Legal Aid Society workers stage citywide picket as contract negotiations drag
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Members of the Queens 1199SEIU chapter of the Legal Aid Society hold a picket demonstration outside their Queens office, calling on management for pay raises. Eagle photo by Noah Powelson
By Noah Powelson
Legal Aid Society offices across all five boroughs faced a new push from labor organizations to increase their workers’ salaries, this time with non-attorneys leading the picket lines.
Social workers, paralegals and other non-attorney staff who work at the Legal Aid Society staged a citywide picket demonstration on Wednesday, calling on management to institute pay raises they say have already been budgeted for but not distributed.
Members of the 1199SEIU chapter of the Legal Aid Society across the city demonstrated outside each of their respective offices in all five boroughs, claiming the city’s largest public defense organization has refused to raise staff pay amid tense labor contract negotiations that have dragged on for nearly a year.
In the World’s Borough, roughly 40 staffers picketed outside the Legal Aid Society’s office in Kew Gardens, right across the street from Queens Borough Hall and the Queens Criminal Court. Union members chanted in the afternoon rain as litigants and attorneys from the nearby courthouse passed by. They demanded management institute wage increases they say are desperately needed should LAS stay competitive with other organizations.
Lucy Herschel, a 1199SEIU member who helped organize the Queens picket demonstration, said the paralegals, community organizers, social workers and other non-attorney staff are the only employees at the Legal Aid Society who haven’t received raises that were already allocated in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget. Herschel said turnover at her office is high, and that the organization’s current pay raise schedule is unsustainable for the rising costs of living in New York City.
“We are the lowest paid workers at the Legal Aid Society,” Herschel said. “We're actually the only section that hasn't yet received the raises that have been budgeted for the past fiscal year. We believe that management is sort of holding this money over our heads, trying to extract some concessions out of us in our contract language.”
The labor contract between 1199SEIU and the Legal Aid Society expired in the summer of last year, and union workers have continued to work without a contract since. Negotiations have been ongoing for months, but have recently stalled out as both sides of the bargaining table attempt to get major concessions in the final contract language.
A spokesperson for the Legal Aid Society said the organization was “committed to productive negotiations across the table on a [collective bargaining agreement] renewal.”
“The 1199SEIU contract expired on June 30, 2025, and as required, the status quo on wages has remained in place while negotiations for a renewal CBA take place,” the spokesperson said. “We have proposed wage increases to go into effect when a complete renewal CBA is reached, retroactive to July 1, 2025. We look forward to continuing bargaining in good faith with 1199SEIU to reach a complete agreement that includes those retroactive wage increases."
A few key disagreements have slowed bargaining progress, the union said.
Union representatives claim the current offer from management included a 3-year contract that fell short of the pay raise and cost-of-living-adjustments they were hoping for. Other issues, such as a more flexible telecommuting policy and more ADA accommodations, have also proved to be sticking points during negotiations.
But the Legal Aid Society’s wage scale remains the biggest issue for union members who demonstrated on Wednesday. According to the union, the Legal Aid Society’s system for increasing workers’ wages trails far behind pay scales used for the same job titles at other legal aid organizations.
Even for job titles that have starting salaries relatively comparable to offers from other organizations – such as the New York Legal Assistance Group or Neighborhood Defender Services – the scheduled pay increases are so minor that workers quickly find themselves making less than their peers after a few years, they said.
Anna Kalliagas, a social worker who's been employed at the Legal Aid Society for almost 20 years, said the ever-rising cost of living in the city has increasingly made it difficult to live off her salary alone. Kalliagas said she’s had to work a second job as a clinician for most of the time she’s worked at the Legal Aid Society, despite being one of the higher paid workers at the office.
“What we're being offered now is not something that we can live with,” Kalliagas told the Eagle. “I love my job. I love what I do. I want to continue doing this. I've been living in New York all of my life, it's getting more and more expensive. For the largest legal service provider, we are severely underpaid.”
Another bargaining session between the union and the Legal Aid Society was reportedly scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and another is set to take place on May 7.
