The Guild membership elected its five-member executive board last week without any contested races. No challengers to the declared candidates stepped forward during a series of four meetings held during day shifts and night shifts at both the Portland and South Portland locations.
Also, members adopted a budget that lowers dues from 1.75 percent to 1.4 percent, effective Jan. 1.
President Tom Bell, Vice President Greg Kesich and Treasurer Ken Jones were each re-elected to their leadership positions. The Guild welcomed a newcomer to the Executive Board by electing Christian MilNeil as secretary. Former Guild president Ed Murphy returned to the board in a new role as Unit Chair.
During the election meetings, Murphy (and others on his behalf) made a motion to waive a proposed stipend of $200 per pay period for the Unit Chair position. The motion was amended to authorize the Executive Board at some point in the future to pay the stipend if it determines the Unit Chair duties become too cumbersome. Murphy’s motion carried unanimously.
The number of dues-paying members swelled leading up to the election, with roughly 85 percent of Guild-eligible workers now in good standing. Since new ownership won’t automatically deduct dues from members’ paychecks, members have had to take extra steps to pay dues. Through hand-collections and a voluntary bank deduction system to automate the collection process, the number of members paying dues has reached its highest percentage last week since the change of ownership in June.
At last week’s meetings, members also voted to reduce dues from 1.75 percent of each employee’s gross pay to 1.4 percent. Enough members are now paying dues to adequately fund the Guild’s other expenses. Jones reported at the meetings that if all members were to pay dues, the Guild could further reduce the amount needed from each member to 1.25 percent.
Jones will send a memo within two weeks to the Guild point people who are collecting dues, including details for people using different automatic payments.
The Waterville unit plans to weigh in on the issue later this week. The proposal calls for dues for Waterville members to be lowered from 1.5 percent to 1.4 percent.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to attend the meetings,
Scott Dolan, Chairman of the Elections Committee, sdolan@pressherald.com, 207-210-4496