{"id":307450,"date":"2026-07-28T09:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307450\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:44:10","slug":"bronx-public-defenders-walk-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307450\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx public defenders walk out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Striking Bronx public defenders<\/p>\n

Attorneys, social workers and support staff at the Bronx Defenders walked off the job Monday, launching a strike over wages and working conditions. The workers are members of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALAA)-UAW Local 2325. The non-profit provides free legal representation to residents of the Bronx facing criminal, family, immigration and housing cases.<\/p>\n

The strike is part of an expanding wave of walkouts across the public defender sector. Workers at Brooklyn Defender Services struck earlier this month before UAW officials pushed through a tentative agreement. Neighborhood Defender Service workers in Harlem, Detroit and Texas walked out on July 24. Bronx Defenders themselves struck last year, as did workers at several other legal non-profits.<\/p>\n

Theo, an eviction attorney who has worked at the Bronx Defenders for three years, spoke to WSWS reporters about the strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on strike because management\u2019s offers have frankly been insulting,\u201d Theo said.\u00a0\u201cWe want to destroy the systems of oppression. We believe that even if you\u2019ve done a crime, even if you\u2019ve done something wrong, you came here illegally, you deserve to have a good life. You deserve not to be evicted from your house.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described management\u2019s posture in negotiations as a betrayal of those principles. \u201cIt\u2019s been really dispiriting to see management cite those same systems of oppression and capitalist ideas of value right back at us in our negotiations. One of the things management\u2019s been harping on is making sure social workers are paid less than attorneys, which we should all be paid the maximum amount possible. Of course, the work we do is difficult. And to cite things like market value to us is nonsensical in the organization we work for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a difficult job. I think there\u2019s no sugar-coating that,\u201d he added. \u201cThe only thing that keeps me sustained is having all of these people with me behind me. It\u2019s a difficult job, and we can only do it when we\u2019re together, when we\u2019re united, when we\u2019re supported. And when management cites these same systems of oppression that we fight every day right in our faces, it\u2019s demoralizing. It makes it a lot harder to do this job without that support, and it hurts clients at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theo explained that the fragmented structure of the city\u2019s public defender system is itself the product of a decades-old strikebreaking operation. \u201cOriginally, the Legal Aid Society was the only shop in town. If you wanted a public defender, you got the Legal Aid Society. It\u2019s in all five boroughs. It still is to this day,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the 90s, [Rudy] Giuliani, in order to break the strike of the Legal Aid Society, created scab shops that are focused on different boroughs. The Bronx Defenders is one of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Theo described the conditions facing the clients he represents in housing court. \u201cAlmost all my clients are in court for eviction for non-payment. It\u2019s sheer poverty. There\u2019s no misconduct being alleged. It\u2019s just people are broke. It\u2019s hard times.\u201d The presence of an attorney is often decisive: \u201cWithout an attorney, eviction rates are way, way higher. With an attorney, a very, very small proportion of people end up getting evicted. Just the access to resources, the access to a counselor to assist you makes all the difference, and it\u2019s the honor of a lifetime to work with these folks.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cIn the Bronx, we do have a lot of rent-stabilized housing. That\u2019s not true in other boroughs. And there\u2019s plenty of people who, even if their rent is frozen, it\u2019s still being frozen at an unaffordable amount.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tori, a family court attorney in her second year at the Bronx Defenders, described the conditions driving the strike: \u201cWe have incredibly high caseloads. And we work really hard, oftentimes more than our contract hours. The conditions of our clients are even worse, frankly. I work in family court. A lot of my clients are really entrenched in the family regulation system and have trouble even having visits with their kids sometimes. And so the work is really important and also really hard, which is why we\u2019re asking for better working conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unsustainable workload, she said, drives a constant churn of young attorneys who burn out and leave. \u201cI\u2019ve only been here for two years. You see a lot of young attorneys doing public defense work and then not staying long-term. Not that new attorneys are not capable and competent, but I do think that you lose some institutional knowledge and that\u2019s at the client\u2019s detriment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tori represents parents in the Bronx Family Court. \u201cThe majority of my clients have been accused of child neglect or abuse. And so the majority of my clients have had their children removed from them and they\u2019re fighting to get them back. And once you\u2019ve been accused of something like that, it can be a really uphill battle.\u201d She added: \u201cWe see a lot of family separation and immigration getting a lot of outreach, as it should. But it is also happening very much to citizens in the US all the time, especially in the Bronx.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shirelle, a Bronx resident and former client of the Bronx Defenders, came to the picket line to support the strike. \u201cI\u2019ve been in trouble a few times. When I have to go and have a public defender, they do what they need to do. They come in. And the fact that they have to go on strike to freaking have wages or because they\u2019re underpaid is nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dominique, who works for the Department of Social Services at the Administration for Children\u2019s Services and has worked alongside the Bronx Defenders for 12 years, also voiced her support. \u201cBronx Defenders care about the community. They care about getting these kids a better chance. We all live in unfortunate situations. They understand that. Sometimes you got to do what you got to do, and it\u2019s not your fault, and they try to get you the minimal circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey should be getting paid more than the corporate lawyers,\u201d Dominique said. She drew a direct connection between underfunding public defense and mass incarceration: \u201cYou\u2019re trying to close Rikers [prison], but you\u2019re just trying to give them more reasons to fill Rikers up at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about soaring inequality alongside the billions spent on war abroad and immigration enforcement at home, Theo responded: \u201cThese are the things that we fight against every single day. Our immigration attorneys and representatives fight against ICE every single day in the courthouse, fight against illegal deportations every single day. I\u2019m an eviction attorney, so I fight poverty every single day. We see in the court rising inequalities, and this is why we fought to freeze the rents. And we have won that, and there\u2019s a lot more work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tori addressed the impact of the Trump administration on her undocumented clients. \u201cThe level of anxiety under the Trump administration really cannot be understated. It\u2019s severe, especially once you\u2019re entrenched in the family court system or the criminal system. It just oftentimes can have you be flagged for ICE. So it\u2019s like the stress of their family court case compounding with the immigration court case can be really, really a max for my clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we need to get our priorities straight, and I think that taking care of the working class and workers is really important,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd even me as an attorney, I feel like although our working conditions are rough, I even feel like I\u2019m coming at this with a point of privilege of having a law degree. I think about other workers, a lot of my clients who are making minimum wage jobs and barely making it and having to work with a benefit system that is incredibly bureaucratic and difficult to get food on the table for them and their families. I mean, it\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether the working class should conduct a general strike, Tori responded: \u201cIf all working-class people walked out, good luck running the country, right? So I think it could be effective if you had enough buy-in. And I think in the US, in New York City, you might have a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The majority of her clients have backed the strike, Tori said. \u201cI think it\u2019s because they understand that our interests are very much aligned and that me getting a fair wage and fair working conditions means that they get better representation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theo, asked about the death threat publicly issued by a UAW International official against Will Lehman, the rank-and-file autoworker running for UAW president on a socialist program, called it \u201cobviously unacceptable.\u201d He added: \u201cThere\u2019s so much mistrust in union rank and file. And I think we see that in our union, too, of people who feel unheard. And it\u2019s important to do that work of reaching out to people, bring them in. That\u2019s what union democracy is all about, is including as many people as possible and building power through solidarity. Not top-down death threats, things like that. That\u2019s obviously unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to the IWA-RFC Newsletter<\/p>\n

Get email updates on workers\u2019 struggles and a global perspective from the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Striking Bronx public defenders Attorneys, social workers and support staff at the Bronx Defenders walked off the job…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-307450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}