Bargaining 2024-2025 Updates

(Group photo of LSSA 2320 Members Post-Picket Action 12/19/2024)

Bargaining 2024-2025 is underway!

Below is information for LSSA 2320 Members to stay informed on Bargaining with LSNYC, how they can plug into the Contract Campaign, and a Bargaining timeline at the bottom of the page.

 

Member Education & FAQ’s

Decoding Management’s Proposals:

Strike Preparation:

Solidarity Letter:

Latest Dispatch from LSSA 2320’s Bargaining Team

From Bargaining Sessions on 2/25/2025 , 2/26/2025, &  2/27/2025:

Dear union siblings,

After months of negotiations and three days of intense bargaining, management presented their last, best, and final offer. We are carefully reviewing the offer to determine our recommendation.

In the meantime, we encourage all members to review the details of the offer here: Package of Proposed Contract Changes — 02-28-2025. We will provide our recommendation as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience throughout this process. 

Everything that management is offering us is the result of our collective effort to show management our unity and our determination to win a fair contract. To all of our members: Thank you for coming out to support the bargaining team and our union during this long process.

On Friday, March 7th, we will meet as a union to discuss and vote on the package of potential contract changes. Here’s what to expect and how it’ll work:

Day Off with Pay, Make Coverage Arrangements. 

Everyone has a day off from work, with pay, so that you can focus 100% on our contract discussion. Please let your supervisor know if you have any work or cases assigned for that day. They are responsible for covering your work responsibilities so that you can attend. Still, you need to let them know what your coverage needs are. You should submit your time by the end of day on March 6, 2025.

Read more about these updates in Bargaining Timeline below

Contract Campaign Committees:

Are you ready to take action for a fair contract?

📝 Sign up for a committee! 📝

  • Activism – meets Thursdays at 1 pm. Contact Alex J.

  • Communications – meets Fridays at 11 am. Contact Corinthia C.

  • Outreach/Contract Campaign – contact Ghislaine V. and Jim M.

  • Education – meets Fridays at 1 pm. Contact Allison H.

    🔴 Wear Red on Wednesdays! 🔴

  • Remember to wear red or your union shirt on Wednesdays, and our actions to stop work from 1-2pm every third Wednesday.

    Help us get a fair contract!

     

Bargaining Timeline:

 

 2/25/2025 , 2/26/2025, &  2/27/2025:

Dear union siblings,

After months of negotiations and three days of intense bargaining, management presented their last, best, and final offer. We are carefully reviewing the offer to determine our recommendation.

In the meantime, we encourage all members to review the details of the offer here: Package of Proposed Contract Changes — 02-28-2025. We will provide our recommendation as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience throughout this process. 

Everything that management is offering us is the result of our collective effort to show management our unity and our determination to win a fair contract. To all of our members: Thank you for coming out to support the bargaining team and our union during this long process.

On Friday, March 7th, we will meet as a union to discuss and vote on the package of potential contract changes. Here’s what to expect and how it’ll work:

Day Off with Pay, Make Coverage Arrangements. 

Everyone has a day off from work, with pay, so that you can focus 100% on our contract discussion. Please let your supervisor know if you have any work or cases assigned for that day. They are responsible for covering your work responsibilities so that you can attend. Still, you need to let them know what your coverage needs are. You should submit your time by the end of day on March 6, 2025.

Solidarity,
LSSA 2320 Bargaining

2/11/2025 | 2/13/2025

Dear union siblings,

Thank you to everyone who attended our two open bargaining sessions with management this Tuesday and Thursday. We counted [over 250] people in attendance at both sessions. Thank you for coming out and showing management that our members are watching.

As members who were at open bargaining know, management made no improvements to its financial offer.Their lack of movement comes after we provided a salary counter on Saturday, February 8. Our counter’s salary demands remained high, because we want to ensure staff raises are fair. Over the course of bargaining, we’ve repeatedly voiced concerns about management raises relative to staff, and we’ve made multiple information requests for manager salaries and raises. Management has repeatedly declined to provide that information, stating that 1. the union is not entitled to that information, and 2. management spending on their raises is at their own discretion. 

