The Mass Defenders Union are the administrative, social service, investigative, technical, and legal professionals who are employed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ public defender agency, The Committee for Public Counsel Services. CPCS is a state agency and the members of the Mass Defenders Union are just like other state workers, except that their right to collectively bargain has not been recognized.

Every day, state workers at CPCS defend our constitutional rights and advocate for poor and working people whose liberties are at stake. These state workers are being denied their rights as workers to a union and a collective voice to address working conditions, career advancement, grievance procedures and benefits. They are being denied a voice on issues that impact their clients such as the persistent racism in the legal system, the need to treat, rather than punish, opioid addiction, and the need for alternatives to incarceration.

It’s time to correct this unfair treatment of those who work every day to ensure that fairness and justice prevail in our courts.

To the Massachusetts Legislature: It’s time to pass H. 2739 and S. 1745, “An Act relative to the collective bargaining rights for employees of the committee for public counsel services.”

To the Committee for Public Counsel Services: I believe the Mass Defenders Union deserves recognition and the workers at CPCS deserve the right to collectively bargain!