The Encyclopedia of in American History

. THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

IN AMERICAN HISTORY

AARON BRENNER BENJAMIN DAY IMMANUEL NESS EDITORS

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data I I The encylopedia of strikes in American history I Aaron Brenner, Benjamin Day, Immanuel Ness [editors]. p.cm. 1 Includes bibliographical references and index. 1 ISBN 978-0-7656-1330-1 (cloth: alk. paper) I 1. Strikes and lockouts-United States-Encyclopedias. I. Brenner, Aaron. H. Day, Benjamin, 1979- III. Ness, Immanuel.

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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1984.

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Publisher: Myron E. Sharpe Vice President and Editorial Director: Patricia A. Kolb Executive Editor: Lynn Taylor Production Director: Carmen Chetti Production Editor: Angela Piliouras Editorial Assistants: Kathryn Corasaniti and Nicole Cirino Typesetter: Nancy Connick Cover Design: Jesse Sanchez ATTORNEY STRIKES AT THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF NEW YORK CITY

Michael Z. Letwin

In 1970, Legal Aid attorneys in New York City representation in New York City, conditions did becan1e the first lawyers in the United States to go not change; politicians, judges, Wall Street lawyers, on strike, and they did so again in 1973,1974,1982, and Legal Aid management simply did not feel and 1994. Despite expectations to the contrary (and compelled to change them. for reasons that cannot be fully explored here) few ln 1968-69, these public defenders took mat lawyers elsewhere have followed their example. ters into their own hands by founding the As It is clear, however, that Legal Aid strikes in sociation of Legal Aid Attorneys (ALM), which New York City took place in the wake of Gideon v. conducted five major strikes between 1970 and Wainwright (372 U.S. 335, 1963), in which the U.S. 1994. Although widely decried as" unprofessional" Supreme Court dramatically expanded the right of by the city's political, judicial, and corporate elites, counsel for indigent criminal defendants. Instead these strikes were catalysts for systemic improve of establishing a public defender office to meet the ment of indigent criminal representation in New obligations imposed by Gideon, New York City's York City, including continuity of representation municipal government contracted with the Legal (assignment of the same triallpwyer throughout Aid Society, a privately funded charity established a given case), retention of experienced attorneys in 1876, as its primary public defense provider. 1b through higher compensation, workload limits, fulfill its city contract, the Society hired hundreds affirmative action, and health and safety. of public defenders. Thus, for more than three decades, labor rela Despite Gideon, however, New York City's tions in New York City's criminal justice system criminal justice system dealt contemptuously with have been characterized by a recurring cycle of poor defendants. Grossly inadequate city funding accumulated grievances, strikes, and their after for indigent defense meant low salaries and impos math. sible caseloads, turning the attorneys into glorified production workers who could offer only perfunc Industry Background (1876- tory representation for an overwhelming number 1966) of clients, nearly all of them African American and Latino. This assembly line was epitomizeCl by In 1876, Der Deutsche-Rechtsschutz-Verein was fragmented representation in which clients were established to provide free legal assistance to seen by a different attorney on each of many court German immigrants, primarily in civil matters. appearances in the same case. In 1896, under the auspices of leading members By the late 1960s, the civil rights movement of the private bar, it was renamed the Legal Aid had condemned such poor-quality indigent de Society. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth fense as just another reflection--alongside police centuries, criminal defense representation was brutality and discriminatory sentencing-of in typically provided by private solo practitioners, stitutional racism throughout the criminal justice often members of immigrant communities,· for a system. But despite a series of official reports and fee. During the Progressive Era, however, the legal mass inmate protests that sharply criticized such elite came to regard such attorneys as an impedi-

665 666 STRIKES IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, SECTION 3 ment to swift and sure deterrence of immigrant Most major cities responded to Gideon by crime. Lawyers for the rich were also concerned establishing or expanding a governmental public that poor immigrants felt "that they were being defender office. Instead, New York City govern denied redress, protection and equality before the ment contracted with the already-existing Legal law," particularly in regard to ineffective criminal Aid Society to serve as its primary public defender defense representation. The resulting political organization. To fulfill this contract, the Society radicalization, warned Legal Aid Society president hired hundreds of young public defenders, many Charles Evans Hughes in a 1920 speech