A ten-day cooling off period began March 11 and the parties are required to engage in mediation before a strike can begin. This is the first time in Minnesota history that public defense workers have voted to strike. A strike could begin as early as the week of March 21.

Unresolved issues include pay, limits on the number of hours part-time lawyers can be required to work without additional pay, and the right to work remotely. Pay for public defense workers in Minnesota is as much as 40% less than prosecutors. Part-time lawyers are required to work more than 40 hours per week with no additional compensation. There are no limits on the number of hours full-time lawyers can be required to work. And the Board of Public Defense, the agency that employs the workers, has refused to negotiate on remote work.

Workers in public defense offices worked remotely through much of the pandemic, but client needs required that jail visits and some court appearances continued in person. The workers have proposed contract language to continue remote work, but the Board of Public Defense has refused to discuss it.

Maja Gamble, a public defense investigator says, “For the past two years, we have proven capable of providing the caliber of representation our clients deserve while working remotely. The board’s resistance to permitting a remote work option feels unnecessarily rigid and frankly makes no sense.”

Issues with substandard pay and excessive caseloads for public defense workers have existed for over 20 years. The Board of Public Defense and the state of Minnesota are fully aware that pay for public defense workers is unreasonably low and that caseloads far exceed maximums set by the American Bar Association. Despite that knowledge there has never been funding adequate to provide pay parity with prosecutors or get caseloads under control.

The workers have been offered a cost-of-living increase in the low single digits despite inflation approaching 8%.

Veronica Surges, who has been employed as a public defense lawyer for ten years in several different locations in Minnesota, said, “The offer is insulting. When compared with inflation, I am taking a pay cut to continue doing my job.”

Surges is tired of getting paid lower than prosecutors with far less experience and having a caseload that prevents her from having a life outside work. “I work many nights and almost every weekend. It is the same for many of my colleagues throughout the state. In some offices, it seems people are quitting almost every week. Things are at a breaking point. This cannot continue. Because we cannot provide effective assistance of counsel, it’s our clients who end up suffering too.”

Public defenders represent between 85 and 90% of all persons who are criminal defendants in Minnesota. Virtually all of those persons are poor, and many are oppressed nationalities. According to Surges, “This battle has provided an opportunity for the state of Minnesota to step up and show they care about justice. Let’s see if they can find the will to do so.”

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #Teamsters #strike #Strikes #publicDefenders

At issue are wages and working conditions. Public defense workers in Minnesota are both underpaid and overworked. Pay parity with those who work in prosecutors’ offices has been at issue for over 20 years. Their pay is about 70% the rate of prosecutors.

Statewide staffing levels are more than 200 people short of what is required to provide adequate representation for their clients. Public defense workers report those short staffing levels result in work weeks of more than 60 hours without overtime pay. Some are working full-time hours for part-time pay. Public defense workers are also trying to get some relief from the strict stance some managers have taken against working from home, despite over two years of doing so with no problems.

Darcy Sherman, a lawyer and union steward based in Hennepin County, reports that morale is lower than she’s ever seen it and many of her colleagues are ready to quit. She says “a cost-of-living adjustment in the low single digits just doesn’t cut it when inflation is over 7% and I make several thousand dollars per month less than an equally experienced prosecutor. We have been waiting over 20 years for parity and if we have to shut down the courts to get people to notice, so be it. People are just fed up.”

Public defense in Minnesota is entirely funded by the legislature. It has never been fully funded and, until this year, there has never been a request for full funding. Public defenders represent between 85 and 95 percent of criminal and juvenile defendants in Minnesota. Virtually all those persons are poor and a large percentage are of oppressed nationalities.

Inadequate funding, low pay and overwork have consequences. African Americans make up 7% of Minnesota’s population but 36% of the prison population and about 22% of those under other types of supervision. Native Americans make up 1% of the population but 9% of the prison population and about 8% of those under other types of supervision.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #Teamsters #strike #Strikes #publicDefenders