August 6, 2026

Bronx, NY – After more than 14 hours of bargaining over two days, the union accepted separate salary scales for attorneys and social workers, resolving a central issue in negotiations. The Bronx Defenders then agreed to meet the union’s proposed salary scale for administrative and support staff, increased social worker salaries again, and preserved other significant benefits. The union rejected the revised offer. 

Juval O. Scott, Executive Director of The Bronx Defenders, issued the following statement: 

“We welcome the union’s acceptance of separate salary scales for attorneys and social workers. That was an important step forward and removed a central barrier to an agreement. 

“We then met the union’s proposed salary scale for administrative and support staff, increased social worker pay again, expanded leave, and preserved student-loan assistance, retirement benefits, and a 2% annual cost-of-living adjustment for FY28 and 3% in FY29. This proposal moves as far as we responsibly can with the resources available. 

“The union rejected that offer and continues to insist that we meet its full salary demands. That position depends on the belief that BxD has more funding available than we have disclosed. We do not. We have been transparent throughout these negotiations about the funding available, and we cannot compromise the long-term stability of the organization and the critical services people across the Bronx depend on. 

“The union now has a clear choice: accept our latest proposal, which redirects an underused UAW Education Fund into higher salaries, or accept our prior proposal while preserving that fund. It can also counter with a proposal grounded in the resources that actually exist. For the sake of the people we represent, we urge the union to choose a realistic path to an agreement and bring this strike to an end.” 

Background: Latest Proposal 

The Bronx Defenders’ latest offer: 

• – Matches the union’s proposed $70,555 first-year salary for administrative and support staff, with an average increase of approximately 6% across the scale. We provided targeted increases, at the union’s request, to specific steps where a large number of their members are concentrated.  
• – Adds another $1,000 at every step of the social-worker scale, resulting in a $91,000 starting salary and an average increase of approximately 6%, with increases of 7% to 8% at many early-career steps  
• – Expands reprieve leave to every staff role  
• – Preserves the union’s student-loan assistance program and retirement benefits  
• – Maintains the increased annual cost-of-living adjustment at 2% for FY28 and 3% in FY29 

Background: UAW Education Fund 

To fund the additional salary increases, The Bronx Defenders proposed redirecting its contributions from the UAW Education Fund, a separate benefit supporting continuing education and other courses. 

Over the past two years, BxD contributed nearly $170,000 to the fund, while employees used less than 30% of those contributions, with only 15% of eligible staff taking advantage of the program. Maintaining the benefit at its current level would cost nearly $1 million over the proposed three-year contract.

In an effort to meet the Bargaining Committee’s request, we proposed that those resources would provide greater value to staff as direct salary increases. Our prior salary proposal remains available if the union prefers to preserve contributions to the Education Fund.

If the parties cannot reach an agreement, mediation will be the next step. Throughout the strike, The Bronx Defenders remains fully operational and continues to provide the Bronx community with unparalleled legal representation and support services. 

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