Legal Aid workers picket in downtown Brooklyn demanding decent contract
Brooklyn, NY – More than 100 legal aid attorneys, paralegals, social workers and support staff came out to the picket lines, July 26, as workers at Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) demanded their bosses come to the table and negotiate a decent contract.
BDS is the main public defender office for all of Brooklyn and provides pro bono legal services to working-class Brooklynites facing eviction, deportation, family separation, or criminal charges. Almost two years ago, in September of 2021, more than 72% of the rank-and-file staff at BDS voted in favor of unionizing as part of the United Auto Workers (UAW). Since that time, BDS workers have been represented by the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA) Local 2325.
In the two years that have passed since staff voted overwhelmingly in favor of a union, BDS management has refused to make good faith negotiating offers on vital issues including healthcare coverage, salaries, sustainable caseloads, transit benefits, parental and sick leave, and telecommuting. Instead of listening when frontline workers try to explain what they need in order to do their jobs most effectively, the BDS management insists on forcing its employees to accept a watered-down contract with almost no real protections for worker quality of life issues.
In April of this year, more than 60 BDS employees hand delivered a petition, urging management to come to the bargaining table. Since then, management has not only refused to negotiate a decent contract but has taken a step back and started to only offer “interim agreements” designed to maintain the status quo while pushing a full comprehensive bargaining agreement even further off to the horizon.
Picketing workers chanted classic pro union slogans including “What’s disgusting? Union busting!” along with some new and BDS-specific chants: “Maybe we wouldn’t quit – if our healthcare wasn’t shit!” “BDSers must unite! A contract is our labor right!” and “Burnout is the status quo! Sky-high caseloads have to go!”
Speakers included attorneys from BDS’ criminal defense and family defense teams, as well as union staff. One BDS senior staff attorney emphasized the dangers of burnout and high turnover stating, “Higher turnover definitely makes it harder to sustain our work – if BDS management would come to the table and agree to a good faith contract, maybe less of us would be forced to find work elsewhere. Everyone I know at BDS does this work because they believe in it, but instead of supporting us however possible, our management seems intent on ignoring us.”
The BDS picket line is only the latest in a wave of labor actions targeting legal aid organizations. Up until recently, there was a very popular, incorrect idea among legal workers – the belief that attorneys, paralegal, social workers, and other support staff were somehow different from the people they represent and did not need a union of their own. But on July 26, more than 100 legal workers in one of the largest cities in the country raised their voices to demand their rights as workers, and as union members.