Opinion: Staff at legal services nonprofit Mobilization for Justice plan one-day strike

Unionized staff at Mobilization for Justice discussed their plan strike at a virutal meeting Tuesday. Image courtesy of staff

By The Unionized Staff at Mobilization for Justice

On February 9, 2021, the unionized employees of Mobilization for Justice, Inc. will go on a one-day strike in response to our employer's refusal to offer a contract reflecting basic respect and racial equity for our workers.  Our shop is represented by the Legal Services Staff Association (LSSA), and includes attorneys, paralegals, organizers, and administrative professionals.  

The workers at MFJ provide free legal assistance to thousands of low-income New Yorkers on a wide range of civil legal issues.  We represent tenants facing eviction, homeowners facing foreclosure, students denied IEPs, refugees seeking asylum, people with disabilities facing discrimination, and many more. 

After months of bargaining, MFJ management still rejects several of our key demands, including pay equity for non-attorney staff, the majority of whom are people of color and/or women. We have asked MFJ to change its policy of placing legal workers – paralegals, organizers, support staff – on entry-level salary scales when they come in with years of relevant experience, which has created a pay disparity at our organization. 

While MFJ has agreed to make this necessary change for future hires, they will not adequately adjust or compensate current staff, who every day bring background knowledge, language skills, and an incredible amount of compassion and expertise necessary to do their jobs. MFJ management’s bargaining team — represented by a partner at Trump’s long-time law firm Jones Day — told Black and Latina non-attorney members of the bargaining team point blank that their prior experience did not warrant placement on a higher pay scale.  

That position is demoralizing to individuals, and perpetuates racist structures and policies in our workplace. 

We demand that our employer give more than lip service to racial justice.  They try to placate us with “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” conversations and Black History Month movie viewings, but what we really need is concrete action to correct inequitable wages that have persisted for years, and to recognize the value of our staff. 

Our employer’s efforts to divide us by pitting across-the-board raises against pay equity for legal workers will not break our unity, nor will it trick us into thinking they cannot afford to do both. The MFJ board has announced that it anticipates increased funding from the City for the Right to Counsel program, received a sizable Paycheck Protection Program loan (anticipated to be forgiven), and has plans to expand MFJ with a third office space. Despite our painstaking calculations to ensure that raises and pay parity are economically feasible, management will not acquiesce. 

MFJ management has also failed to appropriately respond to our demand for increased freedom to work from home after the pandemic. 

MFJ does not claim we failed to do our jobs or win cases for our clients throughout the COVID-19 crisis, but insists that we be present in our offices at least 4 days per week once they reopen. This rigid position ignores data that remote work can increase productivity and would force us back into constant commuting instead of spending more time with our families and caring for our mental health in our own spaces.   

Much of our work entails helping our clients navigate rigid, oppressive systems that show them no flexibility in moments of crisis. We strive to give our clients a voice and demand that their humanity is recognized.  Yet we find ourselves having to fight the same battle with our own employer, who takes the position that we can work from home 1 day per week after the pandemic, but that’s it. 

We care deeply about our clients, and we do not take any action that impacts them lightly. But it is precisely our commitment to our work, and to our communities and our families, that is why we fight hard for an excellent contract. We seek to ensure that MFJ retains staff who offer our clients the skill and expertise they deserve.  Mobilization for Justice needs to remember that it is a nonprofit, and that the money it receives is meant for us, its workers, to enable us to meet the needs of low-income New Yorkers.  

We are proud to be part of a wave of union activity across the nation, from the Hunts Point Strike in which food distribution workers fought for a $1 per hour wage increase, the unionization of the staff of The New Yorker and their subsequent 24-hour strike for pay equity, the Amazon workers in Alabama, and teachers unions all over the country. It is no accident that as the world and our workplaces change, workers are realizing how little their employers care for them, and are increasingly demanding recognition of their labor. 

Staff at Mobilization for Justice provide legal representation, case management and other services to low-income New Yorkers.