State workers’ union ‘on the precipice’ of protests over LePage attacks

Source: BDN

AUGUSTA — The head of the state workers’ union said Wednesday that attacks against organized labor from Gov. Paul LePage and the Republican-controlled Legislature were pushing his membership to the brink of protests now unfolding in state houses in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana.

“We’re on the precipice,” Chris Quint, executive director of the Maine State Employees Association, said. “We get flooded with calls everyday from our members asking us when we’re going to take to the streets.”

The demonstrations raging in Wisconsin followed Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public workers and teachers. In Indiana and Ohio, unionized state workers are opposing “right-to-work” legislation that would prevent unions from requiring their members to pay dues.

So far, there are no proposals to eliminate collective bargaining rights in Maine, and a spokesman for LePage said Wednesday that the governor had no imminent plans to include such measures in his second phase of regulatory reform proposals.

Read more: http://new.bangordailynews.com/2011/02/24/politics/state-workers-union-on-the-precipice-of-protests-over-lepage-attacks/