Decertification
Decertification is the process under which employees may "fire" their union through an election. EVERY EMPLOYEE has the right to sign petitions and vote in a certification/decertification process (not just union members).DECERTIFICATION UPDATE - JUNE 26, 2007
With the approval of MSEA contracts complete, the window for decertification closes until October 2008. We are NOT going away, but this will have to become idle for a while.DECERTIFICATION STATUS - APRIL 30 2007
April 30 was the deadline for getting all the forms. We collected over 1000 forms; regrettably they were not in the correct proportions to deliver the 30% needed for a bargaining unit. The results are:Supervisory Services - about 20%
Pro/Tech - about 15%
Admin < 10%
OMS < 10%
Decertification Information
This process is set up under the Maine
State Employees Labor Relations Act and administered by the Maine Labor Relations
Board. State employees are divided into discrete groups
called bargaining units.
Under the law, each unit may elect to have a bargaining agent represent them for
collective bargaining purposes. A bargaining agent could be
any type of organization, but typically has been a labor
union. Bargaining agents are certified by the bargaining unit
through a petition-election process. Likewise, bargaining agents
can be removed or changed by the same process. The process is as
follows:1) Petitions are signed (also called showing of interest) by members of the bargaining unit. At least 30% of the bargaining unit must sign these within a 6-month period.
2) A formal MLRB petition (including the forms from above) is filed with the MLRB.
3) MLRB validates that the petition is in order and arranges an election. The election will allows have as choices the incumbent bargaining agent (MSEA, in our case), "none" (no agent), and then whatever other agent(s) is/are allowed based on the petitions.
4) The election is held and MLRB oversees the ballot counting. A victor must have a 50% + 1 vote majority to be certified as the bargaining agent. If no agent gets such a majority, a runoff election is held with the two top choices.
If a contract is in place, no formal petition can be filed until 60-90 days prior to the contract's expiration.
On Feb. 22nd 2006, a group of state employees met to discuss decertification of MSEA. We overwhelmingly decided to pursue decertification and replace MSEA with an independent employee association (one that is voluntary, has income protection, not affiliated with a national union, and focuses only on matters directly affecting state employees). For an example of how this has been done already, see the Maine State Law Enforcement Association. They successfully decertified MSEA in Sept. 2005, and have formed their own independent association, which has worked very well for them. Since the other 4 MSEA bargaining units have contracts in place, we must wait until Fall 2006 to sign petitions. The timeline is as follows:
Now to Nov 1 2006: Organize an independent employee association to replace MSEA.
Nov 1 2006: First day to sign petitions (showing of interest) cards
April 27 2007: Last day to sign petitions (showing of interest) cards
April 30 2007: Formal petition submitted to MLRB
If any bargaining unit has the 30% required, then MLRB will hold an election.
June 30, 2007: Current contracts expire
Decertification must be organized within each bargaining unit, for example if Pro/Tech gets 70% signatures, but OMS only 29%, then only Pro/Tech will get an election. The four bargaining units under MSEA contracts are:
Administrative - for the most part this is clerical work, records keeping, etc.
Operations, Maintenance, & Support - plumbers, electricians, maintenance, mechanics, etc.
Professional & Technical - scientists, IT staff, planners, engineers, medical staff, etc.
Supervisory Services - certain managers and supervisors that are not confidential/appointed
If you don't know what bargaining unit you are in, you can look up your job classification.