However, they did let us know that their salary offer will be retroactive to July 1, 2024,  as  we have had in every past contract. The two sides did not reach an agreement on anything this week.

As we approach the end of bargaining on February 27, management and their lawyer have been uncooperative, rude, and shown themselves to be out of touch with LSNYC’s staff and our circumstances. It is clear to us that management is leaving everything to the last minute on purpose.

At the beginning of Thursday’s meeting, we let management know that we are done with their constant complaining that we are demanding too much, while they refuse to play ball with most of our outstanding demands.  

We have only three all-day bargaining sessions left with management on the week of February 24th, and management has refused to even start discussion on numerous issues, both financial and non-financial. . All of us have to be ready for that possibility, and the union is already preparing.

Despite management’s behavior this week, we believe there is still time to reach an agreement on a fair contract that the team can recommend to the union. We will do everything we can to make that happen.  

The final day of bargaining will be Thursday, Feb 27. That night or the next day, we will inform all members of management’s final offer, and whether or not we reached a full agreement on all demands. The week of March 3, we will  hold lunch and evening meetings with members to discuss the final offer and the team’s recommendation.

We will have the full day off (admin time) on Friday, March 7 for all members to vote on whether to accept management’s offer, or whether to begin a strike immediately. Members should complete and submit their time by end of day on Thursday, March 6.

This will likely be our final bargaining update, as the team will spend next week preparing for our marathon final bargaining sessions.

Be on the lookout for further calls to action from our hard-working activism committee.  As management prepares to make its final offer, now is the time to step up.

[“The union is greedy”]

Last week, we proposed a focused demand package to management, with the goal of reaching a final agreement that we can recommend to members.  This package included our latest across-the-board salary counteroffer (15%-7.5%-8% raises for the three contract years).  We believe these proposals serve the interests and rights of all members across job titles and seniority, as well as reflect what members have asked for and deserve: Bargaining Demands List 2.8.2025 .pdf

On Tuesday, management refused to counter on wages unless we lowered our salary demands again—which would be bargaining against ourselves. Management repeated their complaint that we are demanding too much, and said that they won’t offer higher raises until we lower our demand for 15% raises in the first contract year.  (Management is offering 6.25%-2%-2% raises to staff on scales A through F, and with additional raises to scales K(H1) and I to establish a salary floor of about $60,000 only in the last year of the contract.)

Management did, however, confirm that their salary offer will now be retroactive to the beginning of the contract on July 1, 2024.  Previously, they  claimed HRA  told them they would not allow reallocation of funds to pay retro; but they had no written documentation of any such HRA restrictions.  Now management says HRA will not impose those restrictions; and again, they have no written documentation of the change.

This was the only positive news, as management once again rejected almost all the other demands that we included in our focused package.  (See page 8 of their responses: LSNYC 2.11.25 Proposals.pdf)

On Thursday, after we pointed out to management that we have already offered to compromise on our demands, management’s lawyer agreed to make a real salary counteroffer…which, true to form, she said will be “conservative.”

[Show me the money – not the same chart from last time]

We explained in detail that our salaries are not sufficient to hire and retain the staff attorneys we need.  With management’s current salary offer, the fall 2025 salary for step 1 attorneys would be 5.25% less than what they would make at the Legal Aid Society – and that’s before whatever raises Legal Aid’s attorney union can win in their upcoming bargaining this summer.  And in general, across all staff, the raises management offered in 2021 have not been enough to keep up with the inflation since then—and possibly in the future.

Shervon and counsel said multiple times:  LSNYC just can’t pay what Legal Aid does, because we don’t have the funding that they do.  At the same time, Shervon insists that our work is just as valuable as Legal Aid’s work.  We just need to be happy with a better remote work policy than Legal Aid, rather than salaries that recognize the equal value of our work.  (By the way, management also refuses to make our remote work policy better or more equitable.)

