PORTLAND, Maine — Striking FairPoint union members in Maine and New Hampshire have appealed denials of unemployment insurance benefits as about 300 other strikers won an appeal last week and qualified for the assistance in Vermont.
Pete McLaughlin, a lead negotiator for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers chapter in Maine, said he was not surprised by denial of applications for workers in Maine.
“It’s not expected, but it’s something that we’re looking to try and take advantage of,” McLaughlin said.
After an impasse in collective bargaining for a new labor contract, the IBEW and Communications Workers of America called a strike on Oct. 17. The company has since cut off health care benefits for the employees as the strike lingers on with little progress on breaking the stalemate.
In Vermont, Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan told Vermont Public Radio that her department has processed about 300 claims from striking FairPoint workers so far. Case law around strikes is different in Vermont, where the state’s high court in the early 1980s ruled that workers could qualify for unemployment benefits under state law if an employer’s business continued to operate.
That decision has been challenged by the company, however, in an appeal FairPoint filed in Vermont.
“[The unions] chose to strike, and they can choose when to return,” FairPoint spokeswoman Angelynne Beaudry said. “We have appealed because we do not believe that striking workers who have chosen to walk off their jobs should be entitled to unemployment benefits.”
In Maine, unemployment benefits rulings are made under different rules and case law.
Julie Rabinowitz, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Labor, said in an email that anyone who stopped working because of a labor dispute is not eligible for unemployment benefits if that employee may ultimately see a financial benefit from the outcome of the dispute.
She said the strike at Hostess two years ago provides another example of how the law works, as bakers who went on strike over contract terms did not qualify for unemployment.
“However, others at the plant, including management and the Teamsters union, did see decrease in hours (because with little bread being baked, there was nothing to deliver, etc.), so those workers were eligible to collect benefits during the strike while the bakers union members were not eligible,” Rabinowitz said.
McLaughlin, the union spokesman, said that there has been no contact between the unions and the company since a Nov. 18 meeting called by a federal mediator. The unions are still awaiting a decision on complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board that he said could still take months.
The unions issued a public statement Wednesday warning about potential service problems on FairPoint’s network as a winter storm approaches.
The company has said it continues to implement a contingency plan, bringing in outside workers to take on the work of its technicians and call center employees in the state.
More than 1,700 workers are on strike in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. About 800 are in Maine.