On Tuesday afternoon, more than 50 public defenders from the Neighborhood Defender Service Union of New York gathered outside their Lower Manhattan office, braving the scorching heat to picket their employer, the Neighborhood Defender Service, over what they say is the legal organization's refusal to negotiate a new contract in good faith.
Beside a large inflatable rat, members wearing union shirts and business casual attire alike carried signs with slogans like, "NDS open your BOOKS you CROOKS," and "Low raises…Expensive healthcare, Fuck this shit I'm out." They were joined by two of the most radical new Democratic nominees for Congress: Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, who had come directly from a picket Uptown with the Columbia Postdoctoral Workers' union. Valdez, also a former organizer for the United Auto Workers, and Avila Chevalier, an NDS investigator and NDSU union member, chanted alongside the picket.