before the of them heavily influenced by the civil rights, stu American Bar Association, threatened to "open de-nt, and anti-war movements. a broad road to Bolshevism" in the United States. These new defenders were appalled by the Although initially concerned that the "public contrast between Gideon's lofty promise and the defender movement" was a socialist plot designed grim reality of daily Legal Aid practice. As Gerald to undermine private profit, the legal elite ulti Lefcourt recounted in a 1994 interview with the mately agreed with other reformers "to accept author, when he joined the Society in 1968: the replacement of private lawyers in indigent [criminal] cases, because they feared that assigned I had no training at all. There was no orientation. counsel gave the poor legitimate grievances that ... There were no mock trials. We did arraign contributed to social unrest and presented an on-· ments for a month, and then we were thrown going impediment to the efficient administration into battle. I had no clue as to what the right thing of criminal justice." In 1914, the first such indigent was to do. We had no research tools ... no real public defender office was established in Los An offices, no telephones. We couldn't call witnesses. geles. Subsequent years witnessed a national shift There was no anything. I never interviewed a to such agencies, the public or private character of defendant except in the prison or on the floor which depended on the influence of the organized of the hallway right before a hearing or trial. In bar in a particular jurisdiction. the back of my mind, I knew that I should do an These early reformers, the legal elite, and investigation, but there were only one or two institutional defenders all agreed that public de investigatorsoperating out of Manhattan for the fense institutions should adopt a nonadversarial whole [Legal Aid] Society. approach. In the words of one leading public de fender advocate, the prosecution and defense Moreover, clients (mostly African American or worked together to ensure that "no innocent man . Latino) saw different Legal Aid lawyers (mostly may suffer or a guilty man escape." WithotJ.t the white males) at each court appearance. financial incentive to prolong a case, it was argued,· Lefcourt and others responded by organizing public defenders would encourage most defen the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, an indepen dants to plead guilty, if necessary by seeking to dent union that was certified as the lawyers' exclu withdraw from cases in which" guilty" clients were sive bargaining representative in December 1969. intransigent. Rather than seeking "technical" de (The Association of Legal Aid Attorneys affiliated fenses or go to trial, public defenders encouraged with District 65, an independent general union in their clients to testify, thereby ensuring that only 1978, and the union became a local of the United an innocent person was acquitted, and appeals Auto Workers [UAW] in 1996.) Several months were brought only on merit. later, city jail inmates rebelled, in part to protest Pursuant to this model, the New York Legal the poor quality of Legal Aid representation. The Aid Society gradually took on a growing but still Society responded by threatening to terminate limited number of criminal defense assignments. its contract with the city to defend criminals un This qualitatively changed only as a result of the less it received more funding. After briefly toying U.S. Supreme Court's 1963 decision in Gideon, with the idea of a public defender system, the city which greatly broadened the right of counsel to provided a small amount of additional money. criminal defendants, regardless of their ability to Regarding this as merely a token gesture, on May hire a lawyer. 3-6, 1970, amid international protest against the ATTORNEY STRIKES AT THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF NEW YORK CITY 667

U.S. invasion of Cambodia, Legal Aid attorneys News, that "in the next five years we will represent in Manhattan conducted the first lawyers' strike one million indigent clients. We are determined in the United States. to create conditions under which they can be The legal establishment reacted with hostil represented justly and effectively.... This strike ity. The New York Law Journal cited "authoritative will be won when no longer will you hear a judge sources" who "blame[ d) the strike on the increas ask a defendant: 'Do you want a lawyer or do you ing number of so-called 'militant' attorneys who want legal aid?'" have joined the society in recent years ... [and Perhaps the most effective answer came from whose] attitude ... is that only through action can forty-one inmates who refused to leave their cells change be accomplished." for court appearances. This brief strike yielded mixed results. To The broader legal community was split. As for counteract favoritism and promote attorney job the mainstream bar, the New York Times reported retention, the union's first contract included a that "from the Wall Street firms and the Associa·· twelve-step salary scale; direct client representa tion of the Bar of the City of New York-publicly tion, however, was not significantly improved. at least-came not a word