Management brought out a chart to argue that actually, the raises they’re offering aren’t bad at all – once you add in the step raises that we already have in our contract.  Management’s chart emphasizes that, if you add up the raises for all four years from 2023 to 2026, including all of our step raises, the cumulative raise looks pretty high:  LSNYC Salary Scales – 2.11.25.pdf

Yes, our contract does include step raises – because our members went on strike in 1991 and won them.  But as we explained, the problem is:

First, this chart de-emphasizes new members we will hire (or try to hire) in the next few years. Those future members won’t vote on this contract, but we very much need to hire them.

Second, not everyone even gets a step raise.  We have about 30 members who are over step 35 and will never get a step raise again.  We have about 100 members on step 21 and up who will have a zero step raise for at least 1 year of this new contract.  Moreover, the purpose of step raises is not to keep up with inflation but to value the experience we gain year by year.

Members who were here in 2021 may recall that management made that same argument when it came time to vote on that contract, and even gave members a very similar chart, which we shared on Thursday:  2021 LSNYC Salary Scales.pdf

Management used this chart to argue that, if you include four years of raises, including step raises and the “pay equity” changes that we made to our step system in 2021, our 2%-1%-1.75% raises were not so bad. After all, some members on lower pay scales got over 20% raises over four years.  But after those percentage raises that management touted in 2021, are our members doing so much better now than they were 4 years ago?

Finally, it is deceptive to suggest that staff pay and staff benefits are the only thing that has a cost.  Are these alleged financial limitations reflected in lower pay for managers, consultants, and outside lawyers?  Or does saving money only matter during bargaining?

In response, all management did was repeat their same generic talking points: the union needs to reduce its demands, LSNYC just doesn’t have enough money, they want to pay what we deserve, and we do great work.  We told them that if they want to talk about financial limitations and not having money, we expect a substantive, informed discussion rather than clichés and generalities.  We’ll be waiting in the final week of bargaining.

Management gave counteroffers or responses this week on the following demands:

  • Office Health and Safety

  • Individual Development Plans (alternative to PIP process for members with mental health or substance use issues)

  • Reasonable Accommodation Policy and Grievance Process

  • Discrimination and Harassment Policy

  • Flexible Work Hours

  • Grievance Procedure

  • Breaks

  • Work from Home

  • FMLA Leave (management’s demand to penalize members on medical leave who don’t fill out paperwork on time)

Read management’s responses here:  

LSNYC 2.11.25 Proposals.pdf (Same link as above)
LSNYC Proposals – 2.13.25.pdf

We also had to remind management that, even as we approach the end of this process, they still owe us other critical information that we need for bargaining, including quotes for better short-term and long-term disability coverage.  Management claimed they cannot give us a quote for the 100% coverage we demand, because no carrier would provide one – but they admitted they did not even try asking for quotes for the highest available level of coverage.

We  made counterproposals this week on the following demands:

  • Work from Home (including COVID Sick Leave)

  • Substance and Mental Health (CBA Section 9.5)

Read our counterproposals here:

LSSA 2023 WFH Counter.pdf

Union Counter 9.5 Substance Use_Mental Health 2.6.25.docx.pdf

[Office Health and Safety]

As you may remember, the union made a robust demand on office health, safety, security, and emergencies. You can find the original version on pp. 5–7 of our initial demands. We have exchanged several rounds of counterproposals with management, and each of theirs has essentially gutted our demand. Management’s most recent proposal, from this past Tuesday, is on pp. 1–4 here, and our response, which we discussed at yesterday’s open bargaining session, is here.

