Why Bronx Defenders are latest public defenders to strike

By KAREN JUANITA CARRILLO

Members of Bronx Defenders Union–UAW Local 2325 became the city’s third public defense group to strike this month when they walked off the job on July 27.

The Bronx strike comes after months of bargaining; on the heels of the Neighborhood Defender Service Union strikes in Harlem, Detroit, and Texas, which started July 24; and after Brooklyn Defender Services workers ended a nearly week-long strike last week when their union and management reached a tentative contract agreement.

In the Bronx, workers say they want to keep the Bronx Defenders team unified, with attorneys, social workers, investigators, advocates, and administrators working under one holistic defense model. They claim management is trying to create divisions among workers by offering different raises and protections.

Bronx Defenders members authorized a strike after a July 12 vote where 92% voted and 95% of those approved a strike if needed.

The union said its Collective Bargaining Committee sent two comprehensive proposals during the week before the strike deadline and offered to meet at management’s convenience. On July 26, the day before the strike began, the union said management rejected its most recent proposal and declined to meet, saying a meeting “seemed unproductive.”

“The main issue for us is it revolves around salary,” Conrad Blackburn, a staff attorney and policy counsel in the Bronx Defenders’ criminal defense practice, told the Amsterdam News. “We want management to give us a cost-of-living adjustment that kind of mirrors what inflation looks like.

“We’re also fighting over fair wages for our siblings who are not attorneys,” Blackburn said. “Our social workers right now — management’s trying to take our social workers out of a pay scale that they were in that would have entitled them to more pay.”

The union believes management wants to use new public-defense funds to keep attorneys but leave social workers without better pay. “They got new funds, but they want to focus on attorney attrition, and so they’re trying to significantly increase the pay for attorneys while not doing so for social workers,” Blackburn said.

Management has described the dispute differently, however. In a statement issued after the strike began, Bronx Defenders Executive Director Juval O. Scott said, “Everyone at the Bronx Defenders is a public defender. Attorneys, social workers, investigators, interpreters, benefits specialists, advocates, and support staff all make holistic defense possible, and all deserve to be paid more than they are today.

“We agree with unionized staff on that fundamental principle. Where we differ is on how to use the limited funding available to us fairly and responsibly at this moment.”

Scott said management’s proposal would increase salaries and benefits for all positions while directing a larger share of available funding toward attorneys because attorney compensation has “fallen furthest behind comparable legal work.”

According to management, the proposal would provide first-year staff with salary increases ranging from 3% to 10%, while many employees with five years or more of service would receive increases ranging from 4% to 14%. Management also said the package would raise annual cost-of-living adjustments from 2% to 3%, expand parental leave and sabbaticals, strengthen retirement benefits, add student-loan reimbursement, and increase compensation for certain assignments.

The union argued that those gains do not justify removing social workers from the compensation structure they always shared with attorneys.

As of July 28, union leaders said direct negotiations had largely stalled.

“We want bargaining to still be going on, but right now, there’s a breakdown in communications and management hasn’t come back to the table to talk to us yet,” Blackburn said. He added that the union’s bargaining committee has repeatedly asked for more bargaining sessions and wants to continue negotiations.

“Our bargaining committee has been asking for management to come back to the table,” Blackburn said. “We’re obviously hoping that management comes back sometime this week, but there’s no guarantee.”

The post Why Bronx Defenders are latest public defenders to strike appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.