A year after the Bronx Defenders union walked off the job for the first time in three decades, they are back at the bargaining table with four other public defender groups demanding wage increases for their staff. 

But before they get to striking a deal with the boss, the union chapters first must tackle a bigger hurdle: the city budget.

Members of the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys (ALAA) rallied June 10 at City Hall Park to announce their bargaining demands as five shops, including Brooklyn Defender Services, Bronx Defenders, and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, face a June 30 contract deadline — the same day as the city budget is due. 

The bargaining comes after a tense bout of negotiations from ALAA’s unions last year under the former mayor, and will test the union’s relationship with Mayor Zohran Mamdani as he works out his first budget with the City Council. ALAA’s parent union, UAW, which forged a strong relationship with Mamdani in his election campaign, was one of the first to endorse him in the primary.

Now, the ALAA is calling on the city council to fund the wage increases they have been requesting since last year. The union testified in March at the preliminary budget hearings that achieving pay parity with federal public defenders across city legal services would cost the city an additional $80 million.

“Our bosses always point the finger at the city,” said Leah Duncan, the ALAA financial secretary, at the rally. “But this year, more than ever in recent memory, we are standing here outside of City Hall with some comrades inside.”

A majority of legal service provider funding comes from the city government. This year, the union’s desire to rely on the mayor for additional resources has collided with a budgetary shortfall of billions of dollars that the mayor was only recently able to close, with an infusion of state cash from Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The union said the mayor’s office hasn’t publicly released a total figure for additional legal service funding, but it’s working behind the scenes to reach an agreement.

The rally, centered on asking management for lagging pay, unreasonable caseloads, improvements to benefits, and the workers’ willingness to strike until their demands are met.

Staff members, who included social workers and advocates in addition to attorneys, said that the wages they make caring for some of the most vulnerable litigants don’t reflect the cost of living in New York City.  

For the five providers, which also include the Center for Family Representation and Catholic Migration Services, the process of initiating strikes could start in July if they can’t reach an agreement. That’s a few steps away from where the unions are in negotiations now, but it’s something that their members say they’re ready for.

“If our management does not meet the moment, we are prepared to take the streets and shut it down,” said Jeremy Tinsely, a criminal defense attorney at Neighborhood Defender Service. 

The rally brought out several New York City Council members with prior careers as public defenders who promised to help fight for the union’s budget asks. 

“I’m going to tell you right now that the money is there for each and every one of you because we got money for 500 more cops,” Council Member Tiffany Cabán said, adding that the council needed more public defenders to run for office so that it would be more open to fully funding legal service providers.

Notably absent from the group of five providers in negotiations is the Legal Aid Society, the city’s biggest legal service provider. Last year, Legal Aid’s union chapter accepted a deal that had a reopening clause allowing it to bargain for wage and pension increases again this year, but that chapter won’t have the ability to strike.

That doesn’t mean it’s going to sit idly by either, according to Jane Fox, chapter chair of Legal Aid Society Attorneys United.

“If there is a strike with our union siblings, we’re going to do everything we can to reinforce that picket line, not take their work, make the courts feel the impact,” Fox said.

Members of the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys rallied at City Hall Park.Photo by Max Parrott Darializa Avila Chevalier rallies with the Association of Legal Aid AttorneysPhoto by Max Parrott