The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed complaints to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on May 7 alleging that the New York Legal Assistance Group’s (NYLAG) union, A Better NYLAG (ABN), discriminated against its Jewish members.
The ABN is a chapter of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, United Auto Workers Local 2325. The complaint states that the NYLAG President and CEO sent out an email shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023 “expressing sympathy and concern for Jewish employees” who were scared about the “Day of Rage” protests the next day. In response, the ABN sent out their own email decrying “the illegal Israeli occupation and war crimes against Palestinian[s],” accusing the New York Police Department of working with the Israel Defense Force and criticizing the NYLAG’s management.
The complaint accuses the ABN of creating a hostile work environment after its members, with encouragement from ABN leadership, put up posters stating “resisting colonialism is not terrorism” and “long live the resistance.” Other posters included “intifada now” and “abolish the settler state.” NYLAG management responded by barring all posters “regarding the Israel/Gaza conflict” from the organization’s offices. The ABN countered by filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the NLRB and held protests against the NYLAG’s policy inside and outside the office, one of which featured them donning keffiyehs and waving flags to express support for the Palestinians.
A Jewish ABN member wrote a letter to the union’s board alleging that one of their protests outside the office featured speakers promulgating antisemitic tropes like accusing the “Zionist cabal” of putting forth the rule. Another Jewish member responded to an online ABN survey claiming that they did not feel comfortable expressing their Zionist beliefs due to fear of retaliation over the posters’ messages. A third sent a letter to the NYLAG imploring them to enforce their poster policy.
“The ABN is choosing to support discrimination against Jewish NYLAG employees in the bargaining unit to whom it owes a duty of fair representation and who are enduring an antisemitic environment that NYLAG’s policy is attempting to remediate,” the complaint states. “The union cannot throw members of one protected identity under the bus in favor of supporting other members’ ‘right’ to discriminate or torment them.” It also notes that “there is no nexus between postings concerning the war in Israel and any term or condition of employment at NYLAG.”
“Jewish American union members, like all other working people, are entitled to union representation that supports them fairly and equally against toxic environments,” Kenneth Marcus, chairman of the Brandeis Center and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights from 2018-20, said in a statement. “In this case, the union actually made things worse, actively attempting to block management efforts to address a workplace that had been made inhospitable for Jewish workers. This is exactly the opposite of what unions should be doing. We must hold labor unions accountable when they exacerbate antisemitic environments, just as we do with universities, public schools, and other institutions.”
“In this case, the union actually made things worse, actively attempting to block management efforts to address a workplace that had been made inhospitable for Jewish workers. This is exactly the opposite of what unions should be doing.” – Kenneth Marcus
The ABN did not immediately respond to The Journal’s request for comment.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.