Wednesday was somewhat of a homecoming for Marissa Roy. Once a lecturer in law collecting signatures for a faculty union and now a candidate for city attorney of Los Angeles, Roy joined faculty, politicians and labor organizers for a demonstration on behalf of the non-tenure track faculty union at USC.

Faculty members rallied outside Bovard Administration Building Wednesday in support of their union, United Faculty-United Auto Workers. They are calling for USC to drop its challenge to the union election results and begin bargaining with the new union. The rally also drew L.A. City Councilmember and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman and a representative of State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas to speak.

“USC administration: you are on the wrong side of justice,” said Roy, also a USC alum. “You are on the wrong side of history, and you are on the wrong side of the Trojan family. Because we will always fight on. … As city attorney, I will always have your back.”

An April to June vote authorized the union for non-tenure track faculty, with 1,821 total votes and 70% of those being in support. The University has challenged the results with the National Labor Relations Board.

The University wrote in a statement to the Daily Trojan that it has asked the NLRB to review the result’s validity to obtain “much-needed legal clarity over these issues.”

“We are grateful to our faculty for all they do for our students and as partners in our academic mission,” the University wrote. “This election has presented important legal and substantive issues regarding our model of partnering with faculty in the shared governance of this university.”

In her remarks, Raman pointed to the 70% margin and called for USC to respect the message that the votes sent.

“What you’re asking for here is pretty simple. It’s not radical. We want USC’s administration to respect the message that you all sent,” said Raman. “The success of USC, the success of Los Angeles, was built on the backs of workers, and it is about time our institutions stand with them.”

In filings with the National Labor Relations Board prior to the election, USC wrote that the faculty could not form a union because they held managerial duties through bodies like the Academic Senate. The regional NLRB office ruled March 19 that the election could proceed and subsequently set election dates from April 24 to June 1.

Sanjay Madhav, a professor of technology and applied computing practice in the Viterbi School of Engineering, said the faculty doesn’t currently know when the NLRB will take USC’s challenge.

“We understand USC has their legal argument, but, at the end of the day, as faculty, we see it as just a delay tactic,” Madhav said. “It’s a stall tactic to hope that maybe we lose momentum.”

After the event, Department of Public Safety Assistant Chief David Carlisle put the size of the crowd at 200. Los Angeles Police Department officers were on site, but DPS Chief Lauretta Hill said that LAPD’s presence was normal practice for large events when it has capacity to help.

Representatives from USC’s postdoctoral student union, graduate student union and the School of Cinematic Arts adjunct union also spoke at the rally. Non-tenure track faculty speakers said in remarks that key issues for them include healthcare, cuts to benefits and parking costs.

“I signed my fall contract about a month ago. I do not currently have my spring contract,” said Kate Chiu, an adjunct faculty in the School of Architecture. “I’ve been teaching here for six years; many and most of my colleagues have been teaching more, and they are in the same exact boat. This means we cannot plan our lives. We don’t know if we’ll stay on USC healthcare even in the next three months, and I voted yes because we deserve better.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also sent a letter to President Beong-Soo Kim on Tuesday urging him to bargain with the union.

“I was deeply disappointed to learn that USC challenged and appealed the vote,” Bass wrote. “I urge the university to respect the NTT faculty vote, withdraw its appeal (specifically including the claimed ground that the faculty cannot unionize), and bargain in good faith for a fair contract.”

David Rendon contributed to this report.