Answers to Comments of Article in Kennebec Journal, Dec. 16, 2007

This comes from a post at UnionMaine's blog: http://www.unionmaine.blogspot.com/ (Thanks Tom -Helen) These are excerpts from comments on a KJ article http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/4566516.html?com_sent=1 referring to Local 771. Do you know how 771 got the name? Before they joined the Union they made $7.71 cents an hour, no guaranteed wages, no regular schedule, no sick days, no, vacations, no way to get a raise or anything else. They are far from rich and they are still fighting for benefits but they are better now and they have hope, something they never had before. They take care of the elderly, with personal care that can mean cleaning, feeding or being a voice of comfort to the elderly and the sick and they made $7.71 cents an hour showing that our children and our parents were worth less to the companies than burger flipping. Even Wal-Mart has a health care plan, a lousy one, but a plan. 771 members deserve respect for their work, not abuse from people that have no idea what they are talking about. Let worker raises be determined by merit”… Answer. The top athletes in sports belong to Unions because management will always try to increase profit at the cost of the employee regardless of your “merit”. (You pay) “You are not entitled to any union benefits” Answer. Except the pay, working conditions and benefits negotiated by a Union. Statement. (Fair Share) “(a clause made AFTER you were hired, which effectively changes your terms of employment)” and “They changed my working conditions.” Answer. You joined or stayed with a Union shop knowing that contracts can change. The contract changed. Did you refuse any benefits or wage increases? Statement. “it's win-win for everyone but YOU” Answer. Better pay, benefits and working conditions. A win for the employee and for the employer. Statement. It’s like being drafted”. Answer. You are not joining the Union; you are just paying your fair share. Statement. It is too easy for poor performers to hide The Answer is another quote: Poor performers can be dealt with under any union contract. They all contain disciplinary procedures that prevent arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory practices with regard to discipline. (Which is why most management hates Unions. They want to be able to fire you for any reason regardless of your “merit”. Statement. But, they are required to pay for the representation they receive. …whether they want it or not. Answer. It is the law, form a Union (political party) and change it. With an $111,000,000 deficit the only way we can protect what we have, never mind make headway is to realize that politicians are sensitive to votes. You can find your legislator in the column on the left. Write your representatives now and ask them if they will protect your health care and work to see that you get a fair contract. Tell them you do not want a raise you only want enough money to be Equal To Inflation. E.T.I. 2009 if applied fairly would only pay back the pay cuts we have all taken from the legislature. Cuts taken with the promise of keeping our benefits. Remind your legislator that you have already paid for your benefits. Paid in advance.

State Union Rolls Soaring

Susan Cover, Staff Writer, Kennebec Journal, December 16, 2007 AUGUSTA -- Helen Hanson of South China didn't want to join the Maine State Employees Association -- at first. As a direct care worker who helps consumers bathe, dress, and cook, she didn't think the state employees union would know how to help her. "I thought this particular union, MSEA, honestly, there's no way they can help us," she said. "Their issues are so different than ours." But she eventually changed her mind, and once they had their first contract in place in August, she started to see the difference. "When I got my pay that reflected the raise we got, I patted myself on the shoulder and said we did it," she said. Hanson, president of the direct care worker unit, is one of 450 employees of Home Care for Maine who voted this year to join the workers union. They represent a portion of more than 3,000 Maine workers who have voted within the last 14 months to join the union, making this the union's most active membership drive since it formed in 1943. At the national level, Maine is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, which represents 1.9 million workers across the country, in Canada and in Puerto Rico. Maine's growth is part of a larger national effort to unionize workers, said MSEA Executive Director Tim Belcher. "Those victories make us, by one count, the fastest-growing local union in the SEIU and the SEIU is the fastest-growing union nationally," he said. The SEIU -- which focuses on workers in hospital systems, long-term care, property services and the public sector -- is one of the unions that has been effective nationally in organizing service sector workers and those who work in the health care industry, said Dan Cornfield, a labor union expert and professor at Vanderbilt University. "The particular health care sector, broadly defined, the sector that provides vital family services, is an important part of the future of the labor movement," he said. Cornfield said organized labor is still trying to recover from post World War II losses in the manufacturing industry, the traditional stronghold of labor unions. More aggressive modern unions are targeting low-paid workers and are shifting away from political activity, he said. "They are often low paid, they may lack health insurance, many of the workers are women and minorities who often feel the sense of being disadvantaged at a higher level than white men might," he said. For the MSEA, the growth comes during a 21/2 year period in which some state workers sued the union because of a provision added to the state workers contract in 2005. Known as the fair share provision, the contract required all state workers to join the union, or pay a portion of union dues, or face the prospect of being fired from their jobs. A state law passed earlier this year no longer allows the workers to be fired, but does give the state the power to automatically withdraw the nonmember union dues from state workers' paychecks. Just last week, an arbitrator ruled that the union did properly calculate nonmember dues, despite a challenge from about 80 state workers. Belcher said the arbitration and lawsuits filed in federal court, most of which are over, represent part of the past that he's already put behind him. Despite the anger from those who didn't want to be required to support the union, Belcher said many other workers are seeking union representation to help them with wages and benefits. "We have a situation where there's been an incredible increase in productivity, and in the past that's been passed on to workers and that's just not happening," he said. "Real wages are stagnant while productivity is up." Those who have voted to be represented by the union won't officially become members until they have contracts in place. As it is now, the union has 12,000 members, including retirees. When you add people who are awaiting contracts and those who are represented by the union but are not full union members, the number grows to more than 15,000. As the union moves forward, it will need to continue to grow beyond a state workers union if it wants to add members. Belcher said there were substantially more state workers represented by the union years ago, but that hiring freezes have eaten away at that core group. For Hanson, the power of union membership is evident not only in her paycheck, but in the halls of the Statehouse. She said while testifying on a bill wearing a purple union sticker, lawmakers took notice. "I thought, wow, this union does have influence with the Legislature," she said. "That helped, seeing the union in action."