  Features & LinksMSEA-SEIU Local 1989 | MAINE STATE EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATIONSEIU Local 1989 |
Stepping UpBarely a week into January, the number of challenges facing members of our union seemed to be growing every day. Due to declining state revenues, the Baldacci administration was expanding on its December order curtailing state services and eliminating vacant positions. Smelling blood, the Alliance for Maine’s Future and the Heritage Policy Center launched a well-financed attack on state workers and their wages and benefits. These groups denigrated state workers through radio ads and slickly produced reports likening state workers to pigs at a trough. Their stated goal: to build political support for mass layoffs and substantial cuts in state workers’ health insurance benefits. Given the difficult economy and this unprecedented level of attack, our members had to make a choice: Step up and speak out in support of the public services we provide and the wages and benefits we are paid, or step out of the way and hope for the best. Our members chose to step up — in a big way. And so did thousands of Maine people who also recognize the importance of quality public services. Early on in this legislative session, our members talked with their legislators and kept those conversations going during the session. They wrote letters to the editor. They talked about the public services they provide, and also about what they are paying for health care. They talked in support of our retirement “Cliff” legislation. Through these conversations and others, legislators and other Maine people learned that contrary to the lies told by the other side, the average state worker pays over $4,000 annually to insure a spouse and child, that state workers also pay individual deductibles of $200 and family deductibles of $400, plus copays of up to $15 each doctor’s visit, $10 for each generic drug prescription and $30 for each brand-name prescription. Yet we did more than just set the record straight. We joined together with dozens of other organizations and advocated not just for the services we provide but also for other public services, culminating in the largest State House rally in recent memory in support of quality public services. The result was a final Supplemental Budget that, in addition to protecting the health insurance of our members and rejecting gimmicks like furlough days, at its core recognizes the importance of quality public services in Maine. We didn’t win every battle. Yet we reduced the level of harm. We succeeded because so many people stepped up. Thanks to all of you. |