Cleveland Legal Aid Society Workers Unionize in Pursuit of More Top Down Transparency

After roughly a year and a half since the start of the process, about a hundred workers of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland have unionized, and are near the end of a months-long negotiation for a bargaining agreement.

Last April, roughly 90 attorneys, paralegals, intake specialists and supervisors began the union card check process, which required Legal Aid's approval, and, months later, created the Legal Aid United group last September.

In a set of media statements, attorneys Mike Russell and Russell Hauser, the lead organizers for LAU, said they pushed for union representation to help ameliorate a series of ongoing concerns at Legal Aid Cleveland, those that mostly revolved around giving lower-level employees more influence in how things are run.

Especially, LAU said via a statement on Instagram last spring , for their Black employees, who are "tasked with the most difficult responsibilities," and are most prone to influencing top-down decision-making.

"As we’ve grown, the layers of bureaucracy have multiplied," LAU wrote in the statement. "This has decreased transparency and the opportunity for feedback regarding important decisions impacting our conditions of employment.”

In comments published in Crain's Cleveland on Monday, LAU members suggested this summer's negotiations with upper-level management's reps could include "more comprehensive benefits" and "just-cause protections," a legal failsafe for job security often used in housing law.

"We just went through a pandemic, inflation is on the rise," they said. "And organization funding can be volatile." (Calls made to Hauser and Russell, along with two paralegals, were not returned on Monday.)

Colleen Cotter, the executive director of Legal Aid, told Scene in a phone call Monday that she was not weary of or opposed to almost 100 of her local workers unionizing while criticizing Legal Aid's pay structure and how things are carried out internally.

Cotter refused to comment on ongoing negotiations, including speculation as to when an agreement might be reached.

"I support my staff," she told Scene. "I support the staff at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, and they have chosen to have a union, and we support them in that decision."

"Rights, dignity, and justice are core values of Legal Aid’s work and our team," Cotter wrote in a follow-up email. "As such, we are committed to pursuing an open and transparent conversation with our employees as we continue to create justice in our community."


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