What we sent. What we said.

Who do you trust with your future?

Fellow QCs,

Maximus’s email asks employees to think carefully, read everything, ask questions, and decide whether they trust this organizing committee. On those points, we agree.

Nobody should sign because they feel pressured or simply because they completed an earlier form. Signing is voluntary. Read the current card, understand it, and decide for yourself.

We misunderstood the NLRB guidance, and our original form did not include the necessary representation-authorization language. We should have had that language nailed down before asking you to respond. We did not. We own that mistake.

Maximus objected to use of its logo. We do not need Maximus’s branding to make our case, and this email does not use it.

We are not going to answer Maximus line by line or pretend our errors did not happen. We corrected the authorization language. Now we are asking you to consider the whole question.

Trust means looking at the larger record.

Maximus’s contract history, litigation, public complaints, and reporting about its government work are available to anyone who wants to look. The record speaks for itself—and it raises serious questions about whether Maximus has earned our trust. Its role in outsourced Los Angeles County services even received scrutiny in Netflix’s The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez.

More importantly, we do not need anyone outside this department to tell us what we experience every day:

• PAY: Pay that does not even reflect the complex work we perform—while health-insurance premiums and the cost of living keep rising faster than our wages.
• MANAGEMENT: Inconsistent direction and weak accountability.
• GUIDANCE CREEP: Expectations that keep expanding without dependable standards.
• CLASSIFICATION: A job classification workers have challenged because it does not describe what QCAs actually do.

The question before us

Maximus asks whether you trust this committee to negotiate pay, schedules, and working conditions. That is a fair question. It is not the only one.

Do you trust your fellow QCs—coworkers asking you to take an active role in shaping your future?

Or do you trust Maximus to act in your best interests without a contract requiring it to?

Trust should be earned. That includes us.

The new website is live.

The new VES Union Votes website gives every QCA the opportunity to inspect this campaign and decide for themselves.

• ANSWERS: Read clear answers to the most commonly asked questions.
• THE MANDATE: Review the worker-built bargaining priorities drawn from QC survey responses, organizing conversations, and our shared workplace experience.
• MEMBER CONTROL: See how members would direct bargaining and vote on any proposed agreement.
• HISTORY AND RIGHTS: Learn from labor history and review your workplace rights.
• THE AUTHORIZATION CARD: Read the corrected language before deciding whether to sign.

Read it critically. Ask questions. Challenge us when something is unclear.

We are not asking for blind faith. We are asking for your participation.

Maximus is also right that, if workers choose representation, the union would represent the bargaining unit and a ratified agreement would apply across that unit. That is exactly why all QCs in the bargaining unit have a voice in setting bargaining priorities—and why union members vote on whether to accept any tentative agreement or approve any other major decision.

What signing the card means

Signing authorizes the VES Union Organizing Committee to represent you for collective bargaining and supports filing a petition for an NLRB secret-ballot election.

It is voluntary. It is not your election ballot, and it does not require you to become a member or pay dues.

Why shouldn’t workers have a contract too?

Maximus has contracts with the VA. It has contracts with providers. It has contracts with subcontractors and the vendors that supply the services it needs.

Maximus uses contracts whenever it wants clear, enforceable obligations.

Open, direct dialogue matters. But dialogue alone does not require Maximus to negotiate, put promises in writing, or follow an enforceable process. A union does not erase anyone’s individual voice; it adds collective bargaining power.

Why should the workers—the people whose labor and expertise make all of those contracts work—be the only ones without a contract of our own?

Promises can be changed. Policies can be rewritten. Guidance can keep creeping. A contract must be negotiated, put in writing, and enforced.

Read the information. Decide for yourself. When you are ready, authorize a vote.

Website + authorization card

Use a personal device and personal email. Visit vesunionvotes.com to read the authorization card.

Join the QC Discord

Talk with coworkers. Ask questions. Stay connected. Open the VES Union Discord invite.

Questions? Email info@vesunionvotes.com from a personal account.

In solidarity,
VES Union Organizing Committee
Worker-led and independent of VES and Maximus management.

Status and source note: No NLRB election had been scheduled when this message was sent. The authorization card supports filing an election petition; it is not the election ballot. See the NLRB’s representation-election process. Historical context: Los Angeles Times reporting on the earlier county contract and UC Berkeley’s account of the documentary reporting involving Maximus.

ONE MORE AUTHORIZATION. ONE PROTECTED ELECTION.

Fellow QCs,

You are being asked to respond again for one reason: the NLRB regional office asked the organizing committee to submit a new showing of support with explicit representation-authorization language.

