{"id":858451,"date":"2026-06-10T22:28:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/858451\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T22:28:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:28:46","slug":"nyc-public-defender-unions-push-to-get-funding-in-the-city-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/858451\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC public defender unions push to get funding in the city budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

A year after the Bronx Defenders union walked off the job<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But before they get to striking a deal with the boss, the union chapters first must tackle a bigger hurdle: the city budget.\n<\/p>\n

Members of the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys (ALAA)<\/a> 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 \u2014 the same day as the city budget is due.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bargaining comes after a tense bout of negotiations from ALAA\u2019s unions last year under the former mayor, and will test the union\u2019s relationship with Mayor Zohran Mamdani as he works out his first budget with the City Council. ALAA\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur bosses always point the finger at the city,\u201d said Leah Duncan, the ALAA financial secretary, at the rally. \u201cBut this year, more than ever in recent memory, we are standing here outside of City Hall with some comrades inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

A majority of legal service provider funding comes from the city government. This year, the union\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The union said the mayor\u2019s office hasn\u2019t publicly released a total figure for additional legal service funding, but it\u2019s working behind the scenes to reach an agreement.<\/p>\n

The rally, centered on asking management for lagging pay, unreasonable caseloads, improvements to benefits, and the workers\u2019 willingness to strike until their demands are met.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t reflect the cost of living in New York City.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019t reach an agreement. That\u2019s a few steps away from where the unions are in negotiations now, but it\u2019s something that their members say they\u2019re ready for.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf our management does not meet the moment, we are prepared to take the streets and shut it down,\u201d said Jeremy Tinsely, a criminal defense attorney at Neighborhood Defender Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rally brought out several New York City Council members with prior careers as public defenders who promised to help fight for the union\u2019s budget asks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 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,\u201d Council Member Tiffany Cab\u00e1n 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.<\/p>\n

Notably absent from the group of five providers in negotiations is the Legal Aid Society, the city\u2019s biggest legal service provider. Last year, Legal Aid\u2019s 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\u2019t have the ability to strike.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to sit idly by either, according to Jane Fox, chapter chair of Legal Aid Society Attorneys United.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a strike with our union siblings, we\u2019re going to do everything we can to reinforce that picket line, not take their work, make the courts feel the impact,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\n<\/p>\n

\"\"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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year after the Bronx Defenders union walked off the job for the first time in three decades,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":858452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[350240,5229,349437,350241,350242,8162,78122,350243,405,403,165307,5226,5225,5228,5227,350244,350245,350246,226171,350247,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,130861,5301],"class_list":["post-858451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-alaa","tag-america","tag-bronx-defenders","tag-city-hall-rally","tag-contract-deadline","tag-cost-of-living","tag-labor-dispute","tag-legal-services-funding","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-budget","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-pay-parity","tag-public-defenders","tag-strike-threat","tag-uaw","tag-union-negotiations","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wage-increases","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116728176940919154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}