Lancaster County employees in several court-related departments have voted to unionize.

By an 87-46 vote, employees in the register of wills, prothonotary, clerk of courts, district attorney, sheriff and coroner offices opted to join Laborers' Union of North America Local 1310 on Friday, according to Commissioner Chairman Scott Martin.

The county had urged eligible employees to vote against joining the union.

Martin said he was disappointed. It is the first union to form under the current administration.

"I always hate to see employees have to pay 1 to 2 percent of their salary in dues to get exactly what other employees already get," Martin said.

"We have a lot of good people in those departments and we're going to move forward," he said. "We treat our union employees no different than our nonunion employees."

A message left for the union wasn't immediately returned.

dnephin@lnpnews.com