Your earlier vote showed real momentum. It did not contain the precise authorization language needed for this next step. The new form does.

We are close. Every authorization matters.

The previous interest vote brought us very close to 50% support. That means this cannot be a message we assume someone else will answer. We need every eligible QCA who wants a real voice to submit a new authorization.

According to the organizing committee’s communications with the regional office, this authorization submission is the remaining item the office is waiting on before it begins the representation-election process.

The NLRB would conduct the election. Maximus cannot lawfully interfere.

WHAT YOUR AUTHORIZATION DOES

• Authorizes the Committee to represent you for collective bargaining with Maximus.
• Supports filing an NLRB petition for a secret-ballot election among QCAs.
• May be submitted to the NLRB as confidential evidence of employee support.

This authorization is not your NLRB election ballot. It does not require you to become a member or pay dues.

Who is eligible?

ELIGIBLE: Current full-time or part-time Quality Control Analysts employed by MAXIMUS Federal Services, Inc. Employees assigned to Training or Special Teams remain eligible if their official job classification is Quality Control Analyst.

EXCLUDED: Supervisors, Managers, Directors, anyone who has authority to hire, fire, discipline, assign, or responsibly direct employees, and anyone employed by Blue Lake, LLC.

What we are standing up for

We deserve to be paid fairly for our labor.

We deserve consistency, clarity, and communication we can trust.

We deserve dignity at work.

And the veterans whose cases we review deserve the very best we can give them.

Every authorization brings us closer to a protected vote. Please submit yours today.

AUTHORIZE REPRESENTATION TODAY

Use a personal device and personal email. Scan the QR code or visit vesunionvotes.com.

Questions are welcome. To talk with the organizing committee, email info@vesunionvotes.com from a personal account.

In solidarity,
VES Union Organizing Committee
Worker-led and independent of VES and Maximus management.

Status and source note: No NLRB election had been scheduled when this message was sent. The description of the regional office’s request was based on organizing committee communications. Official NLRB materials explain the representation-election process and the law against interference with employee rights.

They heard us on pay. Then they cut it again.

Fellow QAs,

In June, Julia acknowledged what every QA already knew: shrinking pay was the number-one complaint across our department. We were told management heard us.

In the first week of July, Maximus cut our incentives again.

That was not a misunderstanding or another failure to communicate. It was a decision—a decision about our income, made after employees had clearly explained the problem.

They labeled skilled QA work “Accounting Clerk III”

Maximus took specialized QA work—the judgment, training, and responsibility required to review veterans’ medical claims—and stamped it Accounting Clerk III. That label is not cosmetic. Under the Service Contract Act, it helps determine the wage floor attached to our jobs.

We know the work we actually perform, and “Accounting Clerk III” does not describe it. Workers have challenged that classification, and complaint #2002601 is currently in process with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Maximus may call us accounting clerks when it determines our pay. But every day, it depends on us to perform work requiring far more.

The money did not disappear.

Maximus reported a record $319 million in company-wide net income in fiscal 2025, followed by another $295.6 million during the first nine months of fiscal 2026. Those are company-wide figures—not VES-specific profit—but they show a corporation producing record returns while telling QA employees to absorb another cut.

Our review of VA contract records indicates that the amount currently billed per ESR is roughly twice the pre-acquisition VES rate. At the same time, one QA’s actual compensation and production records show effective compensation hovering near $8 per DBQ from 2024 through July 2026, compared with $18.13 in 2021.

The company’s numbers went up. The value returned to the people doing the work went down.

We should not wait to become the next cut.

We have already seen case-building work subcontracted. We should not wait for another unilateral restructuring decision before building a collective voice in QA.

A union does not promise instant change. It gives us something Maximus has denied us for years: a structured, lawful way to negotiate collectively over pay, incentives, workload, job security, and changes that affect our work—instead of reacting alone after the decision has already been made.

Strong profits do not automatically become fair treatment. If we want a voice, we have to build it together.

Two ways to take the next step

Take the union interest vote. Scan the first QR code—or visit vesunionvotes.com—to indicate your interest in forming a union.

Join your coworkers on Discord. Scan the second QR code—or open the VES Fighters for Fairness Discord invite—to talk, vent, ask questions, and stay connected with your coworkers.

Questions, concerns, and disagreement are welcome. Silence is what keeps every decision in management’s hands.

To talk with the organizing committee, email info@vesunionvotes.com from a personal account.

In solidarity,
VES Union Organizing Committee
Worker-led and independent of VES and Maximus management.

Financial sources: Maximus FY2025 results and Maximus Q3 FY2026 results. Supporting compensation and contract records are available from the organizing committee.