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NEWSLETTER: PMA Workers Ratify Contract, TSA Workers & more

Andy O’Brien
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IN THIS EDITION:

  • Portland Museum of Art Workers Ratify First Contract
  • Support Collective Bargaining Rights for TSA Workers
  • Solidarity Harvest Delivers Nearly 1500 Food Baskets to Mainers in Need
  • Proposed Maine GOP Platform Calls for “Right to Work for Less” Law
  • Maine Building Trades Council Elects Jason Shedlock As President
  • Maine Peonage Law Sent Workers to Jail for Quitting Their Jobs

Portland Museum Workers Ratify First Contract with Wage Increases, Improved Health Care, Child Care, Vacation Benefits & More

Portland Museum of Art workers (UAW 2110) have just ratified a new three-year contract, the first collective bargaining agreement in the museum’s 139-year history. The contract covers almost half of the staff, including full-time, regular part-time, and on-call positions within the museum, but excludes managers, supervisors and security guards. Both union members and museum management said negotiations were productive and cooperative.

“Our negotiating process was a productive one and we are pleased that we were able to reach an agreement that will significantly improve conditions for bargaining unit staff,” said Maida Rosenstein, president of United Auto Workers Local 2110. “We look forward to good labor relations with the museum.”

The new contract includes:

  • A significant increase to minimum floors for salary grades
  • Current staff either moved up to the new minimum for their salary grade, or will receive 3% increase, effective October 1, 2021
  • Effective October 1 2022 and 2023, all staff will receive a guaranteed 2% increase, with an opportunity of up to 1% more provided they have not been subject to a performance improvement plan
  • Current union eligible staff will receive a $500 “signing bonus” upon ratification.
  • Increase in employer contribution to the health saving account: individual coverage up to $4000 from $3500; family converge up to $8000 from $7000 
  • Increase employer’s 403(b) match to 100% of the first 3% workers contribute (3%:3%)
  • Increase in paid childcare leave to 6 weeks
  • Employees with eight years of service entitled to 5 weeks vacation
  • PMA to allocate $25000 per year for staff professional development; requests shall not be unreasonably denied, and more

Speaking to the Portland Press Herald, Rosenstein contrasted negotiations at the PMA with negotiations at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where employees have been picketing over wages and failed contract negotiations. At the MFA, “negotiations have been somewhat contentious. I would say in Portland, the negotiations were not contentious,” she said. In the end, the two sides said they agreed “to work together to support the mission of the museum, and its core values of courage, equity, service, sustainability, and trust.”

UAW 2110, the Technical, Office and Professional Union, includes about 3,000 workers in other museums, colleges and offices in the Northeast. The local is part of the UAW, which has more than 400,000 active members and more than 580,000 retired members in the United States and Canada.

Ask Susan Collins to Support Collective Bargaining Rights for TSA Workers

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers have been struggling for many years with low wages and a lack of workplace protections. Now they need our help! There is a currently a bill before the US Senate that will put these airport security screeners on the same pay scale as other federal workers and provide them with much needed workplace protections. 

“We play a critical role in national security and all we’re asking for are the same union protections other federal law enforcement officials enjoy,” said William Reiley, of Alfred, Maine, and Regional Vice President of AFGE Local 2617, which represents TSA officers in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire.

Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree have co-sponsored the measure in the US House and Senator Angus King has co-sponsored the Senate version, but Senator Susan Collins remains uncommitted. The Senate version of the bill, S. 1856, currently has 41 co-sponsors, but won’t be brought to a vote until it receives enough co-sponsors to pass.

Please fill out this form to send a letter to Sen. Collins asking her to support this important workers' rights legislation!

When the TSA was created in the aftermath of 2001 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration denied them the same representational rights, pay, and benefits as other federal employees. It took many years and a number of legal victories for TSA workers to win the right to even have a union.

Because their pay is determined by the TSA administrator, not federal law, Transportation Security Officers do not receive longevity pay or step increases. And because TSA employees do not have full union rights and protections, TSA is allowed to determine what matters are subject to collective bargaining and set its own rules for handling employee grievances. 

Last spring the Biden administration provided a 10% retention bonus to TSA employees and has signaled that it will grant them the same collective bargaining rights as other federal employees, but this can only be done administratively and can easily be repealed in the next presidential administration. Local 2617 members say they need a law to guarantee them these rights.

TSA’s second-class status regarding pay, workplace rights, and equal protections means the agency has difficulty recruiting and retaining employees. Nearly the entire agency was replaced due to attrition between 2007 and 2018, as more than 45,500 TSOs resigned. In 2017 alone, one in five new hires quit the agency within the first six months. Reiley said since the TSA was created 20 years ago, over 800 employees have come and gone in Maine alone. 

Meanwhile, TSA officers continue to perform an often thankless job as they screen weary travelers. During the federal shut down three years ago, they went without three paychecks. Working through the pandemic has been especially challenging.

“We get assaulted at the check point occasionally. People spit at us and say not-so-nice words because we’re taking away their shampoo or something,” said Reiley. “I just want to say, 'I’m just doing my job. I don’t make the rules, I just follow them. Our job is just to get you and your loved ones safely from here to your destination.'”

Solidarity Harvest Delivers Nearly 1500 Food Baskets to Mainers in Need

This year's Solidarity Harvest was the largest one in 19 years, as union members helped assemble and deliver 1466 food baskets, just under the goal of 1,500, to families in need. Food AND Medicine was also able to donate turkeys to the Hope House shelter and the Christine B Foundation.

