Workers at a teen mental health program and school in Morrill say they intend to form a labor union to improve wages, working conditions and standards of care at their workplace.
A supermajority of 50 workers at Ironwood Maine, a residential treatment program for adolescents, want to be represented by a new union called Ironwood United, the group said in a statement Tuesday.
Ironwood management did not voluntarily recognize the union, and workers have asked it to remain neutral in a union election to be scheduled by the National Labor Relations Board.
In a mission statement, Ironwood United said the workers need to organize to improve wages and working conditions that have led many employees to leave, adding more work for those remaining.
“By forming our union, we establish a means to improve these conditions and therefore protect the Ironwood we know and love,” the group said in the release.
If voters approve the union, it will organize with the Maine Service Employees Association, SEIU Local 1989, which represents 12,000 workers at state agencies and social service groups.
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