By Ben Lucas
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21 Jul, 2021
Letter #1 Governor Janet Mills 1 State House Station Augusta, Maine 04333 RE: LD 553 Dear Governor Mills, Surely, you must agree that the passage of LD 553 would create a mountain of problems where only a few now exist. This legislation would only benefit the litigation attorneys and further widen the perceived mistrust between employees and employers. This is exactly the kind of legislation that undermines cooperation in the workplace and causes investors to look elsewhere to establish employment opportunities. It is known by all how difficult it is to attract and retain employees these days. My company, The Sheridan Corporation, currently employs about 100 people. We have successfully been doing business in Maine since 1947. We have invested heavily in efforts to recruit, train, and provide career opportunities for our employees. Like most employers, we recognize that retaining employees is critical to our companies’ lives and success. LD 553 implies that employers look upon their employees like Ebenezer Scrooge looked upon Bob Cratchit…we are no longer in the 19th Century and this LD 553 only creates a costly system that is retro to today’s society. LD 553 benefits only the litigation attorney brotherhood. Further, it is legislation like this that reinforces the conspiracists who would point to such laws as evidence that democracy is being tossed aside and our nation is becoming a socialist/communist country. Small businesses make up the majority of businesses in Maine and the Nation. Employers in small businesses are usually also the investors in the businesses. LD 553 would add the potential cost of legal fees for the small business investor and remove the ability of an employer to effectively manage his or her company. There is no reason for LD 553 to become a law in Maine. Please do not support this terrible piece of legislation. Respectfully, Mitchell P. Sammons President Letter #2 Governor Janet Mills 1 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333 Re: Opposition to LD 553, “An Act to End At-will Employment” Dear Governor Mills: I’m writing today to express my opposition of LD 553 has proposed by the Maine Legislature. Lucas Tree Experts, a Maine based corporation, has been in existence for 95 years providing vegetation management services to electric utilities owned by investors, cooperatives, and governments in ten U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. We have celebrated our longevity because of our employees, our sense of family culture and our commitment to the safety of all our team members while being nimble and adapting to changing economic conditions. The employee and employer relationship are built on a system of symmetry and competition. Employees will flock to businesses that provide merit advancement based on skills, licenses and/or certifications, a career path that rewards hard work and not entitlement, a corporate culture that changes with individual perspectives and a business that provides job security. Employees can quit poor run companies, request hire pay based on skills and not tenure, and demand change and adaption to cultural norms. Why should businesses (who are a just many employees acting together) not have the ability to adjust their workforce size based on economic conditions, seasonal demand, acts of god, or poor work ethics by individuals? Lucas Tree Experts, like many organizations, already has a progressive discipline policy, but we also have zero tolerance for failure to follow safety standards that may put the employee or their colleagues at risk. LD 553 assumes that all employees are a good cultural fit with the business, believe in the mission statement, adhere to the training provided, and respect their fellow colleagues when the reality is some individual’s attitudes or work habits are not aligned with the rest of the organization. At-will employment allows employees to choose their career paths by creating competition by businesses to offer competitive wages and benefits to attract and retain the best employees. LD 553 solves none of this. It is clearly written by lawyers for lawyers continuing the trend of an adversarial employee and employer relationship built on litigation. This bill will increase the cost of doing business in Maine, impact capital investment by entrepreneurs, an continue the trend of Maine being a high-cost business environment, out of touch with today’s changing business climate. Individual bills, like LD 553, continue to be the root cause of Maine’s inability to create a long term comprehensive strategic plan to grow our economy. It is time, as Governor you propose limiting the number of bills being introduced by the Maine Legislature so only the best non- partisan ideas are being debated and implemented. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss further. Respectfully, Arthur Batson III Chief Financial Officer Letter #3 Governor Janet Mills 1 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333 Dear Governor Mills: My name is Mark Bancroft. I am a lifelong Maine resident and the President and Owner of Bancroft Contracting Corporation. I write to you now in opposition to LD 553, An Act to End At-Will Employment. Bancroft Contracting Corporation is a 2nd generation owned and operating self-performing general contracting company headquartered in South Paris. My father, Al Bancroft, founded Bancroft Contracting in 1977, and I continued in his legacy by purchasing the company in 2004. Today Bancroft Contracting Corporation provides a comprehensive range of construction and industrial maintenance services to a variety of private markets, including the pulp and paper industry, manufacturers, power generating companies, and other industrial and commercial customers within Maine and across New England. On average we employ 180 construction professionals, approximately 175 of which are Maine residents. Our workforce consists of experienced craftspersons who choose to work in a merit shop environment. Despite the diversity of our markets and the flexibility of our workforce, private construction in New