CAMBA Legal Services Workers Among First NYC Legal Services Unions to Go On Strike
***PRESS ADVISORY***
Brooklyn, NY — As of July 15, 2025, CAMBA Legal Services Workers United (CLSWU) is on strike. CLSWU headed to the picket line on Tuesday to fight for a fair contract after CAMBA’s management failed to engage with the union on key demands. CLSWU joins workers from New York Legal Assistance Group, Goddard Riverside Law Project, and Urban Justice Center in the first wave of what is expected to be the largest legal services strike in New York history.
CLSWU staff attorneys and paralegals provide free civil legal services to low-income New Yorkers in the areas of housing, foreclosure, immigration, and consumer law. CLSWU members organized to form a strong union because better working conditions lead to better client representation. High-quality legal services are critical in the movement to advance social justice.
CLSWU won its first contract in 2019. The year-long fight and CLSWU’s well-publicized 2019 strike helped to revive labor organizing in New York City’s legal services sector. Today, CLSWU is negotiating its fourth contract with CAMBA, but management has consistently refused our demands for conditions and pay comparable to other legal services shops. During this bargaining session, CLSWU’s demands include:
A livable wage floor for paralegals;
A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that accurately reflects the crisis of affordability in New York City;
Competitive compensation for all attorney steps;
Workload protections for housing staff, in line with a recent Right to Counsel report;
Leave provisions with 100% pay, including parental leave, short-term disability leave, and sabbatical time.
The current strike occurs in the context of historic sectoral bargaining alongside the majority of legal services workers in New York City represented by the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys-UAW Local 2325 (ALAA 2325). By Friday, up to 2,000 workers from several civil legal services and defender organizations could join CLSWU on the picket line.
"CLSWU is currently on strike because CAMBA management has failed to meet the demands of our membership. These demands include caseloads caps and salary increases for attorneys and paralegals. Our demands were democratically crafted by our membership to ensure we can continue to provide high quality and vital legal services to our clients, some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers. New York City non-profit legal services have for too long taken advantage of the passion of their employees to pay sub-standard wages and our sector is now fighting back." — Michael Rowley, CLSWU Member, Contract Action Team
"Every day we spend out on the picket is another day our clients don’t get the representation they deserve due to management's greed, and their inability to engage with our demands surrounding a living wage, COLA, and parental and disability benefits. It’s clear management doesn’t care about our clients, only contracts, and the work again falls on us to advocate for ourselves and our clients at the same time. Shame to management, solidarity to my union siblings." — Catríona Fox, CLSWU Union Delegate and Bargaining Committee Member
The first strike day on July 15,2025 kicked off at a rally with speeches by the democratic candidate for Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and New York Attorney General and former Legal Aid Society attorney and ALAA member, Letitia James.
After the first day of rallying, picketing, and organizing, CLSWU is energized and determined to continue the fight for a fair contract.
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For Questions and further Information, please contact:
Joan Hill-Barnett at joanhill95@gmail.com
Naomi Young at Naomi.M.C.Young@gmail.com