More NY Elected Officials Show Support For Law360 Strike

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and City Council member Tiffany Cabán, D-22nd District, Queens, pose with striking members of the Law360 Union outside LexisNexis headquarters in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon. (Marianne LeNabat | NewsGuild of New York)

The parade of New York elected officials showing up to support the Law360 Union continued Tuesday, with two mayoral candidates and one City Council member visiting the picket line as the unit’s unfair labor practice strike entered its second consecutive week.

Two Democratic candidates for mayor — New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and New York State Sen. Jessica Ramos, D-13th District, Queens, — as well as City Council member Tiffany Cabán, D-22nd District, Queens, joined more than two dozen striking members at the Midtown Manhattan headquarters of Law360’s corporate parent, LexisNexis.

The striking workers on the picket line, clad almost uniformly in union red, were joined virtually by several dozen remote employees participating in the strike from across the country.

“NewsGuild has built such a strong union,” Lander told Outlaw360, adding that he had previously witnessed the NewsGuild of New York, which represents the Law360 Union, wage multiple successful fights to secure fair contracts for members at other shops, including The New Yorker and The New York Times. 

“They’re bringing fair contracts to workers across the media landscape,” Lander said. “And Law360 is no different. [Management has] got to get right with their workers and give them a fair contract with decent wages and healthcare they can afford, and they should do it now.”

Lander commended the striking workers for taking the bold step of walking off the job beginning on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 10, some three weeks after 94% of the unit signed a pledge to strike if a fair contract could not be reached.

“It takes guts, it takes courage to say, OK, I know what I’m worth, I know what I deserve, I know what my colleagues and I need, but we’re willing to take that big step to go on strike and demand it from a company that isn’t paying you what you’re worth and is trying to take your rights away,” Lander told the picket line. “So I want to just give it up for everybody who is out here on strike. It inspires solidarity.”

Lander added that if he could send a message to Law360 leadership, he would say, “If you want people to keep reading your publication, if you want to have a staff that is able to do the work that you need, then stop wasting everybody’s time with bad-faith bargaining, stop committing unfair labor practices, stop laying people off — especially the day after you’ve just done a report showing record profits.”

He continued, “Stop forcing your employees to strike for the wages and healthcare that everybody deserves. Come to the table in good faith. Sign a good contract.”

New York State Sen. Jessica Ramos, D-13th District, Queens, poses with striking members of the Law360 Union outside LexisNexis headquarters in Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon. (Danielle Smith | NewsGuild of New York)

Ramos, who chairs the state Senate’s labor committee and recently announced her own campaign for mayor of New York City, also made an appearance at the picket line, asserting that the Law360 strikers were part of a larger movement fighting for workers’ rights.

“It has been so gratifying to see workers be brave and take the courageous position of going out on strike,” Ramos said.

She continued, “We don’t want Law360 or employers like them to continue spending money on union-busting instead of spending money on their workers who make the bottom line possible.”

LexisNexis did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Cabán, a city councilmember representing Western Queens and a self-identified “recovering” law school student, described how Law360 had enriched her legal education and her career in public service.

“It is not just about accessing the cases ... but also the reporting and the sharp legal analysis,” Cabán said. “I find the work that you do to be so critical to our democracy — especially when we’re seeing our democracy under attack, your labor is critically, critically important. Aside from the fact that just by being workers, you deserve good wages, you deserve good healthcare, you deserve all of the stabilizing resources and needs that will allow you to live long, healthy lives.”

Cabán concluded her remarks, saying, “They think that they’re going to tire you down, and I know it’s not going to happen, because when NewsGuild fights?”

The crowd replied in unison: “We win!”

—Transcribing by Philip Shea. Editing by Vaqas Asghar and Peter Rozovsky.