Attorneys at second-largest public defense org in city authorize strike
/
Union members of Brooklyn Defender Services voted to pass a strike authorization on Monday. Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach
By Noah Powelson
Unionized attorneys at the second-largest public defender organization in the city voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike this week, increasing the risk of hundreds of lawyers and support staff walking off the job and hampering criminal courts in Queens and Brooklyn.
Members of the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys at Brooklyn Defender Services, which has about 500 attorneys representing indigent clients in criminal, immigration, and family court cases in the city’s two largest boroughs,, passed a strike authorization vote on Monday, around a week after the expiration of the union’s labor agreement with the legal nonprofit.
With the vote, the BDS union can tell its members to stop working at a moment’s notice, marking a major escalation in the ongoing negotiations.
Around 96 percent of union members who participated in the vote authorized a strike, according to the union. The result of the vote was presented to BDS management during the most recent bargaining session, which was held on Tuesday, according to the union.
No strike deadline has been set as of Wednesday.
ALAA has called for a higher wage floor for all staff, improved health insurance, and more flexibility to work from home, among other demands.
Brian Holbrook, vice president for communications for the union, said a BDS strike would cause significant disruptions for the organization, its clients and courts throughout the two boroughs. The union said it ultimately hopes to avoid a strike but feels the threat is necessary given what its members describe as slow-moving negotiations.
"We just have not seen the kind of offers from management that would tell us a strike is off the table," Holbrook told the Eagle. "We need management to know the seriousness of the situation."
Brooklyn Defender Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tensions between management and the union have escalated over the past year, in part because BDS’ founder and executive director, Lisa Schreibersdorf, allegedly attempted to break up the ALAA shop by persuading an attorney to launch a competing union.
BDS is not the only public defender organization in the city threatening to take to the picket line.
Labor agreements at BDS, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, Bronx Defenders, Center for Family Representation and Catholic Migration Services – all of whom are represented by the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys, UAW Local 2325 – expired at midnight on June 30. Each union has similar demands for higher wages and health care benefits.
Together, the five organizations employ over 1,000 attorneys and legal aid staffers.
Among those are around 120 employees from Queens Defenders that BDS absorbed last year when the Queens organization's former executive director, Lori Zeno, was ousted from the company and later arrested on fraud charges.
Though their contract has not yet expired, another 1,000 attorneys at the Legal Aid Society, the largest legal nonprofit in the city, are also currently negotiating new wages, adding to the uncertainty facing the city’s public defense landscape.
