State employees files labor complaint alleging bad-faith contract bargaining by Mills administration
The Maine Service Employees Association, Local 1989 of the Service Employees International Union (MSEA-SEIU Local 1989) filed a prohibited practice complaint today with the Maine Labor Relations Board against the administration of Governor Janet Mills. The union accused the administration of bad faith bargaining in its State of Maine Executive Branch contract negotiations.
In the complaint, MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 alleged the administration committed multiple violations of state law relating to the current negotiations for successor two-year contracts that expired June 30, 2025. The union represents about 10,000 workers in four State of Maine bargaining units: Administrative Services; Operations, Maintenance and Support Services; Professional-Technical Services; and Supervisory Services.
The administration’s labor-law violations in the current round of Executive Branch bargaining include prematurely declaring impasse, regressive bargaining, cancelling bargaining sessions following the premature declaration of impasse, and otherwise engaging in behavior designed to frustrate the collective bargaining process.
We are asking the Maine Labor Relations Board to order management to withdraw its declaration of impasse and to cease and desist from bad faith bargaining.
“For years, workers have pleaded with the administration to deal with the widespread recruitment and retention problems in Maine State Government created by wage structures that are simply not competitive. We have offered various solutions to lower turnover rates and attract qualified applicants to join state service. We know what is needed to stabilize the services state workers provide and that the people of Maine deserve, and it seems our pleas fall on deaf ears,” said Mark Brunton, president of MSEA-SEIU Local 1989. “Unfortunately, after nearly a year of trying to get the administration to negotiate in good faith for our contracts, last month, the administration chose to declare a premature impasse without even bothering to discuss a third of the proposals we put forward. They simply refuse to listen to our members and respond to our concerns.”
Brunton said the administration has attempted for years to avoid negotiating directly with state workers represented by MSEA-SEIU Local 1989, dragging negotiations out for as long as possible, then presenting a take-it-or-leave-it last, best and final offer. “This administration has gone to great lengths, including violating the basic foundations of labor law,” Brunton said. “We’ve had to file seven prohibited practice complaints against this administration in the last five years alone.”
According to Brunton, the administration must be held to account for its intransigence not only at the bargaining table but also for the understaffing problem and the vacancies resulting from the persistent state employee pay gap. Understaffing and vacant positions harm the public services that are vital to the people and the economy of Maine. They create impossible workloads and, in some worksites, result in dangerous working conditions for those doing the State’s work, Brunton said. Currently the state employee pay gap stands at 14% -- an improvement of 1% over the past five years, according to the State of Maine Market Pay Report, dated Sept. 30, 2024, and performed by the Mills administration. In 2020, the State of Maine Market Study Report commissioned by the Mills administration put the state employee pay gap at 15%.
“One-percent progress in five years is, quite frankly, ridiculous. The administration can, and must, do better,” MSEA-SEIU Vice President Kevin Russell said.