The union’s proposal prioritizes an office-closure policy for inclement weather and climate events that protects staff safety, responsiveness and transparency in office emergencies and security issues, and union involvement in creating safety and security policies. Instead, management wants us to agree to the following:

  • doing offsite intake on dangerous travel days

  • going in person to court and hearings on dangerous travel days, with no help from supervisors to get coverage or adjournments

  • no voice in making our safety and security policies, except a yearly “opportunity to submit feedback”

Management assured us that offices are fully prepared for emergencies because there is a number that will ring as an emergency call on every manager’s phone. However, when asked, management could not remember the number or tell us how to find it.

This is likely to be the team’s final dispatch before we report management’s final offer.  We want to thank you for reading these updates.

This is the beginning of the end of bargaining.  Now more than ever, we need each and every member to get behind our union and let management know:  We are not going anywhere until we get a fair contract.  This is the best time to join one of our hard-working committees to help us mobilize our members and prepare for a possible strike.

The only way to avoid a strike is to win a fair contract now.  But we can’t win unless we all do our part. 

2/4/2025 | 2/6/2025

Here is our update on our bargaining sessions with management on February 4 and February 6.

Schedule for End of Bargaining and Strike Vote

We informed management that our members overwhelmingly (93%) voted to authorize a strike.  Our last bargaining meeting with management is Thursday, February 27.  Our vote to ratify a contract – or go on strike – will be held Friday March 7.  

Following our open bargaining meetings next week on February 11 and February 13, management is not meeting with us the week of February 17, because their lawyer is on vacation.  The team will use that week to prepare for the end of bargaining and our strike vote.

At management’s request, we agreed to meet with them the entire day on Tuesday, February 25; and to have all-day meetings instead of afternoon meetings, on Wednesday, February 26, and Thursday, February 27.  These will be our final bargaining meetings.

Tentative Agreement on Protections for Staff with DACA/TPS Status

We reached agreement with management on our demand to improve our CBA protections for staff with DACA or TPS status.  Management agreed that, as we demanded, LSNYC will reimburse staff for DACA/TPS work renewal fees, make best efforts to get pro bono legal assistance for staff who are eligible for a work visa,  will sponsor DACA/TPS staff at risk of losing their status for work visas, and may sponsor other DACA/TPS staff for work visas even if their status is not in jeopardy. Management also agreed to give five months’ salary to DACA/TPS staff whose employment ends due to loss of status (up from four months; we had demanded six months).Read the tentative agreement here:  Tentative_Agreement_-_DACA-TPS__2.4.25.pdf

Our Middle Managers Agree:  We Need Fair, Competitive Pay

This week, LSNYC middle managers in our citywide Housing Units sent two letters to the LSNYC Board of Directors and Shervon–one from housing managers citywide, and one from MLS middle managers–both calling on management to improve its salary offer to the union.

These letters confirm what we already know, and management should know:  without offering fair, competitive pay, LSNYC will never hire or keep the staff we need to do our work.  

For example, according to the citywide managers’ letter, low pay has caused a clear decline in LSNYC’s housing attorney hiring for fall 2025, with candidates rejecting 66% of job offers from MLS and 60% of job offers from Brooklyn Legal Services.

As we have said before:  If management fails to offer fair pay, they will inflict major, and perhaps catastrophic, harm on our organization, our funding, and our clients.

We and middle management agree on at least one thing:  Fair pay is not just about giving our staff the ability to live.  It is not just what we deserve–it is what our clients deserve, and what our work deserves.

YYou can read the citywide housing managers’ letter here [Housing Management Letter.pdf], and the MLS housing managers’ letter here [MLS Middle Manager Letter.pdf].  Please note that we were not given a list of the signatories to the MLS letter.

