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The University of Maine System must close a $15 million budget gap by June 30 of this year. This may translate into layoffs or mandatory unpaid vacation days for university employees.
UMS is in negotiations with worker unions to reduce the deficit.
“When you try to reduce expenditures, you have to look at where you’re spending money. So yes, the proposals we are talking about would affect workers. They are things we are asking the bargaining units to consider to help in the financial situation,” said Tracy Bigney, chief of human resources and organizational development officer for UMS.
Between two-thirds and three-quarters of the system’s budget is for compensation, salaries and benefits, according to Bigney.
When asked if professors, administrators or janitors should worry about their jobs, Bigney declined to answer. She stated that the system is looking for creative ways to cut costs and trying to think both short- and long-term.
An $8.3 million curtailment order given by Gov. John Baldacci is directly affecting employees’ jobs now, according to John Diamond, executive director of External Affairs at the UMS office. This is in addition to the expected $6.7 million the system lost in investment returns due to the poor economy.
Chris LeClair, who works in the paint shop at UMaine, said he and his coworkers are easy targets for layoffs, as they have less severance pay.
“This is money they absolutely need by the end of June – by June 30. … Now if they decide to do layoffs, where they are going to get the money from is people like us, who they will only have to owe up to six weeks severance. And they will be able to count that money for June 30. Whereas if they do it with faculty and staff – because they get 26 weeks of severance – there is no money savings there for them to lay those people off,” LeClair said.
“It does make sense to look at the whole range. The ideas we’re talking about could affect anybody,” Bigney said.
LeClair, a steward for the service and maintenance unit of the Teamsters Local 340 Union, said there were two options offered to the bargaining units.
“It was either these [furlough] days they want us to take off – they weren’t sure how many days; they were saying up to five for some of these campuses – and they said the only other option would be layoffs. And they didn’t say layoffs from where,” LeClair said.
“One positive aspect is that if we have an agreed way to reduce expenditures, then that would reduce the potential need to have layoffs or other involuntary actions that would affect employees,” Bigney said.
LeClair said he’s not happy with the options, but will do what he can to help save jobs. According to him, “there was no other options given at the table.”
The UMaine Teamsters are waiting to hear from the other bargaining units in UMS, who will decide if they will agree to furlough days. According to LeClair, the campuses that will be hard hit are the University of Southern Maine, Fort Kent, Machias and Presque Isle.
“We’re talking about things that are happening at seven different universities around the state. It’s not just about Teamsters; it’s not just about the University of Maine,” Bigney said.
This isn’t the first time this has happened to UMaine.
According to a Jan. 22, 1993 article in The Maine Campus, UMaine laid off 30 custodians from Facilities Management, cutting the custodial staff by more than a third.
“Back in the ’90s they hit us pretty hard, and we never really got back to where we were before the ’90s …” LeClair said. “This is basically the same thing the state is talking about now: quality, not quantity. But the problem is that we never really got any bigger after that; we stayed the same.”
Despite all of this, custodian Keith Shorey is optimistic.
“I’ve been through it before. I was in a mill that shut down – that is why I’m here,” he said. “I’ve been through the gambit of emotions, so whatever comes, comes. It was very life-changing. You get a different perspective on life, on what is important. Some things you can’t control, and if you can’t control it, you just got to accept it and move on.”
Shorey was in between jobs for two years before he found his place at UMaine. He described the difference he felt after his layoff.
“You were secure, you didn’t hesitate to go buy something, you knew you could pay for it. You knew you had your income coming in steady. Then all of a sudden that’s gone, and you have no idea where you’re going to work. And there are no options. That was two years before I got this job here. That wasn’t because I wasn’t a good worker or qualified,” Shorey said.
Shorey hadn’t heard word of any layoffs in his department.
“Quite frankly, I don’t think they’ll be able to cut back from custodial. They’re already cut back. They got a lot of guys doing two or three buildings, and they aren’t getting done the way they’re supposed to get done now,” he said.
The paper mill closings are similar to reflections of this economic time, according to Shorey.
“It’s kind of ironic, because I see the automobile industry and all these other industries are going through what the paper mill industry and the lumber industry already went through in 2002 – and we didn’t get no bailouts.”
His advice?
“I went through what the country is going through now … just hang in there.”