“We purchased enough produce for the full 1,500, so we still need your help to meet our fundraising goal. There's still time to Sponsor a Meal and help us cross that finish line,” Food AND Medicine wrote in an email. “The remaining produce will be used in cooking and canning workshops in December, which we'll talk more about soon.”

Watch this powerful 20th Anniversary video about Food AND Medicine's important Work!

Every Thanksgiving, Food AND Medicine — with support from the Eastern, Western, Central and South Maine Labor Councils — puts together wonderful Thanksgiving meal baskets for laid off union members and other families who have fallen on hard times. Each basket contains nearly 30 pounds of produce — enough food for 8-10 people — from 25 local farms.

Formed in 2002, Food AND Medicine (FAM) is a grassroots nonprofit organization that organizes, educates and empowers low-income and working people in Eastern Maine to address the root causes of poverty. Their work and name is based on the belief that nobody should have to choose between food, medicine and other basic necessities. Solidarity, not charity!

Proposed Maine Republican Party Platform Calls for Passage of Anti-Union "Right-to-Work" For Less Law

The proposed Maine Republican Party platform makes passing union busting “right-to-work” legislation a key priority. As the Maine Beacon reports, the proposal was put forward by the group’s Standing Resolutions Committee at the end of September and will be considered for approval at the 2022 Maine Republican Party Convention in late April.

Right to work for less laws are designed by corporations to make it much harder for unions to bargain for better wages and working conditions because they allow workers in union shops to get most of the benefits of unions without paying any dues. These laws make it illegal for employers and employees to agree that all workers who benefit from a collective bargaining agreement share in the costs of bargaining and representation. 

Current Maine law allows private sector unions and employers to negotiate contracts where all workers who benefit from a collective bargaining agreement share in the costs of bargaining and representation. RTW laws make it illegal for employers and employees to agree that all workers who benefit from a collective bargaining agreement share in the costs. The Maine Legislature and Maine voters at the ballot box have defeated RTW numerous times during the 74 years since the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act was rammed through Congress.

The draft GOP platform states that these anti-worker laws “stimulate economic growth,” even though this argument has been repeatedly debunked. On the contrary, numerous studies have proven that workers in RTW states earn less, have worse benefits and less safe working conditions because unions are weaker there.

Former Governor Paul LePage, who is once again running for Governor, strongly supports RTW legislation and has vowed to make passing this legislation a priority if he is elected next year.

Maine Building Trades Council Elects Shedlock As President

The Maine State Building and Construction Trades Council recently elected Jason J. Shedlock (LIUNA) as their President. Consisting of 17 affiliated construction labor unions representing over 5,000 working men and women statewide, the Trades Council elected Shedlock after the retirement of their longtime President Johnny Napolitano, who helmed the organization for the last 14 years.

“We congratulate Brother Shedlock on his election to head up the Maine State Building and Construction Trades Council,” said Cynthia Phinney, President of the Maine AFL-CIO and member of IBEW Local 1837. “Jason has worked closely with all the building trades over several years as a former staff person, and has been engaged across Maine’s labor community through many initiatives of the Maine AFL-CIO. His experience will be an asset to the Council and the broader labor movement.”

A member of Local 327 of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) and currently a Regional Organizer for their New England Region Organizing Fund, Shedlock was previously the Trades Council’s Executive Director. He also sits on the Maine State Workforce Board as well as the Maine Apprenticeship Council, having been appointed to both by Governor Janet Mills. Shedlock also currently serves as a Trustee and is on the Executive Board of both the Maine AFL-CIO as well as the Southern Maine Labor Council.

Maine Peonage Law Sent Men to Jail for Quitting Their Jobs

Since the 19th century, Maine loggers have been repeatedly exploited by rapacious timber companies, who have often used their power and wealth to pass laws in their favor. In 1907 lumber barons even persuaded the Maine Legislature to pass a peonage law to force lumberjacks to stay on the job or go to jail. According to the New England Historical Society, the law was copied and pasted from an Alabama law designed to retain workers by putting them in debt and threatening them with jail if they didn’t work it off.

At the time, Wayne C. Reilly writes that approximately 40 percent of the residents of Bangor were either foreign born or the children of foreigners as thousands of lumbermen were employed in logging camps in the North Woods to harvest wood products for saw mills and paper mills and drive logs down rivers. Often, logging contractors in Boston would take advantage of language barriers to trick immigrant workers into taking these logging jobs.

With very limited English proficiency, many of these workers didn’t understand what the job entailed and found themselves dumped in remote regions of the Maine wilderness while accumulating debts for train fares and basic necessities like boots and clothing they had to purchase at the company store.

“Hundreds of men have been thrown into jail because of this cruel and much abused law,” reported Maine Labor Commissioner Roscoe Eddy at the time.

In one such instance, two Polish men, Peter Poulskaw and Nicholas — who had recently arrived in Bangor from Poland and couldn’t speak English — took a cash advance for a job they were led to believe was 3.5 miles from Kingman. After arriving in Kingman, they were told the logging camp was actually 35 miles away. As the Bangor Daily News reported, “They were expected to walk this distance and not relishing the idea had vamoosed.” They were sentenced to 15 days in jail under Maine’s peonage law. 

The law was finally repealed in 1917, seven years after the US Supreme Court struck down the Alabama law as unconstitutional. Maine Labor Historian Charlie Scontras found that 342 men in Maine were sent to jail under the law, often because they were mislead by hiring agents. In the years since then, Maine loggers have repeatedly organized and fought back against abuses of greedy timber companies, from the Wobblies in the 1920s and the Maine Woodsman’s Association strike of 1975, to the recent efforts of loggers and haulers to organize with the Machinists Union.