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A civil union

BY DORIE CLARK

State employees seeking domestic-partnership benefits have had a long wait. A bill authorizing health insurance for state employees’ same- and opposite-sex domestic partners was first introduced in 1992, and passed the Massachusetts Senate twice (in 1998 and 1999). Each time, it died in the state House of Representatives, where conservative Speaker Tom Finneran kept it from coming to a vote. As of Sunday, however, 8600 state employees who are members of the Service Employees International Union Local 509 will be closer to receiving equal pay for equal work. After 10 years of trying, the SEIU became Massachusetts’s first union to persuade the state to grant employees family and medical leave to care for a domestic partner — perks that had previously been granted only to care for a legal spouse. “We’re very proud of that,” says Local 509 president John Templeton. “It affects a number of our members.”

Though the contract doesn’t grant medical coverage — the most important benefit — to domestic partners, it’s still a significant step resulting from “our union persevering over the years,” says Tom Barbera, chair of SEIU Local 509’s Lavender Caucus. The SEIU represents social-service workers in agencies such as the Department of Transitional Assistance, the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Education, and the University of Massachusetts. Though the contract still must be ratified by union members over the summer, it’s expected to pass, and the new “partial domestic-partnership benefits” will be retroactive to July 1.

Liberal legislative leaders hope the state’s acceptance of the new contract will encourage movement at the State House on the domestic-partnership bill, which would include health benefits. But it won’t be easy. “I do not view the world through rose-colored glasses,” says Cambridge state representative Jarrett Barrios, who supports domestic-partnership benefits. “We have a lot to do.”

Issue Date: July 5 - 12, 2001