More than half of the current workforce at the Maine Military Authority in Limestone has been laid off after state officials and the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority failed to reach agreement on a compromise that would allow MMA employees to continue refurbishing 21 remaining buses.
MMA authorities continue to refuse to discuss the details of the proposed compromise, which union officials say is unlikely to encourage state workers to remain the in the area for possible recall.
Two years ago, Maine Military Authority Executive Director Hugh Corbett was the fifth highest paid state worker in Maine, with a base salary of nearly $148,000 — but few private-sector executives would be eager to exchange places with him today. Corbett has presided over the decline of an MMA workforce that once surpassed 500 employees.
He says that after the layoff of 35 employees, 27 workers remain.
“The most important thing for us is to do everything we can to get our workers back,” he says.
The workers lost their jobs because Corbett has so far been unable to reconcile the MMA’s underbid $19 million contract with the state of Massachusetts. Corbett says there’s still hope for that contract, but the details, such as exactly how far off the state’s bid was for refurbishing 32 articulated, diesel-electric Neoplan buses, are not being released.
“Those matters are kind of ongoing right now,” he says. “We continue to work collaboratively with MBTA to work toward a mutual solution. We think that there is some common ground, they think there is common ground so we remain cautiously optimistic.”
But optimism is in short supply for the 35 workers who have lost their jobs and are now being asked by the MMA to try to stay in the area to be able to respond if and when Maine and Massachusetts can reach an agreement on what the additional costs will be to complete the work.
Corbett says there is some other work in the pipeline for the MMA, assuming it has enough workers to be able to do the job.
“You know, 90 days guys, we need you to hang in there, and they’ve shown a real desire to hang on because they do enjoy the work that we do,” he says. “They’ve shown a real willingness to stand by us.”
Maine State Employees Association Executive Director Rod Hiltz says MMA managers can’t realistically expect workers to remain on call based on a promise or a feeling.
“If management is trying to deliver some sort of package to them where they need to stay ready to return to work, then they should be giving concrete examples of what’s going to happen in the next coming weeks as to why they should hang around, because I’ve been laid off before and the one thing I need next week is a paycheck, and I’m sure that our workers are feeling the same way,” he says.
Calls made to MBTA officials for comment were not returned by air time, but it is believed that that the state has received less than half of the $19 million due under the contract. That’s based on the 11 buses that it has already delivered to Massachusetts.
How much more will be needed for the state to complete its work and how much of that cost that Maine may have to assume is an issue for state Rep. John Martin, a veteran Democratic lawmaker from Eagle Lake. A member of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, Martin says he has heard nothing about why the MMA deal with Massachusetts has gone south.
“I suspect that it will become an issue with the Appropriations Committee once we start, come January,” he says.
In the meantime, the state Department of Labor Rapid Response Team continues to meet with laid-off workers in Limestone to provide assistance in transition to new employment.
