Support Staff at CAMBA Legal Services Form Union

Support staff at CAMBA Legal Services (CLS) this week announced their intent to join the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys - UAW Local 2325. The support staff, which includes paralegals, case aides, project coordinators, and receptionists, hope to join the CAMBA attorneys, who unanimously elected to join ALAA last month and were voluntarily recognized by CAMBA. The support staff are calling on CAMBA to immediately recognize their union after an overwhelming majority signed cards indicating their support for unionization. The 14 legal services workers announced their intent to unionize on Tuesday afternoon in a delegation to CAMBA General Counsel Elizabeth Miller. Among the support staff’s concerns are fair compensation, increased training and workforce development, and a higher standard of representation for CAMBA’s clients.

“Support staff at CLS play a very important role in preventing client evictions. We work together with attorneys to ensure our clients are offered the best possible services to maintain their housing and become self-sufficient” said Dafina Oruqi, Project Coordinator in the CLS Brooklyn Housing Practice. “We need to CAMBA to provide support staff with fair compensation, better health coverage, job stability, sustainable workloads, and investment in work skills development. We need to be appreciated for the hard work that we we do which is why we need CAMBA to recognize our union immediately.” Read more.