North Station

Question you vote on

Should state public defender employees be allowed to form a union?

  1. Filed

  2. Certified

  3. Before the legislature

  4. On the ballot

    Voters decide it at the next statewide election.

  5. Approved by voters

The Committee for Public Counsel Services is the state agency that provides lawyers to people who cannot afford one. State law does not now list it among the public employers that must bargain with a union. This proposal would add it, letting its staff organize and negotiate as a group. The committee would then have to ask the governor to fund any agreement it signs.

About Labor & Workforce

What your vote does

Yes

A yes vote would let the committee’s employees unionize and bargain, and would require the committee to request funding for any agreement, though the funding is not guaranteed.

No

A no vote would keep the committee off the list of public employers required to bargain with a union.

Compare with the government's own wording

Official title

Collective Bargaining for CPCS Employees

Text as filed

This proposed law would specify that employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services (“CPCS”) are permitted to engage in collective bargaining with their employer. It would also require CPCS, after executing a collective bargaining agreement, to request the appropriation necessary to fund such agreement from the Governor.

Official sources