The agreement came Monday after months of negotiations. NDS' managers had agreed to preserve employees' healthcare coverage, which currently comes at no cost to employees, as long as annual healthcare cost increases remained below 10%. A union representative told Law360 Pulse on Monday that the union got that number up to 20%.
The organization's leadership also agreed to 3% raises after previously offering 1%.
"This contract was won by every single member who stood strong in the face of adversity, by every member who said they deserve better," the union said in an Instagram post Monday night.
More than 100 legal aid attorneys, social workers and advocates in Harlem and the Bronx are now returning to work after walking off the job for the first time in the union's history on July 24. The Detroit and Texas arms of the NDS are back to work as well.
"With a tentative agreement reached, we are excited to welcome members of the union back to our New York, Detroit and Texas offices to resume normal operations," deputy executive director Shannon M. Anglero told Law360 in an email on Tuesday. "We are deeply grateful to our staff and supervisors for their enduring commitment to our mission, and we are ready to move forward together, fully focused on delivering the high-quality, holistic representation our clients count on every day."
The NDS union, or NDSU, is one of three unions represented by the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys — a United Auto Workers affiliate that represents more than 3,500 legal services workers in and around New York City — who went on strike this summer after their contracts expired at the end of June. The Brooklyn Defender Services Union ended its strike with a deal on July 24, while the Bronx Defenders union remained on the picket line Tuesday.
--Editing by Robert Rudinger.
Update: This article has been updated with comments from Shannon M. Anglero.
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