Ballot Question 2 Could Give Public Defenders the Long-Sought Right to Unionize

Massachusetts voters will soon decide whether the roughly 800 attorneys and staff at the Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state’s public defense agency, can do something many other state employees already can: unionize.

CPCS employees have tried to unionize at least three times since 1979, most recently in 2015.

A bill to add CPCS to the state’s collective bargaining law — spearheaded by organizers with SEIU Local 888, a union representing higher-education and public service workers — has been pushed across six legislative sessions. Each time, the bill died.

And in May 2025, bar advocates — private attorneys contracted by the state that handle roughly 80 percent of the agency’s caseload — launched a work stoppage in demand of higher pay, forcing the release of more than a thousand criminal cases. State law requires defendants to be released after seven days without an appointed attorney, and their cases to be dismissed after 45 days.

Though bar advocates wanted an hourly rate raise from $65 to $100, the state Legislature only approved two $10 increases over the past two summers. An additional $40 million was allocated to hire about 320 staff public defenders by the end of fiscal year 2027.

Chelsea A. Mattiota, a CPCS staff attorney, said her office has “basically doubled in size” as the agency has expanded hiring of attorneys, administrators, investigators and social service advocates.

“It’s very hard to plan. Where is everybody going to go, and how are they all going to work together, and how are we going to divide things up?” she said.

Mattiota said a union would give employees a say in how that growth is managed.

“It’d be really important and valuable for us to have a union representative to give us a voice in terms of what that actually looks like, because it’s something that’s happening really quickly,” she said.

What Would Question 2 Do?

While bar advocates, who retained their private practices, were able to walk out over the summer, the 400 CPCS staff attorneys continued to work without the legal right to unionize.

A “yes” vote on Question 2 would add CPCS to the state’s public employee labor relations law.

CPCS is one of few agencies that lacks the right to collectively bargain — including elected officials, confidential employees, or employees who assist directly in the state’s collective bargaining strategy. Roughly 180 other agencies, like public education and the Department of Transit, can legally unionize.

A “no” vote would leave current labor law intact.

Who Supports Question 2?

More than a million dollars have been raised for the measure, primarily through the Labor Unions for Public Counsel Workers Rights committee.

Roughly half of the committee’s funds have come from the National Association of Government Employees, a union representing more than 100,000 public sector workers across 43 states. The other half has been donated by SEIU Local 888, which represents more than 8,000 non-profit, public service, and higher education workers in Massachusetts.

Question 2 is also backed by a host of state and local elected officials — including U.S. Senator Ed J. Markey (D-Mass.), Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.), Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.), Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, State Rep. Marjorie C. Decker, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu ’07.

Public defenders have pushed for the right to bargain over two primary issues: pay and caseload. Ned S. Melanson, a bar advocate, said big firms recruit law students before they’ve taken a single exam, while public defense struggles to pay employees a competitive wage.

“If you’re not paying attorneys an adequate wage, you know, they have student loan debt too — tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt,” he said.

For Mattiota, the bigger issue is the workload.

“You never want to meet a client and just kind of think like, okay, I have to say nice to meet you, I’m really triaging everything, and I’m not going to be able to give you 100 percent of my attention right now,” she said.

Melanson said bar advocates handle about 80 percent of cases, while CPCS defenders handle the other 20 percent. A June report from the Massachusetts Inspector General found that CPCS was not following that mandate, though the agency has disputed the finding.

Melanson said a union would likely bargain over “how many cases each lawyer is assigned and what their working hours are.” But he added that winning bargaining rights would not guarantee more money because CPCS’s budget is ultimately set by the Legislature.

“They might end up running into the same issue that the bar advocates have, which is a legislature that won’t adequately fund public defense,” he said.

Who Opposes Question 2?

There is no committee organized in opposition to the question. A CPCS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the agency’s position.

In the state’s official voter guide, Secretary of State William F. Galvin wrote the opposing argument in absence of an organized group, writing the measure “would create serious operational and fiscal risks for the judiciary,” pointing to potential impacts on the agency’s workflow and supervisory standards.

The legislative committee’s majority report, also included in the state’s guide, said that allowing CPCS to unionize could “disrupt existing management and supervisory frameworks, introduce ambiguity into lines of authority, and create operational inefficiencies,” according to expert testimony. Some witnesses also warned it could limit the agency’s ability to respond to “fluctuating caseloads, staffing needs, and court demands.”

But recent polling shows that voters may favor the ballot question on Election Day. A UMass Amherst/WCVB poll, showed that 57 percent of respondents were likely to vote “yes,” while roughly 19 percent of voters were likely to vote against the ballot question.

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.

—Staff writer Risha Sinha can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at rishas.13.