Orono police union unhappy with wage offer

ORONO — While members of the Police Department’s union are scheduled to vote this week on a contract package offered by the town, there is little chance that they will accept the proposal, union officials said Sunday.

Neither Town Manager Bruce A. Locke nor union officials would disclose the details of the package, although Carl Guignardcq, business manager for the Teamsters, said that it included a pay-in for health insurance, which would cut any wage increase to about 2 percent.

Members of the police and dispatchers union have been without a contract since June 30, 1989, and Guignard said that the Teamsters would recommend that union members reject the town’s latest offer.

“There’s no way that the union is going to recommend (that they accept the offer),” he said. “I can’t imagine them taking that.”

Currently, he said, Orono officers are paid more than $64 less than the average wage for their area colleagues.

According to town records, annual pay for the Orono officers in 1989 ranged from $15,435 to $29,520, with an average of $22,729. The figures exclude two officers who joined the department this year.

Some have argued that the town, which is facing hefty tax increases and other fiscal burdens, cannot afford large pay and benefit increases for police and fire employees, who also are without a contract. Many of those in the departments pushing for the increases, they argue, do not live in Orono and do not have to face the financial consequences.

While only two of the dozen police officers live in Orono, Guignard said the reason is because “They can’t even afford to live in town.”

“They’re going to make it so they can’t stay there,” he said of the officials negotiating for the town and the officers working in it.

Harland Leavitt, steward for Local 48, agreed with Guignard, saying that officers were less than pleased with the health issue and “not real happy with the figures on the pay increase.”

Locke declined comment on the matter Sunday, saying he preferred to wait for the outcome of the latest offer and a possible counter-offer.