At NYLAG, where the largest unit is the tenants’ rights division, a strike could hinder low-income people’s access to free representation when facing eviction, a service unique to the city’s Right to Counsel program which nonprofits are contracted to deliver.

Diana Rosen, a staff attorney in the immigration protection unit, speaking at Monday’s “practice picket.” (Photo by Tareq Saghie)

Housing, immigration, and labor attorneys, as well as the staff who support them, picketed in front of the Manhattan office of the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) Monday after voting to authorize a strike if they don’t receive certain demands ahead of Tuesday’s contract expiration.

In parallel with other legal service providers also unionized with the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys (ALAA), UAW Local 2325, NYLAG workers have bargained for months to demand pay increases, workload reductions, and free speech protections. But progress has been slow, and all are gearing up for a coordinated action.

“NYLAG, NYLAG it’s been ages. Pay your workers living wages,” the group chanted Monday.  

The threat of a strike looms that could significantly disrupt New York City’s courts. At NYLAG, where the largest unit is their tenants’ rights division, a strike could hinder low-income people’s access to free representation when facing eviction, a service unique to the city’s Right to Counsel program which nonprofits are contracted to deliver.

“If people can’t pursue the type of zealous representation that would get our clients meaningful outcomes in court because of strenuous workloads, for example, then we’re not doing right by our clients,” said Shelly Pires, paralegal at NYLAG and vice president of membership at her union shop.

“It’s hard to stay in this line of work with this degree of pay with rising costs of living in New York,” Pires added. “We’re doing what we’re doing to try to ensure that people like us who care about this work, who enjoy doing this work, can do it for a long time.”

According to NYLAG workers, rejecting their demands would lead to continued high turnover at the organization and inadequate representation for their clients, an issue that a recent report from Comptroller Brad Lander found is surging.

“Rigid contract requirements, inadequate funding, and insurmountable caseloads have made it extremely difficult for providers to meet increasing demand,” the comptroller’s report found, noting that only around 30 percent of tenants facing eviction in March of this year had an attorney.   

Their demands

Central to NYLAG and the other ALAA chapters’ demands are salaries, which they say need to be increased to a minimum of $70,000 per year. NYLAG most recently offered that amount after four years. 

NYLAG workers also want a 5.5 percent annual salary increase, a 10 percent retirement contribution, and a decrease in health insurance premiums. Additionally, as an organization that also serves immigrant communities, recently taking on the high-profile case of a Venezuelan public school student detained by ICE, staff from immigrant backgrounds often employ their language skills and cultural knowledge in their work. The union says that these workers deserve a pay differential.

Outside of pay, workers want NYLAG to codify free speech rights that they say were always standard at the organization, but were rolled back after staff began opposing Israel’s siege of Gaza. While displaying political posters and expressing personal views was permitted, the organization implemented a specific ban on displaying materials related to the conflict, and some have faced disciplinary action for it, which the union wants reversed.

NYLAG’s board chair, Jill L. Rosenberg, is a major donor to UJA-Federation of New York, a local pro-Israel nonprofit. Pressure has also come from within, as the bargaining unit was recently hit by a discrimination lawsuit from the Brandeis Center that argues workers displaying pro-Palestine posters creates a hostile workplace for Jewish union members. 

“There’s a coordinated effort in this country to suppress speech in support of Palestine, and it’s really disappointing to see NYLAG management falling on the same side of that debate as the Trump administration,” said Diana Rosen, a staff attorney in the immigration protection unit who received a written warning for taking a photo with a keffiyeh alongside her coworkers. “My job on its own is stressful enough. I don’t need to also be surveilled and intimidated and harassed by the general counsel.”

NYLAG workers’ other major demand is to reduce their caseloads, which they say are so high that they are constantly stressed, exhausted, and dealing with high turnover, leading to worse outcomes for clients.

Attorneys are often assigned more than four new cases a month, an amount NYLAG considers appropriate based on a 2023 New York State report. The union says that this number assumes attorneys spend all their time on casework, excluding the administrative work that often occupies up to a third of their time. Lawyers argue that the caseload should be dropped to 30 per year, or roughly two and half per month. 

“All of this just really limits a worker’s capacity to really immerse themselves in their cases and find those hidden gems that make or break a case,” said Jon Bash, senior staff attorney in NYLAG’s tenants’ rights division and vice president of communications at the union chapter.

Room 454 at Queens Housing Court, where eligible tenants can sign up for free legal representation in their eviction cases. (Photo by Emma Whitford)

Citywide impacts

When it passed its Right to Counsel laws in 2017, New York City became the first place in the United States to grant low-income tenants facing eviction free representation. The Department of Social Services (DSS), which is responsible for providing attorneys, does so by contracting with legal aid nonprofits like NYLAG. 

