AUGUSTA, Maine – The Maine House and Senate overwhelmingly voted to support the safe staffing bill in support of direct care workers at Riverview and Dorothea Dix state mental health facilities. AFSCME Council 93 thanks state legislators for their overwhelming, bipartisan support.

The legislators voted 116-25 in the House and 34-1 in the Senate to override Governor LePage's veto of legislation that provides these workers with a well-deserved $2.00 per hour pay increase. This addresses the serious issues of understaffing and mandatory overtime to ensure worker safety and high quality patient care.

This bill and override vote were successful thanks to the many AFSCME members who lobbied their legislators over the past several months and came to the State House on Friday to make sure the bill passed. L.D. 1645 will improve quality of care for patients at state psychiatric centers by ensuring recruitment and retention of mental health workers at Riverview and Dorothea Dix psychiatric centers.

Council 93 also thanks Republican State Senator Roger Katz, who filed the original legislation.

AFSCME members fueled our campaign to reach out to Maine legislators through emails, letters and phone calls. On Friday, April 29, members gathered at the Maine State House to show their support and remind legislators of the immediate need for a $2 per hour pay increase to fix the chronic understaffing problem at state mental health facilities.

The pay increase will improve the lives of these dedicated workers and help to attract and retain high quality mental health workers in the future. Better wages and benefits will help to fill nearly 50 positions that remain unfilled at Riverview.

AFSCME members at the Maine State House on April 29.
(Jim Durkin/AFSCME Council 93)

Laura Fisher, president of AFSCME Local 1814 and mental health worker at Riverview, wrote an op-ed that highlights the benefits of increasing wages paid to mental health workers and reducing the use of mandatory overtime. Mental health workers in Maine worked 23,000 hours of overtime in 2015.

This bill will also help those who most need it: Maine's most acutely ill patients.

Thank you for your solidarity. Our victory would not have been possible without it, and it means so much to the AFSCME members in Maine who care for the patients who need our help the most.