of support for their ov'erburdened brethren." However, in a July 2 Tile 1973 Strike New York Law Journal advertisement, the National Lawyers Guild and National Conference of Black Three years later, Legal Aid attorneys hoped that Lawyers asked private lawyers to refuse reassign such conditions would be remedied by the unprec ment of the Society's struck work, pointing out edented federal court decision in Wallace v. Kern that "your acceptance of [strikers:] assignments (392 R Supp. 834), which ordered a limit on Legal will decrease the effectiveness of the strike. We Aid's criminal caseload. On June 27, 1973, however, ask you to consider seriously the implications these hopes were dashed when the federal appel of the present crisis and to join us in support late court overturned the decision on jurisdictional ing the Association's action." An advertisement grounds. On July 2, therefore, Legal Aid attorneys in the July 19 New York Law ,Journal, signed by voted 178 to 79 to strike for lower caseloads, private professors at New York and Hofstra law schools, client interview facilities, stenographic help, more "urge[d] members of the private Bar to support time for research, better salaries, and, above all, this important [strike]." Similar statements of sup continuity of representation. port were issued by the New York Civil Liberties The strikers were immediately attacked by Union and the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and the presiding appellate court justices. As reported Education Fund. in the July 6, 1973, New York Law journal, these When the strike ended just six days later on justices denounced the strikers for "abandoning July 9, the ALAA had won continuity of represen the responsibility to the indigent which union tation within the same court, to "the maximum members assumed upon their employment," extent feasible," and an experimental program recruited private attorney strikebreakers, and for continuity between misdemeanor and felony threatened that if the strike did not end, "we will courts. New York 1Ymes columnist Tom Wicker, who be compelled to take such action as is warranted had covered the Gideon case, wrote approvingly by the circumstances." that "the net effect ... should be to treat a client's Union president Karen Faraguna answered case more nearly as his or her case rather than as a this attack by arguing, as reported in the July 17 file folder. That is what the constitutional right to New York Times, that the inadequate quality of Soci legal counsel is all about." ety representation had been" abandoning [clients] The 1973 contract also established workload for years," and that, as reported in the July 9 New grievance mechanisms, salary increases, even York Law Journal, "we are on strike to implement tual "substantial parity" with assistant district the very [continuity] recommendations made by attorneys, shorter probationary periods, greater the Appellate Divisions' own committee." She also Spanish-language training, confidential interview pointed out, reported the July 3 New York Daily conditions, greater office space, and the provision 668 STRIKES IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, SECTION 3 of office equipment, such as desks, chairs, and about one-third of the attorneys had crossed telephones. the picket line because, Faraguna recalled in an In practice, however, the 1973 strike yielded interview years later, "many people did not want few representational improvements. Although another strike when improvements were in prog the number of Legal Aid public defenders had ress." Thus, the remaining strikers returned to tripled since 1970, the agency remained starved work, even though management remained free to for adequate city funding and attorneys still lacked modify, or even to abandon, continuity in order to adequate offices, interview space, or workload handle more cases. As the New York State Bar journal limits. Moreover, judges undermined the con late:J; explained, tractually mandated continuity experiment and were increasingly hostile to Legal Aid attorneys' When it was over, the strikers returned to work vigorous advocacy. with a lot less than they had at the beginning. They were out 20 days' pay. The future of their The 1974 Strike five-year-old union-called with proper profes sional dignity The Association of Legal Aid Attor In response to these conditions, union members neys of the City of New York-was in jeopardy. set a strike deadline for September 11, 1974. When And the two issues over which they walked out management nonetheless equivocated on conti in the first place-cost-of-living increases and the nuity of representation and blamed the city for right to represent their clients from the start to the Society's refusal to offer meaningful raises, finish of each case-were still unresolved. attorneys voted 193 to 144 to walk out. Echoing their '1973 attack on the union, the In June 1975, the union sustained another presiding appellate justices declared, according blow, when a committee of the New York County to the New York Daily News, that Legal Aid strikers Lawyers Association issued an opinion that the were "attorneys, professionals, not day laborers, strike had violated professional ethics. Attorneys and should