AUGUSTA -- The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that pits 20 state workers against the Maine State Employees Association and the state of Maine.

The workers sued the union and state in 2005 over a provision in the union contract that required all state workers to join MSEA or pay a portion of union dues to cover costs related to collective bargaining.

The workers, represented in court by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, want the Supreme Court to rule on whether the union can use a portion of the workers' dues to pay for lawsuits that don't directly involve their workplace.

"The union can collect some dues," said Stefan Gleason, vice president for the legal defense foundation, which is based in Virginia. "The question is what dues, how much."

The union believes it can send a portion of those dues to its national affiliate, the Service Employees International Union, if the lawsuits are related to collective bargaining.

MSEA Executive Director Tim Belcher, who attended the court hearing in Washington, D.C., said "it was a good, lively discussion."

"The reality is this case is about a hyper-technical, small part of the agency fee amounts," he said. "I don't expect it's going to have a large impact on Maine one way or the other."

Dan Locke, a hydrogeologist with the state Department of Conservation, is the named plaintiff in the case, Locke v. Karass. He, too, attended the hearing, saying he's "cautiously optimistic" about how the court will rule.

"I'm opposed to these forced union fees," he said. "I'm still in the same place I was in 2005."

In a decision from August 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the union could use the dues for those types of expenses.

"Litigation conducted by national unions frequently establishes precedent" that benefits local unions even if they aren't named in the suit, wrote Circuit Court Judge Sandra Lynch.

Lynch also wrote that, based on the fee structure put in place by MSEA, the amount in question "is less than 30 cents per month" for most nonunion workers who are paying the dues.

Full union members pay weekly dues of $9.35 and workers who have not joined the union pay $4.65 a week.

MSEA President Bruce Hodsdon said previous court rulings have supported the actions taken by the union.

"Overall, as far as the fees, we've been very careful and conservative in calculating them," he said.

Belcher said the union followed all the rules currently in place for calculating the fee and deciding what are allowable expenses.

The court began its new term on Monday. Gleason said he expects it to render a decision in this case by the end of the year or early next year.

The union represents about 15,000 public and private sector workers.

Susan Cover -- 620-7015

scover@centralmaine.com