Counters and Responses from the Union and Management

On February 4, management gave us counters and responses on the following:

  • Temporary agency workers

  • Early office closings on Holidays

  • Protections for DACA/TPS staff

You can read management’s counters and responses here:  LSNYC Proposals 2.4.25.pdf

On February 4 and 6, we gave management gave us counters and responses on the following:

  • Translation and Interpretation

  • Office Health, Safety, and Security

  • Office Space

  • Individual Development Plans and PIPs (Protecting staff with mental health and substance issues from unfair discipline)

  • Discrimination and Harassment Policy

  • FMLA Leave (Response to management’s demand)

  • Grievances (Response to management’s demand)

  • Early office closings on holidays (Our response is to reject management’s latest position)

  • Protections for staff with DACA/TPS status

Read our counters and responses here:

LSSA T_I Counter 2-4-25.docx.pdf

LSSA Counterproposal — Health-Safety-Security-Emergencies — 02-06-2025.docx.pdf

Office Space Counter, 2.6.25.docx.pdf

Union Counter – IDP – 2.6.25.docx.pdf

Union’s Counter – 2.6.25 Sick leave, Grievance process, Housekeeping – Discrimination.docx.pdf

2/5/2025

Open Bargaining Dates Confirmed!

We have seen the amazing energy from you all and the support from our allies at this week’s pickets.  Keep it up!

At yesterday’s session management accepted our proposed opening bargaining session (via zoom) dates:

Tuesday: February 11, 2025, 1:30pm-4:30pm

Thursday: February 13, 2025, 1:30pm-4:30pm

Keep an eye out for the link to the Zoom in your emails.

2/2/2025

Strike Authorization Approved by LSSA 2320 Members after Vote

Your participation in this vote has been tremendous.  Your energy and voices make it loud and clear to management that you will fight for the contract you deserve:

TOTAL VOTES (436)

YES – 406 (93.12%)

no – 30 (6.88%)

What’s next:  We will inform LSNYC of our deadline to complete negotiations. As LSNYC has been slow to move on our demands, this vote demonstrates our willingness to exercise our right to strike, which can help us reach an agreement.

Keep the momentum going!

1/30/2025 | 1/31/2025

We had two bargaining sessions on Thursday January 30th and Friday January 31st. Here are our updates from bargaining this week:

Open Bargaining

The  team proposed to management, and followed up on, 2/11 from 1:30-4:30pm and 2/13 from 1:30-4:30pm as dates for open bargaining. Management has not yet confirmed these dates but we wanted to give you a chance to pencil them in!

Management’s Presentations & Counters

Management submitted counters on the following, which you can read here: LSNYC Proposals – 1.30.25.pdf

  • FMLA paperwork requirement (under Sick Leave)

  • Grievances

  • Discrimination/Harassment

  • Vacation

Our Presentations & Counters

We presented on the following counters:

Management indicated we are “very close” on DACA/TPS. We await a written response from them. Management did not have any position to offer on the remaining counters as of yet.

We also had extensive discussion on probation and we are working on a counter. We orally requested information on law graduates and bar admission, and we await them from management

Management Refuses To Release Manager Salary Data

Management “Actively Engaged” in Multitasking During Bargaining Sessions

1/22/2025 | 1/24/2025 

Topics Discussed at the January 22 Bargaining Session 

  • Completing the presentation of Section 14.3(H)(2), Translation and Interpretation –carried over from the 1/17 session
  • Section 4.9, Alternative Work Week  (regarding a 4 day, 35 hour work week) 
  • Section 12.9, Supervision and Evaluation 
  • Section 17.3(A)(7) , Cell Phone Reimbursement
  • Section 5,7, Retirement (including retiree healthcare and retirement payouts)
  • Expand Salary Scale up to Step 40
  • Section 3.4, Hiring of Temp Workers
  • Section 1.9, Full Pay and Release Time for Union President and Delegate At Large

 

Topics Discussed at the January 24 Bargaining Session 

 

1/17/2025

Topics Discussed at the January 17 Bargaining Session 

  • Early Closing for Holidays (but not Juneteenth, says management)
  • Temperature, Water and Toilets (we have a tentative agreement!)
  • International Attorney Step Placement 
  • FMLA Leave (management needs a dictionary again)
  • Remote Work (yes to making it part of the contract instead of a side letter, no to more days)
  • Management’s Salary Offer – Retro Raises and City COLA Funding (management’s arguments against retro fall apart if you look at them closely—actually, if you look at them at all)

