You’ve probably heard rumors that unionizing will hurt our clients, lead to OSPD being defunded, or take your money without any benefit. These are myths. Unionizing will benefit not only our clients but all of us. These myths spread due to fear of the unknown, inaccurate information, resistance to change, and management’s desire to maintain the entrenched power structure. 

That’s why we need to understand the facts. Transparency is key.  

MYTH: Unionizing prioritizes employee needs over client representation.

FACTS: Unionization will help us better serve our clients. Under the status quo, we have enormous caseloads. Many employees are burdened with responsibilities far beyond what any one person can competently handle. In many offices, we lack the resources needed to effectively perform our jobs. Throughout the system and State, clients suffer due to insufficient resources and attrition.  

The status quo is broken. The current power structure is what brought us here. United, we can fight for better working conditions that will necessarily improve our clients’ quality of representation. 

MYTH: We don't need a union because management shares the same ideals as we do.

FACTS: Management is not providing what we need to best serve our clients. And workers are entitled to a voice in our working conditions. Unionizing doesn't mean overthrowing management or questioning management’s commitment to OSPD’s mission of serving our clients. It means we, the workers who are in the trenches fighting for our clients, finally get a voice.

MYTH: Union dues are expensive, include hidden costs, and employees don’t control how they are used.

FACTS:  Fighting for our rights takes resources. Dues exist to fund our work and are critical to achieving our union goals. They fund basic infrastructures like a website, printing costs, and staffing. DUC’s budget will be run by a finance committee elected by our membership. The finance committee’s proceedings and decisions will be transparent and accessible to all members. 

Dues provide a financial return on your investment. For example, unionized public defenders and other public sector unions have used dues to secure increased wages and funding. 

DUC dues are transparent and significantly lower than private sector union dues. Private sector unions typically charge between 1-2% of a worker’s salary in union dues. DUC members pay between 0.6-1% of total wages. This is what a DUC member can expect to pay, based on annual salary:

• $40,000 or less per year              $15.00 per month

• $40,000 - $55,000 per year      $23.00 per month

• $55,000 - $75,000 per year      $31.00 per month

• $75,000 - $95,000 per year      $49.00 per month

• $95,000 and up per year           $55.00 per month

For employees experiencing financial hardship, DUC is establishing a mutual aid fund, which will be available to provide financial assistance, including the cost of dues.

We are here in solidarity to help one another.

MYTH: It doesn't make sense for administrative staffers, paralegals, investigators, attorneys, and social workers to be in the same union.

FACTS: We are united wall-to-wall to obtain greater resources and better working conditions necessary to effectively serve our clients.  We are more powerful together. While there are concerns unique to each role (of which, DUC is aware and willing to address), our overwhelming common goals of obtaining sustainable working conditions and sufficient resources for our clients unify us.

MYTH: Unions and public defenders don’t go together.

FACTS:  We are part of a national movement. Public defenders in at least eighteen states already have collective bargaining rights. Unionized public defenders in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York, Minnesota, and New Hampshire are currently fighting together for better working conditions and improved representation for their clients.

MYTH: You won’t be able to advocate for yourself anymore.

FACTS: All employees will still be able to interact with management individually.  DUC membership does not alter your personal ability to advocate for yourself or for change.  Rather, joining DUC gives your individual voice a megaphone through which to advocate for the resources our clients and employees need. 

MYTH: Unions are for complainers, snowflakes, and lazy workers.

FACTS: DUC believes there are no “lazy” workers in OSPD. Every employee joins OSPD to further the mission of providing outstanding legal representation to indigent clients so that justice escapes none. DUC’s goal is to provide our clients and workers with the necessary resources to fulfill this mission.

If advocating for our clients’ constitutional rights and our own right to sustainable working conditions is “complaining,” then we are guilty as charged.

MYTH: Unions have outlived their usefulness.

FACTS: The labor movement has played a vital role in shaping modern society for over 100 years. Unions have been instrumental in securing workers’ rights and protections, such as reasonable hours, minimum wage, weekends, and paid holidays. To this day, unions remain the most effective way for workers to achieve economic security and have a voice in the workplace.

Unions and the organized workforce stand up for equity and equality for all. These goals are inextricably intertwined with OSPD’s mission. Our union is not a threat to OSPD or its mission. DUC will help OSPD live up to its - and Gideon’s - promise. 

MYTH: A union’s goal is to go on strike.

FACTS: Our goal is to obtain sustainable working conditions and the necessary resources for our clients. DUC will strive for agreements, not roadblocks. While the media pays more attention to strikes, unions are actually about collective power and giving workers a voice. Strikes occur only in the most intractable of situations and only as a last resort.  

DUC will never advocate for, much less take, an action that is not supported by its membership and in the best interests of our clients.