act accordingly," and threatened to nonetheless conducted a one-day strike on October bring disciplinary charges, recommendations of 26, 1976, to reinstate a colleague deemed to have dismissal, and replacement by private attorneys. been fired for her union activity. The same newspaper also reported the union's reply that "we are striking today because The 1982 Stdke the judiciary and the management of The Legal Aid Society have continued to ignore their ;re In negotiations over a 1982 contract wage reopener, sponsibility to indigent defendants in this state. the union, which by now had affiliated with Dis ... The Presiding Justices' statement amounts to trict 65, UAW, again sought salary comparability the ancient practice of strikebreaking." The union with assistant district attorneys. At the same time, filed charges at the National Labor Relations Rockefeller drug laws enacted in the mid-1970s Board (NLRB) against the presiding justices and had further exacerbated attorney workload, in repeatedly offered to end the strike in exchange response to which management increased the for binding arbitration, a proposal rejected by pressure on individual attorneys. One of these the Society. Speaking to a strike rally, then-House was Weldon Brewer, an attorney fired in 1982 for member Edward I. Koch responded to the presid having told a judge that he was unable to file a ing justices by declaring, as recounted years later motion due to his high caseload. in a 1982 News World article, that "to threaten a Brewer's firing quickly became a symbol for man-any man-be he lawyer or laborer, with everything that was wrong with Legal Aid repre Joss of employment, loss of the right to earn his sentation. Legal ethics specialist Monroe H. Freed living at his chosen occupation for speaking his man, of Hofstra Law School, writing in an op-ed mind, for striking to improve his lot, is not only piece in the November 7, 1982, New York Times, uncalled for but repugnant to our law." declared that Brewer "has taken up the fight where But by the end of the nineteen-day strike, Mr. Gideon left off," and former U.S. Attorney Gen- ATTORNEY STRIKES AT THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF NEW YORK CITY 669 eral Ramsey Clark agreed to represent Brewer. On Society supervisors, meanwhile, appeared October 22, enraged by the firing, ALM members on pending criminal cases without files, and were rejected management's salary offer and voted by soon unable to accept new criminal cases at arraign a two-to-one margin to strike. ments. The refusal of private attorneys to cross Staff attorney support for the strike was strong; the lines to take struck Legal Aid cases-and the by the fifth week, only 5 percent had crossed the inexperience of many of those who did-caused picked line, compared with 30 percent by the third numerous criminal defendants to be arraigned week of the 1974 strike. Scabs were dealt with without counsel. As long trial and sentencing harshly, union spokesperson Gary Sloman told the delays piled up, the jails became overcrowded. New York Law Journal, "because ... people who are Commenting on this logjam, the same issue of the working are stabbing us in the back." union strike bulletin made clear that: Support staff represented by Local1199 con tinued to work, but supported the strike in a wide None of us gloats over the impact of our strike variety of ways. The strike was endorsed by local on our clients-we all work at Legal Aid because criminal bar associations, including the New York we believe in our clients' rights to quality rep Criminal Bar Association, which in a letter ap resentation .... Yet we must recognize that our pearing in the New York Law Journal, "urge[d] our strongest leverage with management is our abil members, and other private lawyers, not to accept ity to close down the courts and this necessarily court assignments to indigent defendants now means putting aside the short term needs of our represented by a striking Legal Aid attorney." clients for their long term need for experienced, In the strike's fifth week, nearly a thousand conscientious lawyers. It is management's re strikers and supporters rallied at City Hall Park. On fusal to agree to our demand for a decent wage November 22, UPI reported a speech by Ramsey increase, and indeed its refusal to bargain at all, Clark, who told a rally of 300 strikers and sup which has prolonged the strike, not any action porters that the strike represented "a struggle for by the union. equal justice" in a system that permitted millions of dollars for defense of the rich, but provided only The December 21,1982, strike bulletin reported "pennies for [defense of] the poor." On November that 416 Rikers Island inmates signed a petition 26, eighty-one city judges issued a statement cit stating that "the striking attorneys are balking at ing the crucial role of Society attorneys in both the very idea of 'Assembly Line justice.' Under civil and criminal cases and called for the quickest lying the demand for salary increase is the less possible resolution of the strike. publicized demand for lighter caseloads and a less Visitors to the picket line included Lt. Gover hectic pace .... We, as detainee/defendants, should nor Mario Cuomo, City Clerk