Anti-labor contempt in Maine
By
AUGUSTA, Maine--More than 300 labor union members staged a protest in Maine's state capital on March 22 to oppose Gov. Paul LePage's anti-union "right to work" legislation and proposed budget cuts that would affect state workers.
Days later, in what appears to be retaliation, LePage ordered the removal of public mural that celebrates Maine's labor history.
The 36-foot mural, painted in 2008, is located in the lobby of the Department of Labor building. It features important moments for the labor movement, including a panel featuring Rosie the Riveter at the Bath Iron Works and a 1937 shoe mill strike in Lewiston-Auburn.
LePage spokesperson Adrienne Bennett, said the mural will be donated to the state museum or another "appropriate" venue. This reveals LePage's contempt for Maine's working people. Like Wisconsin's Gov. Scott Walker, LePage is in the process of reversing gains that workers in the state have fought hard to achieve.
Maine has a rich history of workers' struggles including a United Paperworkers' International Union strike against International Paper in 1987-88.
LePage, a newly elected Tea Party politicians, is disrespectful of that history, and has offended working people by his attempt to quash the memory of labor's resolve to fight back against attacks. He has also miscalculated the fight back that is gaining momentum with each statement coming from his mouth.
If ordering the removal of public art was not provocative enough, the governor has also ordered the removal of name plates on conference room doors that honor pro-labor leaders Cesar Chavez and others, including Frances Perkins, a Maine native who became the first woman to head a department of the federal government when she became secretary of labor under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The Portland Press Herald quoted Maine AFL-CIO President Don Berry as saying, "It's unfortunate that Governor LePage continues to pick fights with the working class in Maine. This is political payback, the opposite of putting people first. It's spiteful, mean-spirited move by the governor that does nothing to create jobs or improve the Maine economy."
The intent of Maine's governor to weaken unions and symbolically destroy the memory of labor victories by Maine workers through the removal of public art is deeply offensive and should not stand. This is about the fight to keep the knowledge of workers' history alive--and activists will be organizing in the coming days and weeks to ensure that the mural is not removed.