 

1/9/2025 | 1/10/2025

Management’s Presentations & Counters

 On Thursday January 9, and Friday, January 10, management presented responses and counters on the following demands:

  • Flexibility in Scheduling Practice
  • Staff with DACA/TPS Status
  • Breaks
  • Interpretation and Translation
  • Workloads and Caseloads
  • Specialist/Coordinator Differential (“Bump”)
  • Salaries (Across the Board Raises and Salary Floor) 
  • Health and Safety
  • Numerous other demands relating to annual leave, sick leave, health insurance, and other topics, all of which they again rejected

You can read all of their counters and responses here: LSNYC Counterproposals – 1.9.25.pdf and LSNYC Proposals – 1.10.25.pdf

Management’s Financial Counter: Enjoy Your Crappy Raises!

On Friday, management came back with a slightly different financial offer in response to the union’s counteroffer of December 24. They are now offering:

For salary scales A to F (that’s about 80% of our staff):

  • 6.25% raise for contract year 1 – starting ONLY after bargaining is done, with NO raise retroactive to the start of the contract in July 2024
  • 2% raise for contract year 2 (no change from their last offer)
  • 2% raise for contract year 3 (no change from their last offer)

For the lowest paid scales, they are continuing to push a watered-down version of our demand for an immediate $62,000 salary floor for all staff:

For salary scales H/H1(K):  

  • 8% raise for contract year 1 (no change from their last offer)
  • 4% raise for contract year 2 (no change from their last offer)
  • 3% raise for contract year 3 (no change from their last offer)

For salary scales I/J:  

  • 10% raise for contract year 1 (no change from their last offer)
  • 5% raise for contract year 3 (no change from their last offer)
  • 4% raise for contract year 3 (no change from their last offer)

 

On January 9, we discussed the salary counteroffer that we served on December 24, and presented on most of the economic proposals that blanket management rejected at our December 18 bargaining session:

    • Longevity Differential
    • 403(b) Contribution Increase
    • 403(b) Request for Proposals
    • Increasing the Specialist Bump
    • LSAT Course Reimbursement and Leave Time
    • Expense Reimbursement (including supper money, child/elder care reimbursement)
    • Eliminating the 1% Health Care Contribution
    • Improving our Health Reimbursement Accounts
    • Increasing Educational Loan Reimbursement
    • Fertility Treatment and Assisted Reproductive Technology
    • Financial Assistance for Adoption and Surrogacy
    • Additional Annual Leave Days for Senior Staff
    • Removing the cap on Vacation Day Payouts for Departing Staff
    • Improving Sick Leave Payouts for Departing Staff
    • Additional Sick Leave Days for Senior Staff
    • COVID Sick Leave
    • Bereavement Leave 
    • Parenthood and Maternity Disability Leave
    • Paid Sabbatical Leave
    • Part-Time Work Schedules
    • Malpractice Insurance
    • Calculating Increase for Promoted Legal Workers

We did not get to discuss other retirement-related proposals, but we intend to discuss those at an upcoming bargaining session.

Management claimed they had to give a blanket rejection of dozens of our demands because they didn’t have our salary counter-offer yet, and because we didn’t give them “presentations” about each demand. But their response to our salary counteroffer and presentations was to just reject most of those demands again on January 10:

  • Longevity Differential
  • 403(b) Contribution Increase
  • Increasing the Specialist Bump
  • LSAT Course Reimbursement and Leave Time
  • Expense Reimbursement (including supper money, child/elder care reimbursement)
  • Eliminating the 1% Health Care Contribution
  • Improving our Health Reimbursement Accounts
  • Educational Loan Reimbursement
  • Fertility Treatment and Assisted Reproductive Technology
  • Financial Assistance for Adoption and Surrogacy
  • Additional Annual Leave for Senior Staff
  • Removing the Cap on Vacation Day Payouts for Departing Staff
  • Improving Sick Leave Payouts for Departing Staff
  • Additional Sick Leave for Senior Staff
  • COVID Sick Leave 

Management and their lawyer still complain that the union has too many demands, and that we have to tell them which demands they can ignore.  We expect them to once again reject the demands they rejected before.

