Lacking a contract, Children’s Law Center staff strike for 3 days

Lawyers, paralegals, social workers and administrative staff at The Children’s Law Center unionized in the summer of 2020 during a wave of organizing at legal service providers across the city. Three years since, staff at the Brooklyn nonprofit are still without a contract. 

And this week, amid stalled negotiations, workers at the organization walked out on a three-day unfair labor practice strike, accusing management of bad faith bargaining and forming a picket line outside of the CLC’s Court Street office. 

“Today is day 839 since we submitted our complete contract proposal,” Carly Coats, a lawyer and member of the workers bargaining committee told The Chief at the picket line on Tuesday. “We just got our first economic counter proposals on the 831st day, right after our strike deadline was announced.” 

Coats said that the counter from management included a proposal for administrative staff to make $37,000 per year and capped the highest salary for lawyers at $114,000 a year, achievable only for those who have been attorneys for 25 years. “They are not bargaining in good faith, they are not giving us good offers and we’re living on nearly unlivable wages in New York City.” Coats added. 

Besides increases in salary, workers at the CLC said they’re also looking to put more limits on workloads, with many lawyers at the center juggling 150 or more cases at once and attending court between 15 and 30 times a week. They also want a say in determining the organization’s next executive director following the resignation in April of its last director. 

“Our dedicated staff is known for achieving positive outcomes for thousands of kids each year and we are optimistic that we will reach an agreement that allows us to continue to provide that high level of service and advocacy,” Keith Little, CLC’s interim executive director said in a statement. “While we continue to finalize a fair and fiscally responsible salary scale, building off of the 5 percent salary increase given last year, we are also advocating for the state to increase funding to support CLC and make significant investments in institutional Attorney for Children providers.” 

‘We care so much about this job’ 

Coats said that management did not consult with the union when giving the raise, that it was the first boost in pay for the workers since 2019 and that it failed to keep up with the pace of inflation. And despite the salary increase, staff at CLC make less than their colleagues in similar positions at other legal service providers, said Louise Feld, a longtime attorney at the CLC.  

The low salaries and high workload have driven some lawyers from the CLC, Feld added, impacting clients' cases and putting children’s lives in limbo. “It’s so completely demoralizing when management is not treating us in a way that shows we have dignity and value in our labor,” Feld said at the picket line.

"We care so much about this job, and you do not go into this kind of law unless you actually care about it and really feel motivated by the mission of giving children a choice in challenging legal cases that involve the most important issues in their lives,” she continued.  

CLC staff are members of UAW Local 2325, the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, which represents more than 3,000 legal services workers at 24 different legal nonprofits, mostly in the city. In early February, hundreds of lawyers at the Legal Aid Society who are members of Local 2325 walked out of their offices for an hour to highlight their own stalled negotiations. Later that month employees at the New York Legal Assistance Group, also part of the local, held a two-day strike. 

NYLAG staff reached a tentative agreement with management a few weeks later and ratified their new contract on March 20, with 96 percent of workers who cast ballots voting in favor. 

The CLC union and management at the center met to negotiate once again on Wednesday and the striking workers returned to work Thursday morning “as an act of good faith,” according to a statement posted on Twitter by the union. In that same statement, though, the union said that if there is not consistent progress on bargaining “The Children’s Law Center Union is prepared to call for an indefinite strike.” 

“We all deserve to be treated better and we deserve to have our voice heard when we’re fighting for better treatment,” said Coats. Reflecting on the concurrence of Hollywood’s actors and writers striking at the same time as her coworkers, Feld added that “There's no other choice but for labor to organize and to make demands because things have gotten so lopsided in our neighborhoods, in our city and in our country.” 

dfreeman@thechiefleader.com