Legal Services Workers, Including Tenant Lawyers, Could Strike Over Pay & Other Conditions

At NYLAG where the largest unit is the tenants rights division a strike could hinder low-income people s access to free representation when facing eviction a organization unique to the city s Right to Counsel operation which nonprofits are contracted to deliver Diana Rosen a staff attorney in the immigration protection unit speaking at Monday s practice picket Photo by Tareq Saghie Housing immigration and labor attorneys as well as the staff who encouragement them picketed in front of the Manhattan office of the New York Legal Assistance Group NYLAG Monday after voting to authorize a strike if they don t receive certain demands ahead of Tuesday s contract expiration In parallel with other legal amenity providers also unionized with the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys ALAA UAW Local NYLAG workers have bargained for months to demand pay increases workload reductions and free speech protections But progress has been slow and all are gearing up for a coordinated action NYLAG NYLAG it s been ages Pay your workers living wages the group chanted Monday function d u ac var s d createElement 'script' s type 'text javascript' s src 'https a omappapi com app js api min js' s async true s dataset user u s dataset campaign ac d getElementsByTagName 'head' appendChild s document 'u kmqsczew vunxutxmd' The threat of a strike looms that could significantly disrupt New York City s courts At NYLAG where the largest unit is their tenants rights division a strike could hinder low-income people s access to free representation when facing eviction a facility unique to the city s Right to Counsel initiative which nonprofits are contracted to deliver If people can t pursue the type of zealous representation that would get our clients meaningful outcomes in court because of strenuous workloads for example then we re not doing right by our clients revealed Shelly Pires paralegal at NYLAG and vice president of membership at her union shop It s hard to stay in this line of work with this degree of pay with rising costs of living in New York Pires added We re doing what we re doing to try to ensure that people like us who care about this work who enjoy doing this work can do it for a long time According to NYLAG workers rejecting their demands would lead to continued high turnover at the organization and inadequate representation for their clients an issue that a newest document from Comptroller Brad Lander revealed is surging Rigid contract requirements inadequate funding and insurmountable caseloads have made it extremely hard for providers to meet increasing demand the comptroller s assessment revealed noting that only around percent of tenants facing eviction in March of this year had an attorney Their demands Central to NYLAG and the other ALAA chapters demands are salaries which they say need to be increased to a minimum of per year NYLAG the majority in recent months offered that amount after four years NYLAG workers also want a percent annual salary increase a percent retirement contribution and a decrease in wellness insurance premiums Additionally as an organization that also serves immigrant communities in the last few days taking on the high-profile circumstance of a Venezuelan constituents school aspirant detained by ICE staff from immigrant backgrounds often employ their language skills and cultural knowledge in their work The union says that these workers deserve a pay differential Outside of pay workers want NYLAG to codify free speech rights that they say were perpetually standard at the organization but were rolled back after staff began opposing Israel s siege of Gaza While displaying political posters and expressing personal views was permitted the organization implemented a specific ban on displaying materials related to the conflict and certain have faced disciplinary action for it which the union wants reversed NYLAG s board chair Jill L Rosenberg is a major donor to UJA-Federation of New York a local pro-Israel nonprofit Pressure has also come from within as the bargaining unit was in recent times hit by a discrimination lawsuit from the Brandeis Center that argues workers displaying pro-Palestine posters creates a hostile workplace for Jewish union members There s a coordinated effort in this country to suppress speech in advocacy of Palestine and it s really disappointing to see NYLAG management falling on the same side of that debate as the Trump administration mentioned Diana Rosen a staff attorney in the immigration protection unit who received a written warning for taking a photo with a keffiyeh alongside her coworkers My job on its own is stressful enough I don t need to also be surveilled and intimidated and harassed by the general counsel NYLAG workers other major demand is to reduce their caseloads which they say are so high that they are constantly stressed exhausted and dealing with high turnover leading to worse outcomes for clients Attorneys are often assigned more than four new cases a month an amount NYLAG considers appropriate based on a New York State description The union says that this number assumes attorneys spend all their time on casework excluding the administrative work that often occupies up to a third of their time Lawyers argue that the caseload should be dropped to per year or roughly two and half per month All of this just really limits a worker s quota to really immerse themselves in their cases and find those hidden gems that make or break a development disclosed Jon Bash senior staff attorney in NYLAG s tenants rights division and vice president of communications at the union chapter Room at Queens Housing Court where eligible tenants can sign up for free legal representation in their eviction cases Photo by Emma Whitford Citywide impacts When it passed its Right to Counsel laws in New York City became the first place in the United States to grant low-income tenants facing eviction free representation The Department of Social Services DSS which is responsible for providing attorneys does so by contracting with legal aid nonprofits like NYLAG At a time when evictions are soaring fewer than percent of people facing eviction have representation in housing court according to Lander s assessment Tenants are eligible for RTC if they earn less than percent of the federal poverty level or up to a year for a family of three Right to Counsel demands to be fully funded but the demand that we have been putting out there is that the courts and the city can be doing more to ensure that every tenant who s entitled to Right to Counsel gets an attorney by matching the pace of cases in the courts to lawyer maximum mentioned Malika Conner coalition coordinator at the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition who helped pass the laws Elected executives workers and legal aid nonprofits have been calling for increased funding to Right to Counsel for years While the budget has more than doubled since when the effort expanded citywide advocates say it s still less than half of the million per year needed to ensure NYLAG and other ALAA workers receive the wage increases and reduced caseloads they re demanding The budget passed this week increased funding for Right to Counsel by million in line with what the City Council requested Neha Sharma a spokesperson for DSS reported the city does not have direct oversight of things like staffing levels and pay equity at the nonprofits it contracts with and that funding for RTC providers is based on amounts those organizations propose themselves She pointed to the fact that the city will pay an unprecedented amount to nonprofits in advance of services in the fiscal year an effort to ensure providers like NYLAG with having adequate funds to be properly staffed Strategy Coinciding the dozen legal organization providers contracts to expire on the same day took years of preparation and was done to maximize the influence they would have if workers don t receive their bargaining demands If all of the ALAA organizations with now-expired contracts which include the Legal Aid Society the Urban Justice Center and the Center for Appellate Litigation go on strike it would severely impact housing courts likely forcing cases to be adjourned and putting pressure on constituents personnel to intervene and encourage the nonprofits to make concessions as happened during a strike last year of attorneys at Mobilization for Justice This strategy of unifying different contracts to expire simultaneously is growing in the United Auto Workers and was implemented on a large scale in At that time workers at Ford Stellantis and GM coordinated a strike where they unpredictably walked out of different factories at different times collectively disrupting the United States auto industry and garnering endorsement from people as high up as former President Joe Biden In the end the union won historic demands such as pay raises of over percent per year While the particularities of the nonprofit legal industry create unique challenges that will prevent them from replicating this campaign the UAW learned that unpredictability can give them an edge and that they will receive more populace help by expanding campaigns beyond one shop Our goal has never been necessarily to strike What we want out of these contract campaigns are strong and fair contracts and management is able to avoid a strike at any point by giving proposals and counters that provide that baseline announced Estefania Rodriguez organizer at the ALAA Part of the strategy of sectoral bargaining is not just about putting pressure on our management but also putting pressure on the city To reach the reporter behind this story contact Tareq citylimits org To reach the editor contact Jeanmarie citylimits org Want to republish this story Find City Limits reprint protocol here The post Legal Services Workers Including Tenant Lawyers Could Strike Over Pay Other Conditions appeared first on City Limits