This question would make it legal for employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services to form a union. The Committee for Public Counsel Services (you might hear people call them CPCS) is the agency that represents people in court when they can’t afford to hire a lawyer.

We’re only talking about roughly 800 employees: about 400 attorneys and 400 support staff, like paralegals, social workers and others. So why is this question going to all Massachusetts voters?

A technicality in state law means that, unlike most state employees, Committee for Public Counsel Services workers don’t have a legal right to unionize. Workers and union representatives from SEIU Local 888 have been trying to get the Legislature to pass a law allowing them to unionize for six legislative cycles, but have not been successful.

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“It’s just a very focused, very narrow issue that ended up on the ballot because it couldn’t move forward any other way,” Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University,told GBH News reporter Trajan Warren. “Certainly not because it’s one of the nine most pressing things for the state to deal with.”

So now they’re taking their effort to voters. If this measure passes, they’ll be allowed to start the process of forming a union.

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What do supporters say?

Supporters say that most other state employees in Massachusetts are already allowed to form unions, and that they want better working conditions for people with the Committee for Public Counsel Services.

“They have severe recruitment and retention issues, they have no predictability or security for the future, and these public defenders come from extremely reputable law schools, and they are historically underpaid,” Tom McKeever, president of the SEIU Local 888,told GBH’s Boston Public Radio.

He argued that if these workers have better conditions, they might stay in their jobs for longer and that higher retention rates would ultimately save the state money.

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What do opponents say?

There’s no organized campaign against this measure, but that does not mean no one opposes it. State lawmakers said they worry about unintended consequences around how the agency handles its caseloads and ensures that every person charged in criminal court has an attorney representing them.

Who is paying for this?

Labor Unions for Public Counsel Workers Rights has spent more than $1 million supporting this question. Its money comes primarily from unions, theNational Association of Government Employees andSEIU Local 888.

Because there is no official campaign against Question 2, the state’s Office of Campaign and Political Finance is not tracking spending against it.

Bottom line:

A “Yes” vote would make it legal for about 800 workers of the Committee for Public Counsel Services employees to start forming a union if they want to. A “No” vote would keep the law as it is.

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