Don't punish MTA employees

Maine may be “open for business,” but it very clearly doesn’t want to pay people very much.

Recent press releases by upper management of the Maine Turnpike Authority and the members of the Legislative Transportation Committee have presented a very one-sided opinion about MTA employees and negotiations with unions.

Somehow, we all keep hoping that Maine people will eventually recognize that the turnpike’s new management is being manipulated by an administration and Legislature that is conservative and highly anti-labor. Maine may be “open for business,” but it very clearly doesn’t want to pay people very much.

Contractual agreements reached between the union chapters and turnpike management were arrived at through hard negotiations over many years. This Legislature is now attempting to sweep them all away with one fell swoop. Should the employees allow this regressive measure just to satisfy a Legislature that is quite obviously drooling over all those turnpike funds?

Turnpike employees earn what they make through honesty, sacrifice and working in difficult situations. We have offered to take a three-year wage freeze, but this apparently isn’t enough for lawmakers. They want the whole pie.

It seems that downgrading the significance of employees’ contributions to the authority is part of some unknown master plan. In deluding themselves into believing that they are helping the people of Maine, legislators have lost sight of the fact that employees of the MTA are Mainers doing a hard job under difficult circumstances.

What is the point of trying to inflame the public toward those employees? Attempting to upset people about turnpike salaries and benefits could actually jeopardize the welfare of toll collectors trying to do their jobs. We are on the front lines with a very mixed public. Often, when we slide those doors open, we don’t know who is going to be on the other side. This blatant disregard for our safety is appalling.

Comments about these issues are apparently designed to pressure employees toward management’s desired contract changes. These indiscretions will probably just strengthen our resolve and have the opposite effect. Estimates about our salaries usually involve employees with 30 years of seniority, or more. So, these are misleading. An average salary estimate is almost never mentioned and is actually much less. Also, comments about four hours (of pay) for call-ins never mention that most multiple call-ins are rare and isolated. They usually involve only maintenance personnel.

The fact is that turnpike employees understand one word above all others. That word is “sacrifice.” We sacrifice weekends and holidays with loved ones. We sacrifice our bodies due to years of working outside in inclement weather, and we sacrifice our health for the same reasons. Now, it seems, we are being asked to sacrifice 10 percent of our pay, as well.

Heavy work done by maintenance often leads to necessary early retirement. Many toll collectors have bad backs and carpal tunnel syndrome due to years of service. Some of us work seven days in a row or more with no breaks for lunch. We eat while we work. Do these sound like conditions that we should be getting paid for after decades of service?

These same sources have conveniently left out a number of other tidbits that should be talked about. A very large proportion of employee salaries and benefits are paid for by out-of-state sources. Tolls from tourism and freight traveling into and through Maine save Mainers millions and pay a great deal toward our salaries. Other tolls are paid by motorists who use the turnpike and not by the general population.

Administrative salaries are paid for by Maine people. Who are the ones who should be taking a pay cut? Over the past decade, upper management salary increases have been substantial, while employee increases have been measured and limited.

I ask again, who should be taking cuts?

Also, one has to wonder just how much funding has gone into questionable turnpike projects year after year. These policies have been common at the authority for years. Projects have always been more important than people. Should it be that way? In this economy, shouldn’t all prospective projects be highly scrutinized?

When are managers and legislators going to start telling the truth about what our employees do? Should elected officials so actively try to deceive the people of Maine?

The light in which we are so unjustly being portrayed is absurdly inaccurate.

The indiscretions of the former executive director have left us at a distinct disadvantage, and the present administration is determined to take advantage of it with the destruction of our contracts. Managers don’t intend to miss this opportunity and they are bringing the people of Maine along for the ride.

We have done nothing to deserve this, and they should be ashamed.

Jay W. Colby of Sanford has been employed by the Maine Turnpike Authority for 33 years, working most of that time as a toll collector.