Frequently Asked Questions
Q - Who funds unfairshare.org?
Unfairshare.org operates on a very low budget, with 100% volunteer efforts by Maine state employees. We receive NO funding from any outside group (including NRTW), depsite what you may from other sources. It is an outright lie that we are funded by NRTW. All of our funding to date has been donations from Maine state employees via our web site. The same is true with AGEM, which is why we support them and assist them in the decertification campaign.Q - Is unfairshare.org an "outside" organization
No - again, we are entirely made up of volunteer State employees who do
not believe we should be forced to pay a union. We receive no
assistance of any kind from any outside group.Q - I am a union member and find this repulsive, can I quit MSEA?
YES - You can resign your union membership simply by sending a short
resignation letter. For assistance, refer to NRTW's web page
on this topic. You may also need to notify your payroll
staff to stop the payroll deduction.
Q - What will happen if I refuse to pay?
In 2007 the Maine Legislature passed a law which allows the 'public
employer' to directly deduct unpaid fees from your paycheck.
Basically they will just steal it from you anyway.
Q - What constitutes a "religious objector"?
The exact language is laid out in the contract, Article 61:
"In the event that any employee covered hereby is a member of and adheres to a bona fide religion, body or sect, which has historically held conscientious objections to financially support public employee organizations or labor organizations, that employee shall have the right to refuse to make service fee payments; provided, however, that said right to refuse shall continue only so long as the employee makes contributions at least equal in amount to the service fee to a non-religious charitable organization mutually agreed upon by the employee so refusing and the Union. Part-time employees' contributions to non-religious charitable organizations shall coincide in amount with the payments of those part-time employees paying the service fee. MSEA-SEIU shall not unreasonably deny the choice of such non-religious charitable organization suggested by the employee."
Q - Where does all the money go?
If you are a union member, you may think your weekly dues will
decrease. After all, that's the argument the union is
using. However you have seen now that your dues did not go down
(in fact they tried to increase them by 50 cents, but that was voted
down by MSEA's own members), even with
this additional revenue source of over $700,000 a year. Let's
look at the math for a minute. There are approximately 10,000
employees to be covered, roughly 7500 are in MSEA and 2500 are
not. MSEA says that the collective bargaining expenses (the
"service fee") total $4.65 currently - that's spread across the 7500
existing members and service fee payers. That totals roughly $1.8
million. If that cost (which should be a fixed cost, MSEA says it
already is doing all of these "services" for us) is suddenly spread out
over 10,000 employees, than the per-person cost should come down to
$3.48 per week. We GUARANTEE members will not see a resulting
reduction
in their dues, instead the MSEA will absorb the increase and use it to
further their agenda. For a more detailed accounting of expenses,
we encourage you to visit this
site (type in file # 540-704 and go from there). You will see
what your union dues or "fair share" gets you.
Finally, see
this site to see political expenses of MSEA's PAC - these are not
supposed to come out of the service fee, but we shall see in the audit
process if they really do. The key information on the reports can
be found on: Schedule A = Contributions to the Committee, Schedule B =
Expenditures of the Committee, Schedule G = Report Summary.
Q - Will my union dues go down due to contributions from Fair Share?
NO! Want the final word on union dues and "fair share" fees? Here is Dana Graham's (MSEA president) response to an email asking about dues:
"In regards to your questions. The Finance Committee along with the Board of Directors does the budget and sends it to the council at the annual convention. They haven't started working on the two year budget yet. Union Dues will not go down but maybe we can level off the rising cost of dues over time. People who pay fair share will not be able to vote in Union elections as they will not be members. Non members will not have voting rights. A Fair Share payer will not be a member." - Dana Graham, MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 President
Q - Isn't Fair Share a mandate from the union members?
NO! The whole Fair Share idea is developed and pushed on us by national out-of-state unions, such as SEIU, AFL-CIO, and AFSCME. Read the AFSCME newsletter(pdf) from Summer 2003 . In particular, see page 2 for this revealing quotation by AFSCME local 93 director Anthony Caso "On a more upbeat note, our Maine staff reports that things are looking positive for a "fair share" provision. AFSCME is pushing for converting current non-member employees immediately, while the state is advocating for making only new hires subject to the fair share provision." MSEA has allowed the big national unions (in their case, SEIU) to trump the needs of Maine state employees. Almost universally the union members we interact with disagree with Fair Share - they don't think their coworkers should be fired by the very organization which alleges to protect them.
Q - Isn't Fair Share the norm in all states?
No, in fact it is ILLEGAL in 22 states. In other states, while
legal, it is clearly controversial. Read about our colleagues in
Washington who are also under assault by the state employees
union.
Also our colleagues in New Hampshire.
