Town of Winthrop Supervisors Organize with IAM S-89

Supervisors with the town of Winthrop have won a majority sign-up election to unionize with Machinists Union S-89 after a drawn out battle with management at the Maine Labor Relations Board. The new wall-wall supervisory unit includes the Winthrop Code Enforcement Officer, Public Works Supervisor, Town Clerk, Town Planner, and Transfer Station Supervisor.

IAMAW Business Representative Jay Wadleigh said the workers were concerned about losing gains they had made after a new town manager took over and started questioning the salaries they were receiving. Previously, the supervisors had received wage increases aligned with what unionized employees negotiated, but the new manager decided to only give certain supervisors raises while refusing to give others the same rate increase.

“The workers want to continue to enjoy the working conditions that they were brought in under,” said Wadleigh. “They want continuity that only a union contract can provide regardless of changes in management.”

The Withthrop workers voted to form their union in March using Maine’s majority sign up card check law that requires public employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers have signed up. However, management filed a challenge to the make up of the bargaining unit and sought to exclude certain employees from the union and argued that the unit lacked "lacked a community of interest.”

In the end management successfully argued before the board that the Finance Director, Assistant EMS Director and Police Lieutenant were “confidential employees” with knowledge of issues involved in the collective negotiations process and therefore ineligible to be join the union. However, the Maine Labor Relations Board ruled that the supervisors do share a “sufficient community of interest” and therefore are eligible to form a union.