Question 2 asks voters whether public defenders can unionize
(5-minute read)
This article continues a series examining each of the nine statewide questions Massachusetts voters will decide on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. It turns to Question 2, which asks whether employees of the Committee for Public Counsel Services should have the right to bargain collectively with their employer.
What Question 2 would do
Question 2, titled “Collective Bargaining for CPCS Employees,” is an initiative petition. Like Question 1, it went before the Legislature before reaching the ballot, and lawmakers did not vote either way before the May 6, 2026 deadline, sending it to voters. According to the Attorney General’s summary, the 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 signing a collective bargaining agreement, to request from the governor the funding needed to pay for it.
A yes vote would allow CPCS employees to form a union and collectively bargain with their employer. A no vote would make no change to the law governing labor relations for CPCS employees.
The Executive Office of Administration and Finance wrote that the proposed law “may have an impact on state finances,” noting that CPCS is funded in part through state appropriations, but called the fiscal impact “difficult to project due to uncertainty regarding the outcomes of any such collective bargaining.”
What CPCS does
The Committee for Public Counsel Services is the state agency that provides legal representation to people who cannot afford an attorney in cases where the law requires appointed counsel, mainly criminal and some family law matters. According to Ballotpedia, CPCS employs about 500 staff attorneys and contracts with roughly 3,000 private attorneys who take on assigned cases, handling an average of 155,615 new cases a year. A 15-member committee appointed by the governor, legislative leaders, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court governs the agency.
Background
Massachusetts law already allows collective bargaining for many public employees, but CPCS employees fall into neither of the state’s two existing categories, according to Ballotpedia. In 2015, the union SEIU Local 888 and CPCS employees petitioned the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board, arguing they already had bargaining rights under state law. The board disagreed, finding that CPCS was not explicitly included in the relevant statute and that the Legislature, not the board, had to decide whether to grant or deny the right. Similar bills filed in 2017 and 2021 by State Sen. Jason Lewis never came to a vote in the Senate or House.
Question 2 would add CPCS employees to the category of public employees whose employer must submit collective bargaining funding requests to the governor’s office, which then has 45 days to approve the request or send it back for revisions.
Path to the ballot
The Attorney General announced on August 7, 2025, that the petition had been filed and cleared it for signature gathering on September 3, 2025. Supporters submitted sufficient signatures on November 19, 2025, and the state elections division certified the signatures on December 30, 2025, sending the measure to the Legislature as House Bill 5009.
The Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions held a hearing on the bill on March 16, 2026. A majority of the committee voted on May 4 to recommend the Legislature take no action, and it took none before the deadline. Sponsors then gathered a second round of signatures, and on July 17 the elections division certified the measure for the ballot. The secretary of state announced the question’s official ballot number and order on July 21.
The case in favor
Tom McKeever of Labor Unions for Public Counsel Workers Rights wrote the argument in the voter guide. It says CPCS employees provide “critical support for the constitutional right to counsel” but, unlike other state employees, do not currently have the right to choose whether to organize and bargain collectively over wages, benefits, and working conditions. “This ballot question would allow CPCS employees to form a union if they so choose,” the argument reads. “It simply gives CPCS employees the right to make that choice for themselves.”
McKeever, who also serves as president of SEIU Local 888, told Ballotpedia that “one hundred and eighty other state agencies have the right to collectively bargain, and CPCS does not.” Ballotpedia lists the Massachusetts American Federation of Teachers, the Massachusetts Defenders Union, the National Association of Government Employees, SEIU Local 888, and Progressive Massachusetts among supporters. The Yes on 2 campaign has noted that Boston is one of the only major U.S. cities outside the South without a unionized public defender system.
The case against
As of the guide’s printing, no organized group was urging a no vote on Question 2. The Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office compiled the argument against, in part from the Special Joint Committee’s majority report, and the guide notes it does not reflect the office’s opinion.
That argument says allowing CPCS employees to collectively bargain creates operational and fiscal risks, since CPCS operates as an independent judicial branch agency handling constitutionally required defense work. It warns that introducing collective bargaining could disrupt existing management and supervisory structures, create ambiguity in lines of authority, and reduce the agency’s ability to respond flexibly to shifting caseloads and staffing needs.
The committee’s majority report, signed by Sen. Cindy Friedman, Sen. Brendan Crighton, Sen. Barry Finegold, Rep. Alice Hanlon Peisch, Rep. Kate Hogan, Rep. Frank Moran, Rep. Michael Day, and Rep. David Vieira, recommended the Legislature take no action on the petition. The report noted that the Attorney General’s certification does not evaluate a petition’s constitutionality and that a court has not reviewed the measure on that question.
Where to find the full guide
The Information for the Voters guide is available online through the Secretary of the Commonwealth's Elections Division. It is offered in English, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, and Khmer, and an audio version is available. Residents with questions can contact the Elections Division at 617-727-2828.
The series continues with Question 3 later this week.