Q - I am a union member, but only for the income protection
plan. Are there alternatives?
YES - There are numerous
disability insurance policies which cover the same types of things as
the union's income protection plan, many of them at cheaper
rates. AGEM
currently offers comparable income protection which is actually cheaper.Q - I want to remain a union member, what can I do inside the union
to help?
You can support resolutions in your local chapters to make the "service
fee" voluntary. You can talk to your union leadership and let
them know you do not want to see your coworkers getting fired by the
very union which claims to represent them. Work from the inside
to elect leadership and introduce resolutions getting rid of the
"service fee" provision. Also support resolution 05-02 which
gives service fee payers a vote on the contract. And hold your
leaders accountable. Where does all the money go? How does
MSEA justify so much political and organizing activity? What
percentage of MSEA's agenda is really that of their parent union, "Big
Labor" SEIU?Q - How much money do MSEA officials make?
Based on documents filed with the federal government, the median salary
for a MSEA employee in 2004 was $45,425
for a staff of 31. Eight
employees earned more than $60K and 12 earned more than $50K:MSEA general counsel (formerly Tim Belcher), earned $72,042
Susan Mitchell, director of policy & legislation, earned $70,411
John Graham, director of field services, earned $70,361
Joan Towle, director of finance & administration, earned $69,424 (now vacant)
Matthew McDonald, director of organizing, earned $63,640
Steven Butterfield, IS director, earned $61,656
Sandra Conrad, employee rep earned $61,317
Ronald Ahlquist, employee rep, earned $57,218
Pamela Morin, employee rep, earned $56,889
Todd Ricker, employee rep, earned $53,010
Stephanie Von Glinski, organizer, earned $53,007
Note that the elected officers make very little - $1800 for the president and $863 for the VP. However, they retain their current employment and do a great deal of MSEA "work" on the State's time.
Download the MSEA salary flyer and post it around your workspace!
Q - Isn't MSEA really just looking for out fellow state workers?
Well that's what they'd like you to think, but just look at their web site.
MSEA is sold out to the Big Labor movement and is busy spending
your money on things like organizing Wal-Mart, supporting the big
national labor unions (SEIU and AFL-CIO, despite their
highly-publicized split), and playing politics.
organizing campaign underway by SEIU, the parent union. Do you know how
much of your union money is flowing "up" to Big Labor? MSEA pays over $1 MILLION per year to SEIU.
introduced to Hilary Clinton by Jon Baldacci.
http://www.followthemoney.org - enter MSEA as the contributor, Maine as the state, and the election year of your choice.
Q - I wouldn't feel comfortable not having a union to represent
me. Are there alternatives?
Yes, each bargaining unit is free to elect its own representatives,
whether they be "big labor" unions, independent employee associations
(such as the law enforcement employees), or no representative at all
(interestingly, here each worker is still protected by all the civil
service laws). Many dissatisfied MSEA-SEIU members in various
bargaining units, and interested nonmembers, are already deep into
organizing alternative bargaining agents and planning for a
decertification campaign in late 2006 (state law only allows
decertification for state employees 60-90 days prior to contract
termination). Note that this option is entirely up a bargaining
unit. Employees in other units can band together, but in the end
only employees (members and nonmembers alike) in a single unit can
elect a bargaining agent for their unit. One example is the Maine State Law
Enforcement Association. We support AGEM as a substitute association
for Executive Branch bargaining units.Q - Isn't it fair to ask all workers to pay for MSEA expenses?
Under current law in non-Right to Work states (such as Maine) unions are allowed to charge a fee to non-union employees for the cost of collective bargaining. We will not discuss the legality of this practice other than to note that it is currently illegal in 22 states. What we are primarily concerned with in this matter is the right of individuals to choose who and what they will and will not support. Despite the language in the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 24 of the Maine Constitution, and the vast majority of popular opinion opposed to the practice, unions and their political supporters have abused their power in imposing forced dues on unwilling workers. The unions (including MSEA) justify these dues by claiming they are required by law (laws unions supported) to cover both members and non-members in their collective bargaining. The unions argue that non-union employees “benefit” from union representation and therefore “owe” the union. The unions decide the value of the benefit with no input from the recipient. In the marketplace the vender of goods and services can set his price, but the customer ultimately decides the value when making a decision to buy or not to buy. Not so with the union. It has a monopoly on collective bargaining. All employees in the bargaining unit are required to buy the union’s services whether they want it or not. It is the labor version of the “company store”. It is presumptuous of the union to claim that the pay and benefits it negotiates are more valuable to the employee than that which the employee could negotiate for himself. It is the employee who determines what value, if any, the union offers. It is the employee, after making that determination, who has the right to decide whether or not to support the union.