David Dinkins, City all support this strike! It is imperative that they win, Council member Ruth Messinger, Judge Bruce because in the long run, we win!" Similarly, theNo Wright, contingents of court officers and other vember 23, 1982, bulletin reported the comments unionized court employees, and delegations of of one criminal defendant's mother, who declared labor and community leaders. Teamsters employed that "[the strikers] are definitely underpaid, and by United Parcel Service and by heating oil compa overworked .... I know what's right and what's nies refused to cross picket lines at courthouses and wrong-and they're right." Legal Aid offices. In a message of support reported Soon, however, the strikers came under fire in the union's November 24, 1982, strike bulletin, from the alliance of Legal Aid management, city Coretta Scott King wrote: "Martin Luther King, government, court administration, and the press. Jr. [who was assassinated in 1968 while visiting Before the strike was even a day old, management Memphis to support striking sanitation workers] threatened to cut off strikers' health benefits and to gave his life in a trade union struggle, and if he discipline attorneys, particularly probationers, for were with us today, I believe he would also be "abandoning" clients. In a November 5 statement, among your strongest supporters .... Together we the Society's board called the strike "indefensible shall overcome." economically and incompatible with the Society's 670 STRIKES IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, SECTION 3 mission of providing legal representation to the The report also found the Society to be of poor of New York City." Management counsel higher quality and more cost effective than private Robert Batterman threatened to seek legislation (18-B) representation. The commission, however, prohibiting strikes by Legal Aid attorneys and called for replacement of the ALAA' s right to strike sought a court order restraining union disciplinary with arbitration binding on the Society and the proceedings against scabs-who were given free union, but not on the city-which funded the representation by the Wall Street firm of board Society's criminal defense work. member Robert Patterson. In late Octobe1~ the Finally, on January 3, 1983-ten weeks into a union responded by filing an unfair labor practice strike that had paralyzed the criminal courts-the charge against management, and in early Novem parties reached a settlement. It included an 11.2 ber filed a federal lawsuit to enjoin administrative percent salary increase over two years (compared judges from coercing strikers into returning to with management's 4.31 percent prestrike of work. fer), establishment of a joint union-management The November 10 New York Daily News re working conditions committee, and selection of ported that Mayor Koch, who as congressman caseload arbitrators. Weldon Brewer would remain had supported the Legal Aid attorneys in their· suspended with pay, pending an arbitrator's deci 1974 strike, had now raised the ante by denounc sion (which ultimately upheld his dismissal). ing the strikers as" unethical" and instructing City These improvements were the result of a long Criminal Justice Coordinator John Keenan (who, strike that had been characterized by a high degree according to the New York Law Journal, had already of democratic rank-and-file control, in which only stated publicly that "I don't think they [Legal Aid 46 (or 8.5 percent) of the union's 540 members attorneys] should have the right to strike") to study had crossed the line. As a result, no striker was "replacing" the Society with a governmental public disciplined by management, the city, the courts, or defender agency. New York Times editorials labeled the bar. And although the strike cost each striker the strike "foolish" and urged Koch to "maintain thousands of dollars in salary, they had emerged the pressure by getting standby legislation that proude1~ more active, and more confident. permits him 'to replace the society with a public Shortly after the strike, however, a commit defender system at any time." The union's De tee of the Association of the Bar of the City of cember 8 strike bulletin publicly challenged this New York issued an opinion-at Koch's urging plan to replace the unionized Legal Aid Society, suggesting that striking Legal Aid attorneys were asking, "what, then, distinguishes any City attempt ethically obliged to continue to represent their to replace Legal Aid with, for example, the dosing criminal clients. of a factory and moving of it to another state solely to avoid unionization? This is the classic runaway The 1994 Strike shop situation and is illegal under current labor law." On December 21, according to the New York The 1982 strike won eight years of relative labor Law Journal, Koch's "Keenan Commission" con peace. From 1990 to 1992, however, conflict erupted ceded that: when, after years of rising attorney workload, due largely to a dramatic increase in prosecution for Creation of a public defender system with simul crack cocaine, management sought to reduce attor taneous abandonment of Legal Aid is not the ney health benefits and other compensation. The course to take. It involves numerous