Andrew Strom

Andrew Strom has spent his career as an advocate for workers.  Most recently, for more than twenty years he was Associate General Counsel for Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ, a union representing property service workers throughout the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions.  During his time at Local 32BJ he helped the Union win campaigns to organize office cleaners and security officers.  Before coming to Local 32BJ, he spent nine years practicing in California where his work included a successful campaign to organize over 10,000 hospital workers.

Highlights of his career include winning two important precedent-setting cases at the National Labor Relations Board.  In Hillhaven Highland House, 336 NLRB 646 (2001), enf'd. 334 F.3d 523 (6th Cir. 2003), the NLRB held that off-duty workers who work for an employer at one location have a right to access outdoor non-work areas at their employer's other locations for the purpose of engaging in organizing activity.  And in Pressroom Cleaners, 361 NLRB 643 (2014), the Board reversed an earlier decision, and held that when a successor employer unlawfully discriminates against its predecessor's employees in order to avoid a bargaining obligation with the union that represented those employees, the successor must retroactively restore the predecessor's terms and conditions until it reaches a new agreement with the union or negotiates to an impasse.

Strom has argued cases before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, and Sixth circuits, and before the New York State Court of Appeals.  He has also litigated extensively in federal district courts and before the National Labor Relations Board, and has represented unions in dozens of arbitration hearings.

Strom has also played a key role in enacting state and local legislation that raises standards for workers and protects workers' rights.  These laws include the City of Los Angeles's Service Contract Worker Retention Ordinance, Westchester County’s Displaced Service Employees Protection Law, and the 2016 amendments to New York City's Displaced Building Service Workers Protection Act.  Each of these laws protected janitors, security officers, and other contracted workers from losing their jobs when one contractor replaces another.  Strom also helped draft the District of Columbia’s Enhanced Professional Security Amendment Act of 2008, raising the minimum wage for security officers in office buildings, and a New York City law requiring prevailing wages for building service workers where the City provides a project with substantial economic assistance or leases space in a building.

In addition to writing several law review articles, Strom is a senior contributor at the OnLabor blog, where he has written over 140 posts on labor law, employment law, and the Supreme Court.  He has also appeared regularly on America's Workforce Union Podcast, providing commentary on current legal developments.