ALFRED — Teamsters Local 340 is facing a challenge from the National Correctional Employees Union to represent about 85 corrections staff at York County Jail.

Corrections workers have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2007. Workers rejected the county’s latest offer in a vote nearly two months ago.

The Teamsters have represented jail corrections workers since December 1981, said Maine Labor Relations Board Executive Director Marc Ayotte.

The NCEU filed a petition for a unit determination with the Maine Labor Relations Board last month.

NCEU President Mike Nessinger said corrections  workers were dissatisfied with representation by the Teamsters.

“We were contacted by York County Jail corrections group,” said Nessinger, in a telephone interview earlier this week. “We came up and collected signatures and filed a petition.”

Based in Massachusetts, NCEU represents about 700 workers in the bay state,      said Nessinger.

Nessinger seemed confident that the membership will choose NCEU.

“We needed 30 percent of the workers to sign,” he said of the number of petitioners needed to bring the matter of representation to a vote. “We had 50 percent.”

Ayotte said the estimated 85 employees will either vote to remain with the Teamsters, choose NCEU or choose not to have union representation. Ballots will be mailed out Aug. 18 and will be counted  by MLRB Sept. 1.

Nessinger said the Teamsters aren’t looking toward arbitration, but to settle the contract.

Teamsters business agent Sylvia Hebert disagreed.

In a telephone interview, Hebert said two contract offers have been rejected by the membership since the contract expired three years ago.

“We’re ready to go to binding arbitration,” said Hebert. “We’ve gone through mediation and fact-finding.”

She said wages weren’t as much of an issue as sick and vacation time.

The original offer from the county had a “pretty good” wage offer, she said, although the latest contract rejected by the membership contained a decrease in the original wage offer. But Hebert said the main issue seems to be the ability of workers to get vacation time.

Further action on the contract is suspended until the election determines which union will represent workers.

Hebert would not comment on the upcoming election that could mean the end for the Teamsters with the majority of corrections staff.

The Teamsters also represent the two-member captains unit, which is not included in the upcoming election. County Manager Richard Brown said the captains have settled their contract with the county.

Ayotte said actions to change representation number less than 10 annually from the hundreds of units that represent municipal, county and state workers.

— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.