AUGUSTA (AP) – A leader of Maine’s biggest state workers’ union said Monday he was optimistic membership will be bolstered by a new provision in the contract with the state that requires state workers to pay dues, whether they want to or not.

Maine State Employees Association interim Executive Director John Graham said the union has been hearing mostly positive feedback from state workers on the “Fair Share” provision in the contract. The state workers’ contract was funded by a two-year state budget adopted two weeks ago.

Graham said the provision is “fairly routine” and puts Maine on a par with many other regional states and public institutions. MSEA is optimistic that many state workers who have not been union members will now join.

“We’re holding a membership drive now until the end of June,” Graham said.

About 11,000 workers are on the state payroll and roughly 7,000 of them voluntarily pay $9.10 in weekly dues to the MSEA. Under the new provision, all state workers will have to pay “representational fees,” which includes dues minus a portion that goes to political activity, Graham said.

About two-thirds of MSEA’s financial activity falls outside that political category. During the first year of the contract, non-union members will only be required to pay about a third of regular dues, but they will eventually pay at least $350 a year to the union, increasing its $3 million-plus in annual dues collections by $700,000 or more.

Gov. John Baldacci told the Maine Public Broadcasting Network that state workers have foregone raises for two years. He said it’s only fair that all of those who benefit should contribute to the union’s efforts. State workers are to receive annual raises of 3 percent during the next two years.

Some state workers said they resent having to pay dues when they don’t share the union’s philosophy.

Nancy Holt, who works in the Department of Health and Human Services and describes herself as a conservative, said she did not want to take the raises the union negotiated.

“I even asked them if I could not accept the 3 percent raise if I still had to pay the Fair Share dues and they said the Fair Share dues were not tied to the raise,” Holt said. “So this was something that had to be done.”

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