Public Defender Union Representing More Than 500 Workers in Brooklyn and Queens Authorizes Strike

96% of staff at Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS), members of UAW Local 2325, voted Monday to authorize a strike if their contract demands are not met. The wall-to-wall union represents over 500 workers representing indigent clients in criminal, immigration, and family court cases in Brooklyn and Queens, including 280 attorneys. Months of negotiations had come to a standstill prior to the vote, with salary and health insurance proposals that were patently unacceptable and no agreement over hybrid work schedules.

“The phrase in the labor movement is ‘the boss is the best organizer,’” said Brian Holbrook, a public defender and union member. “It’s management’s inflexibility and a series of very bad proposals that have brought us to this moment where such an overwhelming majority of the office is ready to authorize a work stoppage.” Read more in amNY and the Queens Daily Eagle.