GRLPU Honors Labor Day by Striking, Following CAMBA’s Victory
By Nick Devine, Lisa Ohta, Michael Rowley, and Naomi Young
Workers from across ALAA join the GRLPU block party — August 21, 2025
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, and 143 years later the fight for workers’ rights continues. As New Yorkers take off time today to enjoy the many successes of organized labor—including the eight hour work day, the weekend, and the minimum wage—we ask that you consider the fights still to be won.
While the American ethos claims to celebrate the working class pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, wages for workers have largely stagnated against inflated costs of living while pay for the country’s highest earners skyrockets and income inequality continues to grow. Despite concerted attacks by union-busting employers and lawmakers across the country that weaken the labor movement, unions and their collective bargaining power remain the most effective tool to combat economic inequality.
Like all workers, we have faced many hurdles to secure lasting economic rights. The Goddard Riverside Law Project Union (GRLPU) is entering its eighth week on strike fighting for a fair contract. Thankfully, we have not been alone. GRLPU is a unit of UAW Local 2325, the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys (ALAA 2325), and we have been proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with eleven ALAA 2325 units in a well coordinated and historic sectoral bargaining campaign. This summer has seen a race to the top to improve wages and benefits for all workers in the sector. Many of those units have reached agreements, raising non-attorney salary floors, and advancing livable wages across the sector and have achieved success.
Prior to the sectoral bargaining campaign, legal service workers at the Urban Justice Center (UJC) were paid as little as $46,968 in a City where the average apartment costs almost $48,000 annually. After striking for four weeks, workers at UJC were able to increase the salary floor to $55,000. Other sectoral units have seen similar gains, with Bronx Defenders Services establishing a salary floor of $68,500. Workers at CAMBA Legal Services were on strike for six weeks, and recently won a contract that raised the paralegal salary floor from $53,639 to $62,000, a minimum 10% salary increase for all members, a minimum of 19% across the life of the contract, gradual increase from two weeks fully paid parental leave to six weeks, stronger caseload protections, and more. All of these gains were won because workers were united in their fight for economic justice.
At ALAA 2325, we see our contract campaigns as more than just improving our wages and benefits because we see the direct connection between our working conditions and the services our clients receive. Our core function as legal services workers is to ensure all New Yorkers have access to high quality legal representation regardless of their income. It is our job to ensure that they stay in their homes and keep communities together. Yet while we work to prevent or lessen the impact of the life changing traumatic circumstances our clients face, we are worrying about our own financial precarity and living paycheck to paycheck. This would be unacceptable even in the best of times, but we are currently in crisis.
Our clients need us now more than ever, and we desperately want to get back to fighting for them. New York City is currently facing the highest rate of eviction since 2018. We know that if management comes back to the table and agrees to bargain in good faith for a fair contract we can make an immediate difference, as the New York City Office of Civil Justice found that “84% of households represented in court by lawyers were able to remain in their homes, preserving tenancies and promoting the preservation of affordable housing and neighborhood stability.” We make a difference when we are there. For the past eight weeks, management has been a barrier to the continued defense of our clients.
While the decision to strike was difficult, and maintaining the strike equally so, GRLPU workers stand together in solidarity and will continue to do so until our key demands are met. As proud union members, we cannot imagine a better way to honor the memory of the many workers who have come before us than by holding the picket line through a strike prolonged by our management’s refusal to meet and negotiate a union contract. We call on community members to contact their local elected officials and Goddard Riverside offices if there is one in the neighborhood where you reside and encourage them to meet GRLPU demands so we can get back to fighting for our most vulnerable neighbors. Happy Labor Day, solidarity to workers everywhere, and we hope to see you on the picket line.