BAR HARBOR – Employees at The Jackson Laboratory are trying to organize a union because they say working conditions are declining at the renowned research facility and the company hasn’t kept its promise to increase wages to competitive levels.

The organizing effort, the first since 1978, follows a string of events earlier this year that upset and discouraged workers, including an increase in their work week and the elimination of traditional morning and afternoon breaks, Charles Farley, a spokesman for the employees trying to unionize, said in a recent interview.

Farley, who spoke cautiously about the effort, said the employees have not set any timeline for organizing, which has been going on for three months. The effort is being led by an organizing group, about which Farley would not comment.

The organizers have been holding meetings and talking to employees. Farley said they would only seek a vote from the full work force when they are sure they have enough votes to win.

He declined to say how many employees are supporting the organizing effort.

Farley said some employees are convinced that lab managers aren’t interested in their opinions or in getting their input in making changes at the lab. The apparent lack of respect for employees was the most compelling reason why some of them are hoping to join the Service Employees International Union, he said.

“Obviously, we have a tough job, and when changes are made, we want an opportunity to be heard, since we are the ones so affected by the changes,” the organizer said. “We would like to be part of the process, and we think that is a very legitimate thing to do. That is big sticking point with us.”

Joanne Harris, director of employee relations at The Jackson Laboratory, said Monday that lab management is aware of the union organizing efforts, but they have not been notified formally of the effort.

“But that does not matter,” Harris said. “We are very concerned, and we are taking it very seriously.”

Harris acknowledged that management has “made some mistakes,” including failing to effectively communicate with the lab’s 1,200 workers. She said the lab has stumbled recently in addressing employee concerns and in following through with a new employee pay and evaluation system.

She said lab management is concerned about working conditions that are causing some employees distress, adding that any shortcomings by management have been unintentional as the lab grapples with unprecedented growth and change.

“But it’s not just growing pains [that have led to problems]. We’ve really missed some opportunities to communicate. We’ve really made some mistakes,” Harris said.

She said management is trying new approaches to resolve problems at the lab. The administration thinks a union would hurt the lab’s ability to carry out its mission and would cause a rift between employees – even some from the same family that might be on opposite sides of the issue.

“That’s hard to hear. That’s hard to see,” she said of the potential divisiveness.

There are 400 different job titles at The Jackson Laboratory. Harris could not readily provide pay ranges for the positions because of a computer glitch, but the entry-level pay for an animal technician, one of the most common jobs at the lab, is $10.25 an hour.

Harris confirmed that the lab told employees there would be pay raises every six months for two years, beginning last October, in order to boost salaries to competitive levels with other research facilities in the nation. The pay plan followed a consultant’s study last year which concluded that some lab employees are significantly underpaid when compared to their counterparts at other labs.

Harris said The Jackson Laboratory fell behind in wages because it based salaries on a regional pay survey. Since there are no other medical research labs like Jackson in the greater Bangor area, the lab used other jobs with similar education and skill requirements.

Under the pay plan, employees received raises last October which totaled $2.83 million a year, with all but $300,000 of the money used to move employees’ pay closer to where the consultant’s report said it should be, Harris said.

Employees were expecting the second installment of raises in April, but most employees were not evaluated for their performance in time for the April round of raises because the lab did not train many of the supervisors who were responsible for conducting the evaluations.

The lab also budgeted only $300,000 for the April raises, which was not enough to boost salaries as much as they had hoped, Harris said.

In the end, management decided to use last October’s evaluations as the basis for the April raises, and therefore many employees lost out on the latest round, Harris said.

Evaluations will be completed in time for everyone to be considered for a raise in October, she said, while acknowledging that many employees were upset about the delay.

She said the lab will hand out more raises in October and hopes to be at the new pay levels by next April.

Under the new plan, however, some employees are already earning the top amount for their position, based on their performance, so they would not get any new raises until the labor market forces up wages in the future, Harris said.

About half of the Jackson employees are hourly, and half of those are animal technicians who help care for the millions of mice that are bred, developed and housed in so-called “animal rooms” before being shipped around the world to other researchers and labs.

According to Farley, spokesman for the employees, the lab also eliminated workers’ two paid breaks, which allowed the employees to get out of their protective gear and go outside for fresh air and socializing in the morning and afternoon.

That change further upset employees, who he said were not consulted before the change was imposed.

Harris admitted the new break policy has caused further problems with employee relations. As of Monday, the morning out-of-room break was restored, while the afternoon break will continue to be in-room.

Other changes were made in the working conditions that have not upset employees: The lab now pays workers for their half-hour lunch breaks and honored their desire that the workday for hourly employees start at 7:30 a.m. and end at 3:30 p.m.