At a time when evictions are soaring, fewer than 50 percent of people facing eviction have representation in housing court, according to Lander’s report. Tenants are eligible for RTC if they earn less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or up to $53,300 a year for a family of three. 

“[Right to Counsel] needs to be fully funded, but the demand that we have been putting out there, is that the courts and the city can be doing more to ensure that every tenant who’s entitled to Right to Counsel gets an attorney by matching the pace of cases in the courts to lawyer capacity,” said Malika Conner, coalition coordinator at the Right to Counsel NYC Coalition, who helped pass the laws.

Elected officials, workers, and legal aid nonprofits have been calling for increased funding to Right to Counsel for years. While the budget has more than doubled since 2020, when the program expanded citywide, advocates say it’s still less than half of the $350 million per year needed to ensure NYLAG and other ALAA workers receive the wage increases and reduced caseloads they’re demanding.

The 2026 budget passed this week increased funding for Right to Counsel by $15.6 million, in line with what the City Council requested.

Neha Sharma, a spokesperson for DSS, said the city does not have direct oversight of things like staffing levels and pay equity at the nonprofits it contracts with, and that funding for RTC providers is based on amounts those organizations propose themselves. She pointed to the fact that the city will pay an unprecedented amount to nonprofits in advance of services in the 2026 fiscal year, an effort to ensure providers like NYLAG with having adequate funds to be properly staffed.

Strategy

Coinciding the dozen legal service providers’ contracts to expire on the same day took years of preparation, and was done to maximize the influence they would have if workers don’t receive their bargaining demands.

If all of the ALAA organizations with now-expired contracts—which include the Legal Aid Society, the Urban Justice Center, and the Center for Appellate Litigation—go on strike, it would severely impact housing courts, likely forcing cases to be adjourned and putting pressure on public officials to intervene and encourage the nonprofits to make concessions, as happened during a strike last year of attorneys at Mobilization for Justice.

This strategy of unifying different contracts to expire simultaneously is growing in the United Auto Workers, and was implemented on a large scale in 2023. At that time, workers at Ford, Stellantis, and GM coordinated a strike where they unpredictably walked out of different factories at different times, collectively disrupting the United States’ auto industry and garnering support from people as high up as former President Joe Biden. In the end, the union won historic demands, such as pay raises of over 25 percent per year.

While the particularities of the nonprofit legal industry create unique challenges that will prevent them from replicating this campaign, the UAW learned that unpredictability can give them an edge, and that they will receive more public support by expanding campaigns beyond one shop.

“Our goal has never been necessarily to strike. What we want out of these contract campaigns are strong and fair contracts, and management is able to avoid a strike at any point by giving proposals and counters that provide that baseline,” said Estefania Rodriguez, organizer at the ALAA. “Part of the strategy of sectoral bargaining is not just about putting pressure on our management, but also putting pressure on the city.”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Tareq@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Legal Services Workers, Including Tenant Lawyers, Could Strike Over Pay & Other Conditions appeared first on City Limits.

In Russian culture, New Year’s Day is an important holiday, celebrated with music and fireworks throughout the country. When he met with the Minnesota media via Zoom on Tuesday, new Wild forward Vladimir Tarasenko recalled a special New Year’s Day he spent in the State of Hockey a few years ago, wearing the colors of the enemy.

On a bitterly cold first day of 2022, Tarasenko scored one of the St. Louis Blues’ goals in a 6-4 win over the Wild at Target Field in Minneapolis, in the first NHL Winter Classic played in Minnesota. Laughing in the face of weather that was well below zero at the opening faceoff, the Blues arrived at the ballpark in beachwear.

“That night was very cold,” Tarasenko recalled. “It’s one of the first times me and my family were able to celebrate New Year’s Eve outside of our home. The game was crazy, and I remember it was very cold. But also, I played a lot against the Wild in a lot of playoff series. What I remember was every game was very hard. In their home building, crazy fans, always a full stadium. It was very hard to play.”

Of the quartet of goals mustered by the Wild that frigid night, Kirill Kaprizov scored one and assisted on two others. Tarasenko said Tuesday that he and his new teammate had already spoken by phone a few times since the trade that brought Tarasenko to Minnesota was announced on Monday.

“I heard a lot of good things from Kirill when I talked with him about the team and the group,” said Tarasenko, who is 33 and coming off one of the quieter offensive seasons of his career. “I also like the style of hockey the team plays. I talked to my family and thanks to Bill (Guerin) for the trust. I will come and try to help the team in any way possible.”

