UMaine Union Alleges Unjust Termination of 37-year Employee with ‘unblemished’ Record

A University of Maine employee who worked at the school for nearly four decades with a “completely unblemished” record was fired in October 2022 based on hearsay allegations of harassment against two other UMaine employees, a termination which the University’s labor union challenged as unjustified and biased.

The University of Maine Professional Staff Association (UMPSA), backed by the Maine Education Association (MEA) and the National Education Association (NEA), filed a post-arbitration brief asserting that the University of Maine wrongfully terminated Amos Cline, a research laboratory specialist who worked at the University for 37 years.

The 65-page brief, dated April 26, 2024, argues that Cline was dismissed without “just cause” and calls for his reinstatement with full back pay and benefits dating back to his termination in October 2022.

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The labor union claims that during arbitration, the University did not dispute that prior to the complaint that led to Cline’s termination, the longtime employee had a “completely unblemished” record, and the University did not produce any documentation of any prior complaints or discipline against him.

The sequence of events that resulted in Cline’s firing began in late September 2022, when Cline was placed on leave following a letter notifying him of a complaint.

Just three days later, the union said, Cline was subjected to a fact-finding hearing where he was “peppered with questions,” many of which the union described as “misleading or foundationally false.”

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Shortly after this meeting, Cline was terminated.

The complaint against Cline stemmed from inappropriate comments he was alleged to have made during just three conversations with two other University employees, Geneva York and Jessica Hayden, with one of the conversations in question happening three years prior to the initiation of the complaint.

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Neither York nor Hayden, the two complainants, were called as witnesses to the arbitration—making the University’s case almost entirely dependent upon second-hand testimony, which the union described as hearsay allegations against Cline.

One of the alleged incidents, according to the union brief, occurred in August 2019, and Cline is alleged to have made inappropriate comments during a conversation he had with Geneva York.

It was alleged by the University that during the conversation, Cline asked York if she has children, and stated that he “doesn’t allow his wife to work outside of the home because a woman’s purpose is to take care of him and take care of the children.”

The union dismissed this alleged comment as “preposterous” and provably false, as Cline’s wife has had a career working outside of the home for 40 years as a nurse at a Maine hospital.

It was also alleged that the conversation moved into the topic of race, and that Cline admitted to York that he had a racial bias.

According to UMPSA, Cline testified that it was York who brought up the topic of race, when she told Cline that she gets along with everyone unless they are “sexist, racist, prejudiced.”

Cline testified that he told York he was “prejudiced,” and that everyone has various prejudices, which the union argued was an articulation of the concept of “implicit bias,” a principle central to UMaine’s own racial equity and diversity training.

The second conversation at issue was alleged to have occurred between Cline and Jessica Hayden in August 2022, when Cline reportedly visited Hayden’s office to pick up a piece of lab equipment.

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Cline was alleged to have “made comments” that he “blames Jews and Nazis for problems” — an allegation that was adamantly denied by Cline, and about which the union said the University offered no context or further details.

It was also alleged that Cline, in response to hearing Hayden’s background and interests, said, “I think I’m in love.”

The union argued that Cline made the “offhand remark” as an expression of admiration, and that it was not meant to be taken literally and therefore did not constitute harassment of any kind.

University employees testified at arbitration that it was after this interaction that Hayden complained about Cline, and a UMaine administrator, Jennifer Baker, sent an email to Cline about the onboarding of Hayden, who at the time was a new hire at a DNA sequencing lab.

The email, which was used as a key piece of evidence by the University to justify firing Cline, directed Cline to “hold off” on repairs at Hayden’s lab until further notice, but did not mention any complaints against him.

The University claimed that this email was a directive for Cline to avoid contact with Hayden, something Cline was never explicitly told. The union asserted that Cline followed the instructions in the email as written and was misled to his detriment.

Cline testified that he followed the directive as it was written in the email, and said that he would have stayed away from Hayden or York if he had been directed to do so, as he in fact did when he was put on leave a month later.

The union argued that whether or not the content of the conversations between Cline and the two other University employees were appropriate, or whether they could be perceived as offensive, they still would not meet the “just cause” standard for his immediate termination.

Cline’s alleged comments were characterized by the union as “mild faux pas that may have been better left unsaid.”

Typically, conduct that warrants immediate termination in the absence of any prior disciplinary record are on the level of criminal offenses, such as violent assault, weapon possession, or threatening conduct, the union argued.

Even if true, the allegations failed to meet the standard of “severe of pervasive” harassment, and due to the lack of any previous discipline would have warranted an oral or written reprimand instead of termination, according to the union.

UMPSA also alleged that the process by which the University fired Cline was “profoundly deficient from the start,” on both procedural grounds and because, in their opinion, the University failed to meet the “just cause” standard for Cline’s termination.

Peter Avis, who at the time of the complaint was the director of Umaine’s Coordinated Operating Research Entities (CORE), was identified by the labor union as the person who made the decision to fire Cline. According to UMPSA, Avis was “actively pushing for [Cline’s] ouster” from the University as soon as he had heard of the complaint.

Avis, according to the union, was “completely unfit” as a purportedly neutral decisionmaker in Cline’s termination, as nearly a month before the fact-finding meeting, and before he or anyone else had informed Cline of any complaint against him, Avis filed a report with the University’s Equal Opportunity Office stating that he wanted Cline to be “no longer associated and employed by the University in any capacity.”

UMPSA stated that Avis admitted under cross examination that he came into the fact-finding hearing with a “less than objective” mindset, after previously indicating in his report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Office nearly a month earlier that he wanted Cline fired.

Offering an explanation as to why Avis wanted Cline terminated, the labor union claimed that Avis was inexperienced, as he sent his report to the Equal Opportunity Office on just his third day on the job as director of CORE.

Amie Parker, Director of UMaine’s Equal Opportunity Office, reportedly testified during arbitration that “Peter Avis was concerned that someone might perceive us as not following zero tolerance.”

“The decisionmaker [Avis] was not worried about hearing both sides of the story, fairness, or impartiality; instead he was worried about the perception of others and that they might believe that he and other University staff were not being tough enough in response to certain accusations,” UMPSA wrote in their brief.

After being fired by UMaine, Cline launched a GoFundMe page in hopes to raise money to initiate federal litigation against the University for what he claims was a prejudiced and malicious violation of his rights.

“I must admit that I had never felt discriminated against until the day the University of Maine terminated my employment as an engineer after 37 years in service,” Cline wrote on the fundraiser page.

“There is overwhelming evidence in testimony of collusion, lies, prejudice and malice by the leadership of the University which led to my termination, though it was agreed upon that there was no fellow employee harassment on my part,” Cline wrote.

“Every dollar donated toward my defense is a vote against the discriminatory administrators and the leadership that they have put in place,” he added. “Money left over or gained from this action against the University of Maine I hope to use mostly for research.”

In a Tuesday statement to the Maine Wire, a UMaine spokesperson said that due to the University of Maine System’s policies they cannot comment on personnel matters.