startup costs ALMand 1199 support staff, working in unprec and on-going expenses .... There would seem to edented alliance, conducted a series of escalating be little point in jettisoning an established orga protests, one-day strikes, and other actions. nization, well qualified to perform the desired By 1994, however, a strike seemed unlikely. In function, equipped as it is with able personnel June, the Society had convinced the city to deal and fortified by long experience ... [and) known with the costly and poor-quality criminal repre for its vigorous independent representation of sentation provided by private (18-B) lawyers by indigents. increasing Legal Aid's role. As a result of relent- ATTORNEY STRIKES AT THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF NEW YORK CITY 671 less labor strife, the Society's board of directors result, he was quoted in the New York Daily News came under the control of a more union-friendly saying, "This will be the last time lawyers strike leadership, which agreed to raise senior attorney against the public interest." salaries, implement more aggressive affirmative Although some press reports portrayed the action, improve health and safety, and otherwise strikers sympathetically, the city elite enthusias lift the quality of representation. A settlement tically supported the mayor's hardline position. was anticipated by October 1, when the union's According to the Wall Street Journal, Arthur Liman, contract would expire. a former Legal Aid Society president and onetime In the middle of September, however, the ex Iran-Contra prosecutor, said that Giuliani "had a pected agreement was effectively vetoed by Mayor responsibility" to end the walkout. The Daily News Rudolph Giuliani, who declared it inconsistent editorialized that '/while [strikers] have every right with his hardline position in upcoming municipal to bargain and demand higher wages, their ability labor negotiations. Although the Society empha to shut down something as vital as the courts gives sized that it would self-fund the agreement, the them too much power ... they must be held to the mayor issued an ultimatum: even modest salary same no-strike law as other key city employees. increases would provoke his severe displeasure. . . '. They must never again be permitted to hold Fearing retribution from its primary source of the city hostage." funds, the Society agreed. The next day, Tuesday, October 4, the ALM When the union contract expired on October sought countermomentum with a mass press 1, the mayor personally vowed to cancel Legal conference on the City Hall steps. Foreshadowing Aid's contracts if the attorneys struck; his criminal Giuliani's later restrictions on First Amendment justice coordinator privately reminded the union expression, hundreds of police prevented the me that when Giuliani worked for Ronald Reagan dia from contact with the strikers, who defiantly he had helped break the 1981 air traffic controller chanted //Rudy, Rudy is his name, union-busting (PATCO) strike. is his game." At a mass meeting on the morning of Mon Notably absent, however, were Governor Mario day, October 3, union members weighed their Cuomo or City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, both options. Despite the mayor's threats, most would of whom were leading Democrats. Also missing neither accept a net cut in compensation nor sur were leaders of the major municipal unions. On render their National Labor Relations Act rights, October 5, the New York Times reported that Stanley as private sector employees, to strike. Moreover, Hill, executive director of the American Federation many believed that Society management would of State, County and Municipal Employees DC 37, capitulate before Giuliani could actually carry out had publicly advised both sides to return to the his threat, or simply felt that they had no choice but bargaining table. Six days later the New York Post to fight back. Thus, attorneys voted overwhelm reported that Sonny Hall, president of Transport ingly to strike, before marching down the middle Workers Union Local100 (subway and bus work of Broadway to join picket lines already erected by ers), said, /The Legal Aid lawyers' strike was indeed striking 1199 support staff. a careless act, although they had an excellent case Within minutes, as reported by the New York for their demands .... Our concern is not why the Times, Giuliani went on live television to declare mayor said no, but how he said it." Privately, the that "The canon of ethics says that you can't leadership of both DC 37 and the United Federation abandon cases, so I don't know where lawyers of Teachers (UFT) assured Giuliani that they were come off striking. And here they are abandon 1/neutral" about the attorneys' strike, presumably ing cases for an entire city. I'm not going to let in hopes of softening the mayor's demands for them do that." Although Legal Aid supervisors $200 million in cuts in their members' health care were prepared to fully staff the courts, Giuliani benefits. As the New York Times explained: unilaterally terminated all of the Society's city contracts, which, he said, would be replaced by Whether the Legal Aid workers realized it, they new agreements with other contractors. As a had walked off their jobs at a critical point in 672 STRIKES IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, SECTION 3

