reflects what matters most to its members, not what management decides on its own.
Mandatory Subjects of Bargaining
Certain topics must be negotiated between a union and an employer. These are called mandatory subjects of bargaining. They include pay rates, overtime, vacation and sick leave, job assignments, disciplinary procedures, layoff policies, and a fair process for resolving disputes. Beyond these, your contract can address whatever you and your coworkers prioritize and what other locals have won provides examples of what's possible.
Why Unions Work
- Strength in numbers: Your labor is your leverage. Unions enable workers to come together and use that leverage as a powerful, collective voice.
- Unions are diverse & democratic: Unions are run by their members. They bring together people across social, racial, and economic lines—and have led struggles at every level to defend and expand the rights of all working people.
- The labor movement is organized: Almost 16 million American workers belong to unions, making labor one of the largest grassroots movements in the country. More unionize everyday thanks to the hard work of workers and staff organizers across the country.
Unions Improve Pay and Working Conditions for All Workers, Especially Workers of Color
The union advantage is even greater for people of color, women, immigrants, and others who have confronted workplace discrimination. A union contract is a potent weapon against unequal pay and structural racism because it establishes fair and transparent systems for hiring and firing, wages, and more.
Black, Latino, and women workers are paid 26%, 39.2%, and 23.8% more, respectively, when they belong to a union. Union contracts pay women and men the same for doing the same job. You cannot be fired for your sexual orientation or gender identity under a union contract.
Know Your Rights
You have the right to form, join or assist a union.
You have the right to organize a union to negotiate with your employer over your terms and conditions of employment.
This includes your right to:
- Distribute union literature
- Discuss the union with coworkers
- Solicit coworkers to sign union authorization cards
- Wear union buttons, t-shirts, or other insignia
Under the National Labor Relations Act, your employer CANNOT:
- Threaten employees with loss of jobs or benefits if they join or vote for a union or engage in protected concerted activity
- Threaten to close the business operation if employees select a union to represent them
- Question employees about their union sympathies or activities
- Promise benefits to employees to discourage their union support
- Transfer, lay off, terminate, or assign employees more difficult tasks because they engaged in union or protected concerted activity
No Threats • No Interrogations • No Promises • No Spying