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| Maine Gov. Paul LePage |
SEIU is getting
sharply criticized for cutting a horrible, anti-union deal with Maine’s extreme
right-wing governor that’ll severely undermine unions.
Here’s what’s
happening.
SEIU’s Maine State
Employees Association (SEIU Local 1989) represents 13,000 largely public-sector
workers, including more than 9,000 state workers.
Since 2011, Maine
Gov. Paul LePage has repeatedly tried -- and failed -- to pass “right-to-work-for-less”
legislation in the state’s Republican-controlled legislature. These bills would
have eliminated the requirement that state employees who choose not to join a
union instead pay a fee to help cover the costs of the union’s collective
bargaining and representation services that benefit them. These cost-sharing
fees are called “agency fees.”
Gov. LePage -- who has
made racist
comments and said this week that taking
down Confederate statues is equivalent to taking down 9/11 memorials --
called his failure to implement “right-to-work-for-less” laws in Maine as one
of his greatest failures as a governor.
Well, Republican
lawmakers may have rejected LePage’s anti-union efforts. But that didn’t stop
SEIU from accepting the same deal during SEIU’s recent contract negotiations
with LePage’s office.
On Monday, the Bangor Daily News (“LePage’s
pay raise offer sways biggest state union to accept ‘right to work’ contract
language”) reported that SEIU officials, during their contract negotiations
with state officials, agreed to eliminate the requirement that workers pay
cost-sharing “agency fees” if they choose not to join their union.
What did SEIU get in
exchange for this massive concession?
A 3% pay increase during each of the next two
years.
If SEIU officials had rejected the “right-to-work-for-less” provision,
SEIU members would have received 1% pay increases during each of the next two
years.
According to the Bangor Daily News, AFSCME -- which also
represents some state employees -- rejected a similar deal from LePage’s administration. An AFSCME representative told the newspaper that: “Right
to work is designed to cripple unions and take them out of the game.”
How will SEIU’s
horrible deal affect workers? Here’s what one reader said in comments posted
below the news article:
The union leaders just killed the union for 3% a year for two years. The union will now die of suicide.
