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University of Maine employees are underpaid and undervalued, was the sentiment and focus of an Oct. 9 lecture that was part of the Socialist and Marxist Studies Luncheon Series.
Four individuals representing the Associated Clerical Office Laboratory and Technician Staff of the Universities of Maine and the University of Maine Professional Staff Association discussed the contract situation for professional, clerical, office, technical, and laboratory employees of the University of Maine System.
Top priorities included equal-percentage raises for faculty and staff, better health care, improved leadership, and better treatment of employees.
Jane Crouch, a representative of ACSUM and part of a negotiating team, began the presentation with a discussion of the current contracts and the method of pay increase used by the university.
“Our job classification system, which is a point system, is in pitiful disarray at this point,” she said.
No institutional research is performed to shed light on the problem that many employees are undervalued and underpaid, Crouch said. The point system has at least been reinstated, after it was done away with 10 years ago, she said.
Gender equity was raised as a problem at the university, as 85 percent of clerical, office, laboratory, and technician employees are women. Those jobs, many of which pay below a living wage, do not provide a primary source of income, Crouch said
“A demoralized and overworked work force undermines enterprise,” she said.
Lorraine Lowell, president of ACSUM and a University of Southern Maine employee, provided statistics to support the group’s complaints.
“At least 20 percent of [ACSUM employees] fall into working poor because of compensation policies UMS has been utilizing,” Lowell said. Twenty percent of the people her organization represents rely on public assistance, she said, quoting the Maine Center for Economic Policies’ latest report “Getting By: Maine Livable Wages in 2002.”
The standardization of health care costs has created classist inequities, to the detriment of ACSUM represented employees, Lowell said. A faculty member who earns $55,000 annually can better afford to pay higher premium and co-pay costs than a professional employee who earns $35,000 annually or a COLT employee who earns $22,242 annually, she said.
Jeff Dorman, the vice president of UMPSA and a member of the negotiating team, spoke on behalf of the professional employees of the university system.
“When you look at the university system as a whole, and you look at management as a whole over the last two decades, it’s not really a situation where you can vilify the university … However, there is an extreme lack of disorganization at management levels and a high turnover of positions, both in the unions and in the management over the last two decades, that have caused this very feeling against many of the employees,” Dorman said.
Faculty members are valued, but UMS officials do not express similar appreciation for professionals and classified employees, he said.
Rick Winter, also a representative of UMPSA, spoke about negotiations between unions and the university.
“There seems to be little of compromise in terms of salary, in terms of positions and in terms of personnel,” he said.
Faculty members recently were offered a three percent increase in salary, while the other employees received a two and a half percent increase.
“One of the larger issues is that the university doesn’t really bargain when it goes to the table … The university comes to the table with a chunk of change they throw down on the table and say ‘OK boys and girls, chop [it] up and use it for your members’ needs as you see fit,’” Lowell said.
