On Wednesday, July 23rd, the Legal Aid Society announced that it had reached a tentative agreement with its union, avoiding a strike. The contract, reached on Wednesday night, ensures that over 1,000 attorneys under the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys – United Auto Workers Local 2325 won’t walk out of courtrooms and onto picket lines on Friday.
The union and its members authorized a strike in June, with attorneys demanding better pay, larger retirement benefits, lighter caseloads, and the ability to work from home more often. Chair of the Legal Aid Society attorneys’ union Jane Fox said in a statement that while the deal does not meet the salary demands, they do include “new workload protections and 20 weeks of parental leave” in addition to retiree health benefits.
Fox said, “After hundreds of hours of bargaining, and 30 tentative agreements that raise the industry standards for what it means to work in legal services, we are proud to present this contract to our [attorneys] members to vote on.”
She continued, “Our members will vote on this contract next week, but regardless of whether they vote it up or down, we won a reopener guaranteeing no matter what, we will be back to win the salaries and pensions [attorneys] we deserve next year.”
Director of the Mayor’s Office for Criminal Justice Deanna Logan, in a statement, said, “The attorneys at the Legal Aid Society provide invaluable service to some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers, which is why the Adams administration committed significant new funding to the organization earlier this year.”
