The public defender union representing hundreds of attorneys and staff across Brooklyn and Queens walked off the job after a 21-hour bargaining session failed to reach a deal.
Staff of Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS) say that in the week since they voted to authorize a strike, the union has made significant progress in bargaining, but management had not met their bottom-line demands over wages. At the end of a marathon bargaining session that extended from Wednesday into the early hours of Thursday morning, union members said management walked away from the table.
A union spokesperson declined to go into specifics about which parts of the economic demands caused the standstill, but a statement the union issued indicated that the wage floor for non-attorney staff loomed over the decision to hit the picket line.
“Despite significant compromises from the union, management refused terms that would ensure our lowest-paid staff can sustain themselves and their families,” Maria Gorman and Andrew Eichen, BDS Union co-chairs, wrote in a statement. “BDS prides itself on being an organization that prioritizes those who have the least. But management’s attempts to divide their own staff say differently.”
In a statement, BDS Executive Director Lisa Schreibersdorf said she was “proud to have made a strong offer to the union that reflects the value of their incredible representation” and said that management “will continue to negotiate and hope to reach a swift and fair resolution.”
The BDS Union represents around 500 staff across the organization, including about 280 attorneys as well as social workers, investigators, paralegals, and support staff who provide services to Brooklyn and Queens residents in criminal, family, housing and immigration court.
Supervisors will handle the organization’s cases to ensure that clients are not affected by the work stoppage, according to BDS management. Workers had originally planned pickets as part of the strike, but concerns about air quality from Canadian wildfire smoke prompted them to pause their in-person rallies.
Attorneys had worked closely with their supervisors to prepare for a potential strike, said a union spokesperson, adding that managers would be ready to fill in on in-person arraignments or emergency hearings, with the help of pre-written coverage notes.
The leader of the public defense provider, which grew to absorb much of the Queens Defenders staff last year after the Queens executive was arrested for fraud, has clashed with the union in recent years.
Last year, Schreibersdorf allegedly tried to recruit a union delegate to help decertify the BDS Union in favor of a more management-friendly union in exchange for workplace benefits, according to a complaint the union submitted to the National Labor Relations Board.
The union and Schreibersdorf ultimately settled the complaint, with Schreibersdorf formally issuing a notice to employees that she would refrain from attempting to decertify the union or promising benefits to do so. Schreibersdorf announced in June that she would be retiring this December.
BDS attorneys said that the decision to strike was not taken lightly and that they hope to reach an agreement and return to work as soon as possible.
“My clients depend on us as a group,” BDS attorney Bret Keith Brintzenhofe said. “I take my role very seriously. I am not working in the office today. I’m working for my ability to keep effectively representing them over the long term.”