AUGUSTA – About 70 legislative employees are the first to take advantage of a change in state law that allows some legislative staffers to join a collective bargaining unit.

Before the law changed in 1999, legislative employees did not have the option of being represented by a union, said David Boulter, executive director of the Legislative Council.

Of the 215 people who work for the Legislature, approximately 90 are allowed by law to be represented by a collective bargaining unit.

They are represented by the Maine State Employees Association, which now represents workers in all three branches of government.

The MSEA represents about 10,000 workers statewide, including 5,000 state employees. It is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO.

It will likely be several months before the first contract for legislative workers is drawn up, according to Carl Leinonen, executive director of the MSEA.

The contract will apply to all employees in the administrative unit. That category includes secretaries, computer programmers, computer support personnel, committee clerks and employees in the Law and Legislative Reference Library.

The contract will be negotiated between the union and the Legislative Council, which includes the Senate president, speaker of the House and party leaders.

Tom Downey, a proofreader who works for the Revisor of Statutes, said he and others wanted to unionize so they would be protected from fluctuating wages and have a formal performance review process. He said they waited for support to grow before joining.

“I think overall, people are pretty satisfied with wages and benefits, but there was some concern we have no protection about wages and benefits,” said Downey.