Gubernatorial politics showed up on the FairPoint picket lines Friday, with Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud joining striking workers and using the occasion to take a swipe at incumbent Republican Gov. Paul LePage.
Michaud said he understands the workers’ plight. He was a union negotiator when tradesmen at Great Northern Paper Co. went on strike in the mid- to late-1970s. The impasse was bridged by independent Gov. James Longley, who invited management and labor to meet at the Blaine House over his wife’s homemade éclairs, he said.
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HOW IT ALL CAME DOWN TO THIS
Contract talks between FairPoint Communications and its union workers in Northern New England broke down in July after four months of negotiations. At the nub of the dispute is how to shave operating costs by $700 million, the amount FairPoint says it needs to save to remain competitive.
At the end of August, FairPoint claimed negotiations had reached an impasse, a move that allows it to impose the conditions of its final proposal. Some of those conditions are:
• Freezing existing employee and retiree pensions, and eliminating pensions for future employees. The past contract required the company to provide a defined-benefit pension plan with no employee contributions.
• Eliminating assistance for day care costs.
• Eliminating medical coverage for future retirees, and possibly eliminating coverage for existing retirees.
• Requiring employees to contribute to their health care coverage, which has in the past been paid 100 percent by the company. The company wants to pay 79 percent of the premium.
• Management also wants to use non-union contract workers, which the unions vehemently oppose.
The unions, meanwhile, say they have offered $200 million in contract concessions, but FairPoint has shown no interest in reaching a resolution, according to union leaders. Because all the cuts FairPoint is trying to make show up on the balance sheet side, union leadership believes the company is positioning itself to be sold. The unions have filed three claims with the National Labor Relations Board alleging FairPoint has not been bargaining in good faith. Two were dismissed and the third is pending.
But Michaud doesn’t believe that LePage, who often blasts unions and has tried unsuccessfully to weaken their influence through so-called right-to-work legislation, will be able to play a role in resolving this dispute.
“The fact that he vetoed 180 bills shows his inability to be able to negotiate anything, so I doubt this governor will be able to get labor and management together to negotiate a contract,” Michaud said. “It’s just not in his DNA.”
LePage campaign spokesman Alex Willette said the governor is taking the strike “very seriously” and called Michaud’s dig political posturing.
“The governor is willing to work with anybody and everyone who is interested in good public policy,” Willette said. “Unfortunately, Congressman Michaud is just focused on political cheap shots.”
LePage is setting up a meeting Monday with company and state officials to ensure that there will be no interruptions in service for the state’s 911 system, Willette said. LePage wants to make sure that “this Maine company that has invested so much into our economy makes it through this strike.”
Willette later clarified that the governor was not picking sides in the dispute.
The third candidate for governor, independent Eliot Cutler, issued a statement Friday afternoon about the strike.
“Union members have the legal right to organize and to strike,” Cutler said. “I hope that FairPoint will come to the table and make a fair offer to the workers, and I hope the workers will also be reasonable in resumed negotiations. This stalemate benefits no one. If I were governor, I would not be choosing sides, but I would be making every effort to bring the two sides together and to end the stalemate.”
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