The Maine Service Employees Association (MSEA), a branch of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), has negotiated for a significant pay-raise for its over 9,000 Maine state workers.
“The new contracts cover over 9,000 workers in the union’s four Executive Branch bargaining units: Operations, Maintenance and Support Services; Administrative Services; Professional-Technical Services; and Supervisory Services,” said the MSEA.
The new contracts are the result of union negotiations with Gov. Janet Mills’ administration, in which the union complained that pay raises for government workers rose more slowly than private sector wages.
The new contracts fall far short of what MSEA bosses proposed in April.
The union originally asked on April 5 for a $5.00 per house base pay increase for all workers plus an additional 22 percent increase, followed by a 15 percent salary increase in July 2024.
Instead, the roughly 9,000 executive branch workers will receive an initial six percent pay raise, starting January 1, an $800 lump sum, and a three percent raise in July.
The contract is less than one-third of the increase the MSEA sought.
The late-in-the-year finalization of the agreement closes out one of the most bitter chapters in labor relations between the MSEA and any Maine governor.
In March, the MSEA filed a complaint against the Mills Administration, accuses it of engaging in dishonest and illegal bargaining tactics.
Over the summer, union members on MSEA conference calls actively floated the prospect of engaging in illegal tactics of their own, such as work slowdowns, stoppages, or “sick outs.”
Employees who have worked for at least one full year will receive a further four percent raise on the next anniversary of their employment.
The contracts also provide a variety of smaller things, such as an undefined improvement to “nondiscrimination,” and a “memorandum of understanding” relating to the Educational Unorganized Territories.
1% raise
1% income tax hike
10% inflation
Keep voting Dem
Recent democrats haven’t been kind to State employees. John Baldacci while governor had furlough days, shutdown days, hiring freezes, merit increase freezes. He eliminated a number of Game Warden positions. MSEA/SEIU still runs campaigns for democrats though… is it the Stockholm syndrome?
Governor Janet, a real leader for the people!
Can’t really blame her, she needs the money to spoil all her beloved migrants!
The end product of unions is group ignorance, the union bosses tell the members to vote democrat, when in fact they only do that for the kickbacks that make the union bosses wealthy! And the union members can’t get it through their heads that they are being played! They get a little raise the union gets higher union dues that are used to pay off democrat politician which in turn kick back a percentage to the union bosses! It’s a great scam that’s been going on for decades Winners are democrats and union upper echelon, losers are everyone else. Wake up people national unions aren’t your pals!