A marquee player with the Blues for a decade, including their 2019 run to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup, Tarasenko won a second NHL title with Florida in 2024, then found himself in a bottom-six role with a middling Red Wings team that made an in-season coaching change and finished outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture last season.

With Minnesota, he is expected to play a more prominent role. Tarasenko noted that with Detroit’s season ending in mid-April, he has had a longer offseason for one of the rare times in his career.

“I feel very confident. I have a lot of time this summer … so much time to prepare this summer and get some rest, physically and mentally, as well,” he said. “Whatever’s happened the last two years, me and my family have no regrets. We’re looking forward to the next chapter. Like I said, we’re excited and I always believe in myself.”

In making the trade with Detroit, sending future considerations to the Red Wings in return — which essentially means Tarasenko’s addition was free — Guerin talked about the player’s Stanley Cup rings and bringing that championship experience to a Wild locker room that, when healthy, they feel is not far off from the ability to make a deep playoff run.

“There’s a lot of small things that are important if you play on a winning team,” Tarasenko said. “A lot of it goes with confidence. When I come to the team, I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

Tarasenko wore number 91 with the Blues, Rangers and Senators, before donning 10 in Florida and 11 last season with Detroit.

Vladimir Tarasenko #11 of the Detroit Red Wings skates against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Oct. 22, 2024 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender women from its women’s sports teams to resolve a federal civil rights case that found the school violated the rights of female athletes.

The U.S. Education Department announced the voluntary agreement Tuesday. The case focused on Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022, when she became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title.

It’s part of the Trump administration’s broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.

Under the agreement, Penn agreed to restore all individual Division I swimming records and titles to female athletes who lost out to Thomas, the Education Department said. Penn also agreed to send a personalized apology letter to each of those swimmers.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Thomas would be stripped of her awards and honors at Penn.

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The university must also announce that it “will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs” and it must adopt “biology-based” definitions of male and female, the department said.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it a victory for women and girls.

“The Department commends UPenn for rectifying its past harms against women and girls, and we will continue to fight relentlessly to restore Title IX’s proper application and enforce it to the fullest extent of the law,” McMahon said in a statement.

The Education Department opened its investigation in February and concluded in April that Penn had violated Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding sex discrimination in education. Such findings have almost always been resolved through voluntary agreements. If Penn had fought the finding, the department could have moved to refer the case to the Justice Department or pursued a separate process to cut the school’s federal funding.

In February, the Education Department asked the NCAA and the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFSHSA, to restore titles, awards and records it says have been “misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories.”

The most obvious target at the college level was in women’s swimming, where Thomas won the national title in the 500-yard freestyle in 2022.

The NCAA has updated its record books when recruiting and other violations have stripped titles from certain schools, but the organization, like the NFSHSA, has not responded to the federal government’s request. Determining which events had a transgender athlete participating years later would be challenging.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By KEN SWEET, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Navy Federal Credit Union will no longer have to refund $80 million to servicemen and women for illegally charging them overdraft fees on their accounts, after the President Donald Trump-led Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moved to dismiss the case.

It’s the latest example of how the Trump-led CFPB is undoing much of the work it did under President Biden, even in instances where the bad actors agreed to provide redress and compensation to victims.

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The case dates from late 2024 and deals with an issue known as “authorized positive overdraft fees,” which happen when a bank initially approves a debit card transaction but later charges the customer a overdraft fee when that earlier transaction settles, typically a couple of days later, and there’s insufficient funds in the customer’s bank account. Navy Federal was found to authorize these types of overdraft fees between 2017 and 2022, later stopping the practice and refunding some customers who were impacted.

Under its previous settlement, Navy Federal would have needed to pay a $15 million fine to the CFPB and refund $80 million in illegally paid overdraft fees. At the time, Navy Federal said it “fully cooperated with the CFPB’s investigation and we will continue to comply with all applicable laws and regulations, just as we always have and as we believe we did here.”

The CFPB gave little reason for withdrawing the consent order. Under Russell Vought, the president’s budget director who is also the acting head of the bureau, the bureau has withdrawn roughly half a dozen consent orders and ended other settlements the bureau previously reached with financial services companies. The withdrawn order says that Navy Federal consented to have the order withdrawn.

A spokesperson for Navy Federal did not immediately respond to comment on whether the credit union planned to keep refunding its customers, despite no longer having to do so.

Navy Federal is, by far, the largest credit union in the country with roughly 14 million members and $180 billion in assets. If Navy Federal were considered a traditional bank, it would be the 24th largest bank in the country by assets.