Mark Brunton of Lewiston is president of the Maine Service Employees Association, Local 1989 of the Service Employees International Union, representing 13,000 Maine workers. He works as a community health planner for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

On Jan. 25, just before the State of the State address by Gov. Janet Mills, MaineDOT workers kissed their partners and children as they headed out the door for work. They displayed confidence and dedication. They told themselves their work is vital to public safety. Clearing the snow from the roads during a major snowstorm is part of the job.

The truth is, these snow-fighters were embarking on a 36-hour shift with little to no breaks.

DOT workers do their jobs with pride. They take responsibility to make sure the public is safe — even at their own risk. 

There are two key reasons why DOT plow drivers work 36 hours straight: the pay is too low and there are far too many vacancies in state government to meet Mainers’ needs. Our plow drivers work long shifts out of necessity; there just aren’t enough drivers.

In the week following the governor’s State of the State address, our members are reflecting and asking, “She’s right, things are unaffordable for workers in Maine.” They also wonder, “Why isn’t she using her power to support a fair contract for state workers?”  

The low pay issues affect not only our DOT members, many of whom start at $19.81 an hour. We hear from workers statewide struggling with multiple jobs, seeking subsidized housing or public assistance and making sacrifices — all while doing their jobs as state employees.

For almost a decade, we have pressed the Mills administration and the Maine Legislature to reform Maine’s outdated and neglected state employee compensation and classification system. It no longer reflects the work state employees actually perform, the skills required or the realities of today’s labor market.

Three studies, in 2009, 2020 and 2024, the last produced entirely by the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services, show state workers are paid, on average, substantially below both their private and public sector peers. Despite these studies, multiple rounds of legislation and successive agreements to work on the issue, state workers are falling further behind as they experience Maine’s “affordability” crisis firsthand. Meanwhile, the administration congratulates itself and demands our “thank you” for balancing yet another state budget on our backs.

In December, our bargaining team representing 9,000 state workers declared impasse and sought assistance from the Maine Labor Relations Board through a fact-finding process because the administration offered paltry raises that won’t even keep up with inflation — never mind make any movement on closing the pay gap.

The state’s reliance on low wages is all the more risky and insulting as many state workers face dangerous and traumatic conditions every day. Caseworkers, 911 dispatchers, transportation workers, firefighters and psychiatric nurses witness society’s hardest moments to protect the most vulnerable, often at great personal risk. The recent deaths of our union brothers in MaineDOT have made these dangers painfully clear. As the president of MSEA-SEIU Local 1989, I hear the stories not only from our members but also from their families.

Budgets are statements of priorities. When you’re in a position of power, your character and morals can be reduced to what gets funded or not.

There are a lot of needs facing Mainers. As Maine’s rainy day fund hits its cap and we see a multi-hundred-million-dollar budget surplus, the governor has suddenly decided it’s time to take $200 million out of the rainy day fund now that she’s running for Senate, clearly showing where her priorities lie.

It’s not too late for Gov. Mills to do the right thing. It’s not too late for her to use her executive office power to redefine her moral compass. As the Legislature reviews the governor’s supplemental budget, it must make the frontline staff — who carry out the laws and programs passed by the Legislature — a priority.

A failure to act will only make the problem harder and more expensive to solve, and the consequences more tragic. The time is now.