the city's relationship with its work force. Mr. by my family and friends for the work I do. But Giuliani, having just completed a round of I am proud of it because I am fighting to uphold budget cuts and staff reductions, has now gone individual rights for everyone, not just those back to the workers, seeking more job cuts and who can afford it. asking them to start contributing toward their health-care benefits .... The Giuliani administra However, the New York Times praised Giuliani's tion seemed to fear that by striking, the lawyers "firm foundation in fiscal reality" and declared that threatened the spirit of collective sacrifice. the strike had been" a foolish challenge." Writing in th<; New York Post, former Mayor Ed Koch praised Or, as City University of New York professor Giuliani's" courage in taking on the striking Legal Stanley Aronowitz pointed out, "Labor's strategy Aid attorneys." Newsday quoted Lawrence Kudlow, has become Giuliani's strategy. The big fry make economics editor of the right-wing National Review their deals." and a chief budget economist in the Reagan ad Similarly, many private lawyers regarded the ministration, who predicted that "Giuliani's action 1994 strike as an opportunity for enrichment rather on the Legal Aid lawyers was a very significant than solidarity, as they told Newsday. "I've got to development; to some extent it's a New York City make a living," explained attorney William Blasi, version of Reagan's PATCO confrontation.... who was anxious to pick up struck cases. Mitchell I'm sure it has sent a lot of public union officials Salloway, another private attorney, rejoiced that, scurrying." for him, the strike meant: "More cases. More Opposition to the mayor's conduct fell to money. More food on the table." commentators such as writer and former public Further emb'oldened by such support, Giu defender James S. Kunen, who wrote in the New liani announced that any striking attorney who York Times that "the strike was fated to fail because did not return to work by the following morn these advocates for the indigent were demanding ing would be permanently blacklisted from all the one form of compensation their fellow citizens future city-fvnded representation. Under these are unwilling to give them: respect." In Newsday, overwhelming threats, the strikers returned to radical labor analyst Robert Fitch predicted that work on Wednesday morning, and that evening, municipal unions would suffer from their aban they voted 544 to 150 to ratify a slightly improved· donment of the Legal Aid strikers: agreement. This brief but intense battle left attorneys feeling What's surprising is not that Giuliani broke the a mixture of bitterness, defiance, and pride.· One [ALM] strike by threatening to fire everybody junior attorney, Young Ran Ra, told the New York and is now picking his teeth today with the at Times that "when I took this job I knew I wouldn't torneys' bones. It's that the rest of the city's mu be paid well, but. .. [a] lot of people are contemplat nicipal labor movement-once regarded as the ing leaving because of what has happened." Luis most militant and powerful in America-mostly Roman said, "if I'm back here tomorrow, the sign looked on while the mayor gnawed away on the on my door will read 'Dump Rudy Headquarters."' carcasses of their fellow trade unionists. Mary Beth Mullaney spoke for many when she said, in a letter printed in the New York Times, The mayor, however, seemed determined to inflict further punishment for the brief strike. Ac Seven months ago I left my family and friends in cording to Newsday, he declared that the attorneys Irmo, S.C. ... to work as a staff attorney for the "have a hope, not a reality of keeping their jobs," Legal Aid Society in New York It is the job I had and he vowed that any "new [contract] between most wanted. On Oct. 1, I went on strike with the Society and the city ... [must] prohibits trikes in about 800 of my colleagues .... I was asking Legal the future." When blocked by an NLRB investiga Aid Society management to redistribute funds tion from pursuing a permanent ban on Legal Aid already within the society.... There was noth- strikes, he demanded an immediate $13 million cut ing unethical about the strike .... I am ridiculed in the Society's $79 million city criminal defense ATTORNEY STRIKES AT THE LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF NEW YORK CITY 673 funding. This cut led Legal Aid criminal-defense impunity while he has the temporary power of attorneys to surrender a week's compensation in the bully.... The Legal Aid Society has taken a order to prevent the layoff of 1199 support staff and bold step [of opposing new Giuliani indigent junior attorneys. The New York Times applauded defense contractors]. It is imperative that they these cuts for yielding II cheaper, more efficient be supported. defense services." Mayor Giuliani also announced plans to trans The bluntest statement, jointly issued by the fer an additional 25 percent of the Society's city Center for Constitutional Rights, the National criminal funding to nonunion contractors, thereby Conference