More than 100 public defenders and staff attended a union reception immediately after their statewide conference at the DCU conference center in Worcester on May 15. The Committee for Public Council Services (CPCS) staff gathered to hear

[caption id="attachment_4849" align="alignright" width="300"]More than 100 public defenders and staff attended a union reception immediately after their statewide conference at the DCU conference center in Worcester on May 15.[/caption]

from their co-workers on the status of the organizing campaign and to celebrate the progress made so far with SEIU Local 888.

"In a short time we have connected CPCS employees from Pittsfield to Hyannis and moved forward with our legislation to enable collective bargaining," Ben Evans, a public defender from Fall River, told his coworkers. "But our work is far from over. Every single CPCS worker must have their voice heard. We are the union. We decide what we fight for and we decide what our union is all about. We are truly all in this together!"

The public defenders, whose starting salaries are among the lowest in the country, were recently featured in a hard-hitting column by Boston Globe writer Yvonne Abraham.