(NEW YORK CITY) – Ninety-six-percent of Staff at Brooklyn Defender Services (BDS), Members of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2325, have voted to authorize a Strike if their contract demands are not met. The wall-to-wall Union represents more than 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. Brian Holbrook, a Public Defender and Union Member, said: “The phrase in the Labor Movement is ‘the boss is the best Organizer.’ 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.”

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