Union’s Counterproposals and Responses

On Friday, January 10, we served management with counterproposals and responses for the following demands:

  • Remote Work
  • Temperature, Water, and Toilets
  • Reasonable Accommodations
  • Holiday Office Closure
  • International Attorney Step Placement
  • Protecting Staff with Mental Health/Substance Use issues from Unfair Discipline
  • Management’s Sick Leave Demand (taking away FMLA sick leave if staff don’t do paperwork)
  • Management’s Bar Exam Demand (subjecting law grads to discipline if they don’t finish their bar application within 3 months, among other things)
  • Management’s Demand on Grievances

12/24/2024

This is the last dispatch of 2024, and while things are winding down for the year, we’re gearing up to return to the bargaining table in 2025.

The Bargaining Team wanted to close out the year with a financial update. We finalized our financial counter-proposal’s primary demands, which includes four points that we served on management:

  • Across-the-board raises of 15% in year one, 8.5% in year two, and 9% in year three (down slightly from our original demand of 15/10/10);

  • Adding a 1% step raise for all steps that currently do not have a raise;

  • A $62,000 salary floor for our lowest paid members; and

  • Retroactive pay to July 1, 2024 (in contrast to management’s offer, which is not retroactive to July 1, breaking with past bargaining practice)

We’re grateful for the work our members have put towards creating a meaningful contract campaign, and in particular want to shout out the activism committee and shop members citywide who staged a powerful picket at the MLS gala on short notice, as well as the many shop members from other boroughs who joined in!

12/17/2024

Management’s BLANKET REJECTION of 20 Union Demands
Management made a sweeping announcement that “at this time” they are rejecting all of our demands that they consider to be “financial”—a list of 20 different demands from our members.  Management is complaining that they don’t have our counteroffer to their first financial proposal on salaries – but they now refuse to even talk about everything from bereavement leave to assistance for adoption, surrogacy and ART, to LSAT reimbursements for legal workers, to social worker malpractice insurance, to supper money.

We presented on:

  • Notice of step placement (Management agrees to this demand.)
  • The team had planned to discuss a number of other demands today, including cell phone reimbursement; assistance for fertility, adoption, and ART; the translation/interpretation and specialist bumps; short- and long-term disability insurance; and student loan reimbursement, but given that management had already announced that they rejected those demands, we decided not to waste our time, ended our meeting with management, and devoted our day to meeting as a team.

Management’s other counterproposals and responses today:

  • DACA
  • PIPs
  • Layoffs
  • Workloads 
  • Attorney Caseloads and Intake Relief
  • Office Space
  • Process Servers and Clerk Messengers

You can read management’s official responses here:
LSNYC CounterProposals 12.17.24

12/13/2024

Management presented several counter-proposals on:

  • Early closings before some holidays
  • Job descriptions, particularly for the Executive Secretary
  • Free speech
  • Step placements, including for internationally-trained attorneys

You can read them here: LSNYC Proposals – 12.13.24.pdf

Other official management responses:

  • Summer Fridays: rejected, because they will not agree to a 32-hour work week and think we can’t properly serve our clients if we close early on Fridays.
  • Union involvement in grant negotiation: they did not have language.

