AUGUSTA, Maine — The union that represents Maine Turnpike Authority employees is charging the authority’s management with bargaining in bad faith, undermining the collective bargaining process and threatening the union for not ceding to the authority’s demands.
The accusations against the turnpike authority are part of a complaint the Maine State Employees Association filed Monday with the Maine Labor Relations Board.
The complaint comes after about a year of negotiations between the turnpike authority and the union that haven’t resulted in a contract. Contracts for both bargaining units that represent Maine Turnpike Authority workers expired at the end of 2011, said Peter Mills, the authority’s executive director.
The state employee union’s complaint says the turnpike authority broke Maine labor laws by refusing to budge from an initial list of demands for concessions and use them as the starting point for negotiations.
The union initially offered to agree to a contract in which workers would go without raises for three years, said Brian Oelberg of the Maine State Employees Association, the chief negotiator for the Maine Turnpike employees unit.
The turnpike authority then responded with demands that employees go without raises for three years, pay more for their health insurance and accept cuts to overtime pay and other benefits, according to Oelberg.
“That’s not fair to the employees,” he said. “They didn’t make the decisions that led the turnpike into this. It was management.”
Mills declined to discuss details of the contract negotiations, but said changes to labor contracts and work rules figure into turnpike authority efforts to restructure and generate enough revenue to avoid defaulting on debt.
“We’ve asked them to discuss a wide variety of issues,” Mills said. “Some of them are concessions. Some are just work rules.”
The Maine Turnpike Authority now has 20 days to respond to the union complaint, said Marc Ayotte, executive director of the Maine Labor Relations Board. That response likely will lead to a fact-finding hearing before the labor relations board.
If the board finds the turnpike authority has violated the law, it can issue a cease-and-desist order telling the authority to stop any illegal behavior.
News of the labor relations board complaint comes during a week in which Maine Turnpike Authority board members are holding three public hearings on a proposed toll increase for the 109-mile highway and are expected to vote on the elimination of 20 positions.
Anyone with any knowledge of business knows that wages and benefits account for 2/3 of a businesses total expense, Just another case of unions causing financial havoc.
That it false, anyone who ever worked in a service industry such as an Automotive Technician knows that one third of a car dealers labor rate is wages and benefits one third covers the capital investment of buildings and operating costs and one third is profit.
I think maybe you are a little high on the profit margin. Actually those metrics vary widely between businesses and some big industries operate with a very small margin of profit (insurance 5%) The S & P 500 operates between 14-18% margin of profit on average. There are probably some ongoing concerns that approached that 33% like Microsoft in the early days but 33% margin is just some fantasy number.
Been there, seen it, done it, ———-The proof is in the pudding.
I am in a service industry having owned such a business for decades. We (our industry) figure we are doing well at 18%. That allows us to invest in new equipment and take a little home. I don’t know any industry other than software that commands such a high number. The historical average for an S & P 500 company is 8.2% (less than i recalled above)
http://seekingalpha.com/article/428181-debunking-s-p-500-profit-margin-anxiety
Whatever your experience is it is not a common one.
While you may be correct about what the formula represents, you do not account for vacations, holidays, sick days, days when there is no business etc. Why not talk about the entire picture instead of what “sounds” good to you. I service many service businesses and absolutely none of them put 33% on the bottom line and that includes highly successful surgeons.
I guess your right. 33 % is off a little.
S & P 500 operates between 14-18% ( NET) so put the 20% tax on there and it’s about——37–41%
Seeing as I was talking Gross!
My 14-18% was a bit high. look it up. Generally the profit of an S & P company is about 8.3%.
Net After Tax?
They need to stop spending on 3 martini luncheons!
I can make 8 % selling strawberries on a road side stand!
LOL
and how many other products have the over the top profit margin that the auto companies have? NOT MANY
I have never heard the unions complaining that they don’t negotiate in good faith.
I guess it’s just a “strange” coincidence that the turnpike announced today that they’re eliminating twenty jobs.
The”bosses” are still toking theitr stogies and thumbing their noses at the workers!
The “tradition” of Paul Violette lives on!
Metaphorical stogies of course.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
IF the folks working for the pike want to keep their jobs they would do well to listen to the issues and appropriately consider and react, versus blaming the “management” – a typical union plaint. In 35 years of this stuff I have learned to look beyond their complaints and push for an equitable, factually based agreement. Fact is, the pike can’t afford Violet’s agreed contributions.
That will be $1.00 please, one dollars please, one dollar please, one dollar please.
We need the tolls to pay for the pensions that come with the toll jobs. What happened to when the road is paid for the toll booths will come down…
I asked a friend of mine once why he had horses, he told me to cut the hay, I asked why do you need hay, he replied to feed the horses of course…
After 35 years of “negotiating” with their hand picked Dem toady the union is flabbergasted that someone is actually looking out for the ratepayers for a change.
They are completely and positively over paid. They have no trade, don’t need a college education and just sit there taking in money. This should be at best a $10 position. Sorry but that’s the rate of pay of service workers.
Peter Mills aka Mitt Romney. This isn’t Bain Capital.
Wow, you have nothing do you?
When prominent members of the DNC have nothing but praise for Romney’s run with Bain, I think you need to look in another direction.
Bain was soley measured in terms as making money for a few.
The role of the government is to defend and to promote the General Welfare of the country as a whole!
In that Romney and company sees his role as measured in terms of earning capacity and not the benefit to mankind, his run for presidency and all that equate his performance at Bain with the office of the presidency are flawed in the perception and any reasonable person should find that very disturbing.
I find the current group in power VERY DISTURBING!! In in
regards to the role of Government, the key words would be “the country as
a whole”. The current administration is very clear about forcing it’s views
on us after they can’t get them passed in congress, so when the majority rules,
the current president issues and executive order to get his way regardless. It
would bother me as much if he wasn’t complaining about Bush doing the same
thing.
I’m growing tired of posts with nothing offensive being pulled. without rhyme or reason.
HEY idiots , How about an explanation on occasion.
Not really sure what exactly the Union is complaining about here. Everytime i go past a two or three mile stretch of construction, all i ever see is cones, and when by chance i come upon some trucks i see most of them standing around having a smoke or drinking coffee. the problem here honestly is that the work is not being done in a timely manner so the commission is paying millions for a job not done properly. Sorry, to all of you construction people, but there has gotta be a better way. The rules that the union puts in place, this guy cant do this job because he is slated for this other job so we cant get this part of the job done, that is needed to be done so that we can do that other job…Its all political mumbo jumbo to make the job take longer and get a ton of overtime pay for NOTHING being done. Somebody needs to start inspecting what actually IS being done and start paying the people for the job instead of the timetable it takes to do it. I bet things would get done a little faster then.
“The
turnpike authority then responded with demands that employees go without raises
for three years, pay more for their health insurance and accept cuts to
overtime pay and other benefits, according to Oelberg.
“That’s not
fair to the employees,” he said. “They didn’t make the decisions that led the
turnpike into this. It was management.”
Must be nice
living off your neighbors and then complaining that you aren’t getting enough.
Most of the people who work in the private sector and pay the bills for agencies
like the Turnpike have either received reduced benefits or a pay cut or both to
keep their job. While I would love to have a pay increase or have someone cover
over half of my insurance costs, our economy is still in the tank and they should
be thankful for what they have.
I can’t wait till the end
of the year when the economy gets worse do to the ongoing crisis in Europe.