Queens public defender group votes to unionize
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Members of the ALAA at a pro-immigration rally in 2018. Photo courtesy of ALAA
By David Brand
Attorneys and social workers at a Queens public defender agency have voted to unionize, according to election results certified by the National Labor Relations Board Thursday.
Eligible employees at the organization Queens Defenders voted 46-12 to join the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys - UAW Local 2325 following a two-month union drive. The vote, held Feb. 16 election, makes Queens Defenders the fourth New York City public defender agency to unionize.
Staff said they wanted new contracts with stronger benefits, as well as more organizational transparency and diversity in hiring and senior-level positions.
Queens Defenders management had resisted the organizing effort, declining to voluntarily recognize the union last year while encouraging staff to vote against unionizing. Executive Director Lori Zeno, an agency cofounder, said that she would honor the results of the vote, however.
Zeno said Thursday that she and management are ready to begin the bargaining process with the new staff union.
“I am pleased that each eligible staff member had the opportunity to vote in a secret ballot election and respect their decision to unionize,” she said in a statement.
ALAA President Lisa Ohta called on Zeno to stick to her word Thursday.
“ALAA expects Queens Defenders to comply with the order of the NLRB, recognize the Union, and begin bargaining in good faith towards an expedient first contract,” Ohta said.
The vote came exactly two months after a majority of eligible attorneys and social workers at Queens Defenders signed union cards Dec. 16. At the time, staff said they had 90 percent support among eligible employees. Zeno disputed they had such a large percentage.
The effort grew increasingly adversarial, particularly after the agency fired two employees who said they supported unionizing. The ALAA and the employees, a social worker and an attorney, said they were terminated as a result of their pro-union stance. Zeno and Queens Defenders management countered that the staffers had committed ethical violations.
The firings galvanized pro-union politicians and drew more attention to the drive.
Staff at two other public defender organizations — Bronx Defenders and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem — have joined the ALAA within the past two years.
A fourth agency, the Legal Aid Society, has been unionized since 1969.