We presented on:

  • Protections for staff with DACA/TPS
  • Fund for medical equipment/devices not covered by insurance
  • Employees with substance use or mental health issues will not be subject to the PIP process
  • Reasonable and equitable workloads
  • Court and intake coverage for attorneys
  • Attorney caseloads
  • Intake relief
  • Staffing
  • Office space and assignments

11/22/2024| 12/03/2024 | 12/04/2024

“We had 3 sessions on Friday, November 22, Tuesday, December 3, and Wednesday, December 4. Our upcoming sessions for 2024 are December 13 and 18. We are still finalizing schedules for January and February, and we aim to wrap up bargaining by the early spring. Management served us with several counter proposals, which we’ll link to and discuss in more detail below.

Here’s a quick summary of each major issue:

  • Management created a misleading “bargaining updates” page on the LSNYC website.

  • Management wants work from home to be as unequal and micromanaged as possible.

  • Whenever possible, management wants to pit and divide support staff from case handlers (attorneys included).

  • Management is pretending they did not agree to layoff protections that they agreed to (and our members ratified) in 2021. It would be funny if it weren’t so disturbing.

  • The bargaining team eagerly seeks feedback from members on temperature/water/toilets, fire safety, and workday breaks; see below for more.”

11/13/2024 & 11/18/2024

“We had sessions on November 13 and 18, and have another session scheduled tomorrow (Friday, November 22). Management served us with several counter proposals, which you can read here and here, and which we’ll discuss in more detail below!

This is along update, so here’s a quick summary of each major point:

  • Management seeks to eliminate the second step of our existing grievance process.

  • Management proposed an inequitable and rigid work-from-home policy.

  • Management is trying to sugarcoat their demand to increase all probation to 6 months, by offering to only impose it on new staff (and probably anyone who transfers or is promoted to a new LSNYC position).

  • Click here for background information about the City’s recent “COLA” funding increase.

  • Recent news about LSNYC having problems collecting money from the City *does not* affect our financial demands or our need for fair raises.

  • Get management a dictionary, because they think “at least 20 annual leave days” means “less than 20 annual leave days.”

  • And updates about the anti-discrimination policy and 403(b) committee.”

10/29/2024

“The week had our third meeting with Management on Tuesday, October 29, 2024. Management gave us the impression that they have yet to read our demands in their entirety, as they want us to provide them with a list of our priorities so they can focus on those. It is clear that this is one of their tactics to keep control of the flow of bargaining. We think their strategy is to reduce our right to strike by pushing an agenda to bargain demands related to wages, hours, and working conditions first, and leaving everything not related to those subjects last. We are trying to take control of the agenda and decide what gets bargained first and last. Additionally, their counsel is dominating the discussion despite not being familiar with our CBA.

Additionally, Management has proposed that our next negotiation session be on November 18, 2024. We have proposed a meeting for the week of November 11 and await their response.

We discussed the following:

403b Committee: We thought this demand would be easy because LSNYC’s officers (meaning Shervon and Kirsten) have a fiduciary duty to ensure that our retirement benefits are competitive and maximized. However, Management did not want to agree to two additional meetings a year, which would happen between our quarterly meetings with Gallagher (LSNYC’s financial advisors) and Empower (the company that managers our 403b plan). These meetings would allow the Union and Management to meet without the interference of any third party to discuss issues such as a request for proposals (RFP) for new companies to manage our 403b plan, with the goal of getting lower rates. LSNYC last did an RFP about nine years ago, though the Department of Labor recommends that RFPs be done every 3-5 years. Thus, LSNYC is long overdue for one and needs to do its fiduciary duty. This failure impacts staff and Management as we all have the same retirement plan.

Lactation: We informed Management that though LSNYC recently updated its office policy to comply with recent changes in the law, we want it reflected in the CBA as the current language is insufficient.

Contract Clean-up: It is clear that Management did not review the document. We clarified that there were no substantive changes to the CBA as the focus was to remove outdated language and ensure consistency in terms/language.

Discrimination/Sexual Harassment: Management provided the team with updated language to the current policy. The language makes the policy consistent with current laws. They did include a substantive change in the amount of days needed to conduct a thorough investigation. The team is reviewing the document.”