Attorneys and social workers at a Queens-based public defender agency announced their plan to unionize Wednesday, becoming the latest New York City indigent defense group to organize under the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys.
Roughly 70 staffers from the Queens Defenders are now calling on management to voluntarily recognize their union after filing an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board. That recognition would prevent a lengthy legal process, they say.
Staff at three of New York City’s five other public defender organizations — The Legal Aid Society, Bronx Defenders and Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem — have already joined ALAA-UAW Local 2325, as have employees at a number of other Metropolitan-area nonprofit legal groups.