Prior to September 30, 2005, the 350+ State employees covered by the Law Enforcement
Bargaining Unit (LEBU)contract were represented by a nationally affiliated Maine
employees union.  The LEBU made up only a fraction of the total membership of that union
and members found that it was difficult to have their labor voice heard.

In the summer of 2005, a small group of State officers subject to the LEBU contract
embarked on a mission to decertify the LEBU from their mammoth union and create a new
labor association. Under the regulatory oversight of the Maine Labor Relations Board the
decertification process gave the some three hundred and fifty State officers, who are
representative of eleven agency groups, the opportunity to set their own labor destiny.

The decertification ballot counting on September 30, 2005, demonstrated the
overwhelming desire of LEBU members to be set free and to establish their own course of
labor relations with their Maine State government employer.  Over two thirds of eligible
voters elected to decertify the State employees union and to be represented instead by what
was being called the” Maine State Law Enforcement Association”.

The MSLEA was simply a name and a rallying concept during the decertification process
as no actual formal labor union existed.  The decertification leaders had secured
commitments from the most highly recognized police labor law firm in Maine and the
business agent who represented the Maine State Troopers Association to act on behalf of a
MSLEA if the decertification was successful.  The LEBU membership was inspired by the
idea of having ownership in every way of their labor present and future.  They voted in
mass and said with a clear voice that it was time to assume the duties of managing their
labor destiny.

Upon being declared the new LEBU labor agent on September 30th the decertification
leadership arranged for all interested LEBU members to meet at the Maine Criminal Justice
Academy in Vassalboro on October 9, 2005, to elect into office leadership of Maine’s
newest police union.  Within a month, that leadership had secured a new contract with the
State and forged extraordinarily positive relations with State labor bureaucrats.

By the time the first MSLEA open membership enrollment closed on January 6, 2006 over
320 pledged members had been recorded.  The MSLEA leadership had also secured an
income protection insurance plan for members, had opened new doors on past unresolved
grievances, established a State wide steward program, and delivered on a sound foundation
for the MSLEA future.

The establishment of this permanent Web Site begins the platform by which all primary
communications will be made among the MSLEA membership; a membership that is
spread from Kittery to Caribou, Eastport to Rangley and all points in between.

The MSLEA at this writing is poised to continue what will be generations of Maine State
law enforcers steering the course of their labor relations based on foundations of
professionalism, honor and integrity.
About the Maine State Law Enforcement Association
Maine State Law Enforcement Association
President, Michael Pinkham                                                                                  Vice President, Tamson Ross