As threat of mass strike looms, some NYC legal service providers reach tentative agreements with unions

As unionized public interest attorneys across New York City continue to put pressure on legal aid providers for higher wages, lower caseloads, and better retirement benefits, hundreds of workers have walked off the job frustrated by stalled bargaining.

However, two union chapters — those at the Bronx Defenders and the New York Legal Assistance Group — have returned to work this week after reaching tentative agreements with management. The one-day strike at Bronx Defenders marked the first time criminal defense workers in New York City walked off the job since 1994. At NYLAG, management and the union reached a tentative agreement after one week of striking in the “early hours of Tuesday morning,” according to NYLAG.

Aaron Eisenberg, the political director at United Auto Workers Region 9A, told amNewYork that he hopes the agreements at Bronx Defenders and NYLAG will encourage other legal aid providers to meet demands and avoid a mass strike. Various union chapters within the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys-UAW are in active bargaining with management and have threatened to strike. A mass public interest attorney strike could take about 2,000 lawyers out of court, about 1,100 of whom work at the Legal Aid Society, where unionized employees have set a Friday deadline for a contract before walking out.

“It’s a good week,” Eisenberg said. “So far, we’ve gone from 758 workers on strike down to 250 workers on strike. It could go up to 1,450, but it’s getting our members good contracts right now.”

About 400 workers in legal services started striking July 15 at Goddard Riverside Law Project, Urban Justice Center, CAMBA, and New York Legal Assistance Group. The Bronx Defenders union joined the strike Friday before agreeing on Sunday.

Though New York City’s public defenders are far more unionized than they were in 1994 — when then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani hired private lawyers to cover the work of lawyers on strike — the city still contracts with 500 private attorneys that can fill in for lawyers on strike. Workloads across the city would likely also be partly assumed by management while employees walked the picket line.

“Trying to have managers cover five different things in areas outside of their expertise, trying to have other staff try to cover, to fill in, is not a good situation,” Eisenberg said. “It’s leaving New Yorkers without the representation they need. That’s the expertise that our members bring on a day-to-day basis.”

Legal Aid’s union is returning to the table with management Tuesday afternoon in hopes to strike an agreement that will avoid a strike. Eisenberg said that across all chapters at the start of bargaining, unions were demanding a base salary of $70,000 in negotiations. With the union and management at Bronx Defenders agreeing on a base salary of $68,500 for all employees, Eisenberg hopes other providers will feel the pressure to meet the union chapters closer to where they are at.

In a statement to amNewYork, Legal Aid CEO and Attorney in Chief Twyla Carter wrote that managers “continue to bargain in good faith with ALAA and have made meaningful progress at the table.”

“Negotiations will continue tonight, and our goal remains the same: to reach a fair agreement that recognizes the vital contributions of our staff attorneys and strengthens the long-term sustainability of a career at Legal Aid,” Carter wrote.

Both Legal Aid and the union have repeatedly called on the city to provide more funding to nonprofits, which are largely funded publicly and contract with the government. Though the most recent city budget added $20 million for legal services, providers worry the addition is insufficient to cover the wages employees are asking for.