Workers at Morrill’s teen mental health facility seek to unionize

Workers at a teenage mental health program and school in Morrill say they plan to form a union to improve wages, working conditions and standards of care in their workplace.

A super majority of 50 workers at Ironwood Maine, a residential treatment program for teens, want to be represented by a new union called Ironwood United, the group said in a press release on Tuesday.

Ironwood management did not voluntarily recognize the union, and workers demanded it remain neutral in a union election scheduled by the National Labor Relations Board.

In a mission statement, Ironwood United said workers must organize to improve the wages and working conditions that have driven many employees out, adding more work to those who stay.

“By forming our union, we are establishing a way to improve these conditions and thereby protect the Ironwood we know and love,” the group said in the statement.

If voters approve the union, it will organize with the Maine Service Employees Association, SEIU Local 1989, which represents 12,000 workers in state agencies and social service groups.