Recently, the University of Southern Maine has received negative publicity for giving certain staffers a raise. It’s the raises people haven’t gotten that bother a lot of us.
The USM Chapter of the Associated COLT Staff of the Universities of Maine – the union representing all clerical, office, laboratory and technical employees in the University of Maine System – is concerned.
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Our members last received a cost-of-living raise (the last installment of a modest 3 percent spread out over a two-year contract) in 2008. We have been working without a contract since July 1, 2011. The current negotiations do not make us optimistic.
Our members are working harder and more resourcefully due to layoffs and position eliminations. On campuses across the state, clerical positions have been cut by nearly 25 percent in recent years. Thanks to changes in technology, we are also working smarter.
We do much of the indispensable behind-the-scenes work that allows teachers to teach and students to learn. Our members are skilled, dedicated to public service and committed to the university system’s mission of public higher education.
Our median annual wage is $27,000 a year. The university system admits we earn, on average, 18 percent below market. Yet when we ask for a raise, there is no spare cash to be found.
The board of trustees speaks about retaining skilled and dedicated people – the quotes ring a bit hollow to those at the bottom. When it comes to investing in the ordinary, hardworking people who do the hands-on work, the piggy bank is empty.
We agree with UMS administrators that paying employees fairly for the skilled and specialized work they do is a matter of equity. However, equity only for the favored few is no equity at all.
Gail Wartell
Chair, USM Chapter ACSUM
Portland
What seem to be lost in the discussion about the salary increases for some of the professional staff at University of Southern Maine are the concepts of “equity” and “fairness” and the need to attract and keep “quality people.”
Like another letter writer, Eileen Eagan (“Different views on USM raises,” March 29), I applaud the need for fair wages for all employees. I am also a faculty union member. What’s dismaying was that President Selma Botman and the new University of Maine System chancellor, James Page, both missed opportunities to extend the need for “fairness” to faculty and staff who have had no pay raises since March 2009 – for faculty it was 1.5 percent – and who have been working without a contract since last July.
I realize that neither Botman nor Page are directly involved in contract negotiations, but public encouragement of fairness and equity for all University of Maine System employees would have gone a long way in building support from those employees.
Allison Hepler
Professor at University of Maine at Farmington
Woolwich
Candidate’s performance outweighs partisan labels
As the process to select a Republican nominee for president labors on, I am becoming increasingly disturbed by the effort of the leading candidates posturing on who is the real or most conservative among them.
As a lifelong Republican, I consider myself conservative on some issues and moderate on others. I simply don’t feel the need to paint myself in a corner with rigid beliefs, nor do I want my presidential candidate to do so.
What a candidate calls himself is far less important than his performance. If we insist on clinging to far-right ideals or cater to the extreme factions of our party, the results of this November’s election will be no different than four years ago.
This election will be won or lost by the voters in the middle. Call them moderate, independent, unenrolled or undecided; they will vote for a candidate with conviction and willingness to do right for this country regardless of party affiliation.
I want a candidate not driven by partisan ideology, but rather one who is willing to listen to knowledgeable people and one who will think of the country before his party.
Yes, I would prefer a candidate who has beliefs similar to mine, but if we don’t select a candidate this bloc of voters can cozy up to, we are looking at four more years of a whole lot of nothing coming from Washington.
We have allowed boisterous factions to dictate this party’s direction long enough. Moderate is not the new liberal.
Steven Edmondson
Topsham
Social work students back domestic violence bill
As University of New England social work students concerned about the high rates of domestic violence in Maine, we are writing to support L.D. 1867, which is a comprehensive bill that would strengthen protections for survivors of domestic violence.
Domestic violence affects one in 20 Maine women annually, making us all personally connected to this issue.
Currently, bail is determined by a commissioner who is not required to review the criminal history of the offender. This often results with the offender being released within 24 hours and with minimal or delayed notification to the survivor. This often leaves survivors and their families vulnerable to re-victimization, among other distress.
L.D. 1867 would address these issues and also would increase penalties for violating conditions of bail and broaden the definitions of what constitutes domestic violence. These enhanced protections are important for survivors and their families because we all deserve to live in a society where we are protected.
The bill’s critics cite “innocent until proven guilty” as a reason for allowing bail in domestic violence cases. While protecting the rights of those accused of a crime is important, our current policies place too much emphasis on the rights of the offender at the cost of the rights of the survivor. This bill would help to reset the scales to increase the protection of the survivors.
We would like to encourage readers to contact their representatives and ask them to vote in favor of L.D. 1867.
Whitney Adams
Windham
Kristen Cianelli
Portland
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