England remains seasonal, schedules are project dependent, and even then jobs can be temporarily halted by virtue of uncontrolled events such as permitting delays, financing issues, or a myriad of other, similar causes. All of our employees understand the nature of their chosen profession. The majority of our most senior and skilled craftsmen and women began in entry-level positions in full understanding of the seasonal nature of their employment. Each has earned the right to work through commitment, hard work, and training. For some ending at-will employment would reduce the incentive to commit to personal improvement, to train and develop one’s skills to avoid layoff. At the company level it would cause us to move slowly through hiring decisions, possibly limiting but certainly delaying the availability of construction positions, as our ability to manage through improper fit, natural seasonality, and work slowdowns would directly undercut our ability to compete with our out-of-state competitors. Moreover, LD 553 does not make clear what options are available to employers when work is temporarily halted. Is the employer then forced to stumble through a 3-step progressive disciplinary process prior to a short-term layoff? There is no doubt that this would encourage witch-hunts and discourage employer-employee relations. Similarly, much of our business is derived from our customer’s capital investments. As it stands, Maine already lags behind New Hampshire and our other New England neighbors in annual private sector capital investment. The country is in the eleventh hour in battling a pandemic that has crippled economies. In Maine, key employers in manufacturing and pulp and paper are continuing their steady decline in investment and employment figures. Now is not the time to radically upend the employment model that Maine and 48 other states have utilized. The move to end at-will employment will push capital investment and growth elsewhere. Our customers are already transitioning resources to more business friendly states. LD 553, should it come to pass, will certainly compel companies to stymie hiring possibilities, but more likely and more tragically it will represent for many the final straw that sees them relocate operations out of state. In the end, the negative impacts of lost capital investment will be felt by all Mainers, but as is always the case it will be experienced most acutely by those working men and women who are now without good jobs or competitive prospects. I encourage the Governor’s Office to take a fresh look at job creation in this state by working with the legislature to investigate how we can better educate, train, attract and retain the modern workforce, as well as reassessing how the combination of infrastructure improvements, streamlined regulations, and a simplified tax code can collectively provide Maine with a systematic competitive edge. That is Maine’s path to sustainable economic growth. We cannot allow ourselves to get lost in a quagmire pursuing legislative bogeymen where none exist or to leadenly reject an employment model which is not at fault or at issue. I urge you to resist the misguided call to end at-will employment and reject LD 553.
Sincerely yours, Mark Bancroft, President and Owner Bancroft Contracting Corporation Letter #4 OPPOSITION to LO 553, "An Act to end at-will employment'' Dear Governor Mills, My name is Timothy Hebert, I live in Yarmouth and grew up in Lewiston. I own two major Maine based companies; Hebert Construction and STARC Systems. Hebert Construction is a 4th generation family owned and operated business employing SO people and STRAC Systems is an innovative manufacturing company of modular telescopic wall systems for healthcare construction containment sold around the world, STARC employs 80+ people and growing, 72 of our employees are Maine residents. Nothing in life worth striving for comes easy, you must work for it. That is what my father and grandfather taught me, it is also what I am teaching my two sons. Maine has been a special place for my family over many generations and we are proud to continue to grow our companies here. LD 553 will change our core values and influence where my companies stake our flag. Construction and manufacturing require innovation to remain on top and hard-working dedicated people who care about the products they are producing. Maine employees have traditionally been all about hard work and dedication to a common goal. My companies strive to provide competitive benefits and strong wages that are reviewed each and every year. We employ, in some cases, multiple members of a family and we think of our employees as an extension of our family. If our companies cannot compete with out-of-state firms due to the economic pressures within the State of Maine, we will be forced to shut our doors or relocate to survive. At Hebert Construction, we are actively trying to hire people in every division of the company, from laborers, carpenter and supervisors to operations manager and estimators. Passing a bill like LD 553 would force our company to pump the brakes on hiring and try to weather the influx of work so as to keep employment low to survive the downturn when it hits us. We pride ourselves as employers of keeping everyone employed during good and bad times. We think of our employees as an extension of our family and ensure they and their families are taken care of especially in tough times. Imposing an increase cost on our business would not create any jobs it would in fact reduce the motivation to hire and train our workforce. Foundational jobs are the lifeblood of our economy. I encourage our law makers to take a more comprehensive look at how taxes and regulations impact our ability to compete. Maine needs to develop a long-term strategic plan that encourages employers to hire and train our workforce. In order to provide higher paying jobs the people applying for those jobs require skill, dedication and an aptitude for continued growth. A Bill like LD 553 discourages job growth and has the potential to cripple current businesses as well as restrict new business development, innovation and growth.