With negotiations on hold, state workers take protest for higher wages to governor’s mansion

Rebekah Spencer stood on the steps of the governor’s mansion Tuesday evening with her 22-month-old daughter on her left hip and a sign in her right hand that read, “Respect state service.” 

Spencer, 30, works as a career center consultant for the state, a position she says she took a demotion for three and a half years ago because she felt the work connecting people to stable employment was important. After her shift on Tuesday, she picked up her daughter from daycare as usual but instead of heading home to Whitefield, she headed down State Street. 

Spencer was among about 20 state employees and staff of the Maine Service Employees Association-Service Employees International Union Local 1989 who picketed outside of the Blaine House — the latest in a series of actions calling on Gov. Janet Mills to raise state employee wages. 

MSEA executive branch employees have been working without a contract since midnight on June 30, and earlier this month, their regular negotiation meetings ceased when state officials requested mediation from a neutral third party to help reach an agreement. Several union members and their bargaining team said the request is welcomed since the union has been unable to reach an agreement. 

Mills and the legislature allocated up to $99 million for negotiations, the largest amount it has proposed for bargaining, according to the Sept. 11 announcement about the request for mediation. Under Mills, the state raised pay for employees by 3% in September 2019, 4% in January 2021, 2% in December 2021, and 4% in July 2022.

But state employees say those increases have not been enough to keep pace with inflation nor for state jobs to compete with the private sector. The state and union remain hundreds of millions of dollars apart, according to the release. 

It is unclear when negotiations will resume but, in the interim, union members said they plan to continue to picket. 

The pay gap 

As part of the 2019-2021 collective bargaining agreement between the Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) and MSEA, DAFS conducted a pay study that found state employees were paid 15% less on average compared to their counterparts in the public and private sectors in New England, despite state employee salaries having grown throughout the years leading up to the study. 

Maine also found state and private sector employee pay gaps in another study conducted about a decade prior. 

Fixing this pay gap is the main concern of the union in negotiations, said MSEA President Dean Staffieri. The union has also discussed remote work options and more work-life balance for state employees, Staffieri said. 

Mills’ office did not respond to a request for comment on the contract dispute.

Scarborough resident Winnie Malia has been a state employee for 36 years, currently as a principal economic research analyst. That job was one of the positions the study specifically found to be paid less than the equivalent non-state position. 

“I’ve got so many years in,” Malia said, “I have to finish it out.” 

Others picketing Tuesday started working for the state in the past few years, including Justin Norris, 40, who is an administrator for the infectious disease sector of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Norris said his work includes data entry of lab results and directing callers to relevant services. 

As Norris held up a sign that read “Even the score we deserve more,” he explained that he’s been using his vacation time, about an hour per week, to picket so that the public displays of protest continue. The roughly 20 people present Tuesday represent less than 1% of the more than 9,000 state workers impacted by the ongoing contract negotiations. 

Who’s impacted?

The union members currently working under the expired contract are state employees of the executive branch, which is the largest MSEA bargaining unit. 

Four contracts fall under the executive branch, which the union is bargaining in coalition: administrative services; operations, maintenance and support; professional and technical services; and supervisory services (which include workers across these other categories whose job description includes supervising others). 

Aside from the state government, the union also includes public and private sector employees. 

Separately, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, ratified a two-year contract with the state earlier this month. Their contract will deliver a 6% pay increase on Oct. 1 and an additional 3% pay increase on July 1.

As of the latest job vacancy numbers released in spring 2023, one in six state government jobs were unfilled, with about 2,100 vacancies.

Ellen Blake, who started working in substance use prevention with the Maine CDC about two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic, said her department has been trying to hire for a couple of positions since she started.

“Everytime we get someone qualified they look at the wage and they’re like ‘I don’t want to live in a box,’” she said.

Blake, 34, makes under $50,000 a year, which she said is “barely enough if there isn’t a tragedy.” She strategically picked a home in Waldo County for lower property taxes, she said, and worries if she has any unexpected medical expenses, for example, she’d be in trouble.   

Blake said she often asks herself why she continues to work for the state despite her dissatisfaction with her salary. 

“I really value the relationships that I’ve built and I know the work really matters,” she said, “but I resent that answer because I know that they use that answer to tell me I’ll be fine right where I am.”