Maine state workers' union says it has a contract deal with Janet Mills
A top official with Maine’s major state employees’ union said it reached a “tentative agreement” late Tuesday with the administration of Gov. Janet Mills on a new two-year contract that came less than five days before the scheduled end of their current contract.
The Maine State Employees Association didn’t disclose the terms on Wednesday because they hadn’t been sent to members. Members will vote to ratify the contract over the next month after a relatively public dispute with the Democratic governor’s administration in the past week.
We don’t know what’s in the agreement, but it came quickly and the union has asked for pay and cost-of-living increases, retention initiatives and a higher wage floor. Both the Mills administration and the union, which represents more than 9,000 workers, haven’t discussed the terms of the confidential negotiations, which is typical in these situations. We may learn more about the agreement later today.
But Alec Maybarduk, the executive director of the Maine State Employees Association, said a tentative agreement was reached late Tuesday with the state making “progress” on many of the issues that the union has raised publicly about negotiations during the past few months.
Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2019/06/26/politics/daily-brief/maine-state-workers-union-says-it-has-a-contract-deal-with-janet-mills/