of Black Lawyers, National Emergency ensuring, reported the New York Times, that the city Civil Liberties Comrnittee, and the National Law would "no longer be at the mercy of one group that yers Guild stated that they "reaffirm our support could decide in the future to go out on strike, and for The Legal Aid Society and its unions in revers then all of a sudden you have a massive backup ing Mayor Giuliani's attacks, in particular, call for in the criminal justice system." attorneys to withhold any and all aid and comfort But strikebreaking was not the mayor's only to new strikebreaker indigent defense agencies." purpose. The autumn 1995 City journal, a publi ' By July 1998, the Giuliani administration used cation of the Manhattan Institute, a Giuliani ad such contracts to slash Legal Aid criminal funding ministration think tank allied with the right-wing by an additional $13 million, without any signifi I-Ieritage Foundation, charged that the Society cant decrease in the Society's overall workload, was dominated by the union and "leftist" poverty leading one judicial oversight body to report, ac lawyers whose successful representation of public cording to Newsday, that the Socie.ty '/is obligated housing tenants, the homeless, and juvenile of to represent almost the same number of clients for fenders had interfered with the Giuliani admin substantially fewer dollars," thereby overwhelm istration's efforts II to improve the city's quality ing Legal Aid attorneys with impossible caseloads, of life." But "with Legal Aid cut down to a more arraignments, and other work. In the process, this appropriate size," the mayor could ;'undertake a posts trike de-funding seriously; weakened continu broad legal and political counterattack against the ity of representation and other gains long fought pernicious consent decrees and court mandates ... for by the ALM. [and] campaign more effectively in the Legislature Ironically, howeve1~ this same period led to for needed reforms in such areas as juvenile justice dramatic improvement in the Society's internal and homeless policy." labor-management relations, including the Legal Recognizing such motives, Council member Aid board's deliberate rejection of the mayor's Adam Clayton Powell IV, representing East Harlem demand to break the ALM, and its appointment and the Bronx, was quoted in the New York Times of new management whose primary mission was as denouncing the transfer of Legal Aid funds to to ensure labor peace. nonunion contractors as "another vicious attack As a result of such changes, ALM contracts in a long line of vicious attacks on the poor, the in 1998 and 2000 yielded an average 6 percent African-Americans and Hispanics who get caught compensation increase-by far the greatest in the up in this system. For [Giuliani] to be taking this ALAA' s history, and far higher than that negoti type of action simply as retribution for the strike ated by municipal unions for the same period. that they undertook last year is really appalling." Moreover, both the ALM and 1199 won a unique Similar statements were issued by former mayor level of influence over the Society's hiring, pro David Dinldns and the Central Labor Council. The motion, legal practice, budget, and other critical Amsterdam News wrote: issues. Not until after Giuliani left office in 2001, however, were the Society and its unions able to Giuliani has been more cruel than human, on recoup some of the millions in lost city funds. And the cutting edge of the kind of psychosis that Giuliani's nonunion contractors have outlived his he regards poor whites, Blacks and Hispanics administration, thereby posing an ongoing threat as butterflies, whose wings he can tear off with to the unionized Society. 674 STRIKES IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, SECTION 3

Since it was founded in 1876, the Legal Aid Bibliography Society in New York City-the oldest and largest legal aid agency in the United States-became Letwin, Michael. "History of The Association of Legal the national model for small, private nonprofit Aid Attorneys UAW Local 2325." Available at www. charities representing indigent clients in civil alaa.orypages/History.pdf. Revised August 1999. (and later juvenile) cases. In the 1960s, however, Lindenauer, Susan E. "Equal Justice: The History of the it was largely transformed into the world's largest New York Legal Aid Society." Update on Law-Related Education 18, no. 3 (Fall1994). indigent-criminal defense (or public defender) "Legal Aid Society." In The Encyclopedia of New York City, agency. Within just a few years, this nearly unique ec;l. Kenneth T. Jackson, 661-62. New Haven: Yale transformation led to the first attorney strikes in University Press, 1995. the United States. Therefore, New York City's Legal Aid Society. Encyclopedia of Company Histories (n.d. ). Legal Aid strikes, which took place between 1970 Available at www.answers.com/topic/the-legal-aid and 1994, have been a response to the often-dismal society. state of indigent criminal defense representation. Mirsky, Chester L. "The Political Economy and Indigent Defense: New York City, 1917-1998." In 1997 Annual See also: Three Strikes Against the New York City Transit Survey of American Law, 891-1017. System, 277.