Council 93 Wins Retirement Reform for Maine Mental Health Workers

Augusta, ME- This week, Maine Governor Janet Mills, as part of the state budget, signed into law long sought retirement reforms for workers at Maine’s state mental health facilities. Thanks to the dedicated advocacy of AFSCME Council 93 and Locals 1814 and 1825, nearly 80 Maine State Mental Health workers at the Dorothea Dix and Riverview State Mental Health Centers will have their retirement reclassified to recognize the dangerous nature of the work they do. This legislation allows the current workforce to retire with dignity and aims to address staffing, recruitment, and retention issues that have put both workers and patients at these critical facilities in danger. 

After a years long multipronged campaign to address the far too common instances of assaults on workers, the retirement reform legislation will go into effect this Fall. 

These reforms, which will greatly improve the lives and safety of dozens of Maine State workers, would not have been possible without the help of our labor and elected allies. The Maine AFL-CIO had made the bill (LD579) a priority for this legislative session providing testimony, lobbying, and resources in support of passing the reforms this year. Meanwhile, lead sponsors Senators Mike Tipping and Dick Bradstreet, along with Senate President Mattie Daughtry and Speaker Ryan Fecteau, were instrumental in bringing this issue to the forefront and advocating for change to the retirement system for State Mental Health Workers. We also want to thanks former Senate President, and current gubernatorial candidate, Troy Jackson who filed the legislation in the previous two sessions and helped us make important incremental progress paving the way toward our victory this year.  

With its passage, AFSCME and Maine State Employee Association Mental Health workers will be in the same state retirement plan as firefighters, law enforcement, and corrections officers allowing these workers to retire at age 55 with 25 years of service. This reclassification recognizes the dangerous nature of the work done by these dedicated state employees. 

As part of the retirement reform campaign, Council 93 pushed for an investigation by the Maine Legislature’s Joint Committee on Government Oversight into the working conditions at both Riverview and Dorothea Dix. In the fall of 2023, the committee voted unanimously to direct the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA) to launch an in-depth, independent investigation. The preliminary report released in February validated years of worker complaints, revealing a workplace rife with preventable violence and inadequate safety measures. A survey of psychiatric center workers conducted by OPEGA found that less than half of Riverview staff and 60 percent of Dorothea Dix staff said they usually or always feel safe at work.

Workers at Riverview work with some of the most acutely mentally ill patients in the state, including those whom courts have deemed at imminent risk of harm to themselves or others, are unable to care from themselves, are incompetent to stand trial, and not criminally responsible by reason of mental illness. Unlike corrections workers, these mental health workers do not use handcuffs, tasers or pepper spray to handle patients in crisis because it is a health care setting.

The sustained effort of AFSCME Council 93 and the leaders and members of Locals 1814 and 1825 highlight our unions commitment to not only securing improved retirement benefits, but also to achieving systemic change that ensures dignity, safety, and justice for the workers who care for Maine’s most vulnerable residents.