Despite rain that would not stop falling, more than 150 people came to Brewer on Monday evening for an annual Labor Day event honoring workers and labor unions.
Their dedication earned accolades from the event’s keynote speaker, Jose La Luz, a veteran labor organizer who in the 1990s led the push for Puerto Rico’s public employees to obtain collective bargaining rights.
“I have not seen a spirit of solidarity in many of the states where I have been working such as what I have been able to witness in Maine since I got here yesterday,” La Luz said during his speech, which he delivered underneath a tent.
“That means despite rain and all the odds and obstacles, you made a choice to be here, which tells me that [you are] men and women who make the choice to be active and the ones who turn the wheels of history. You are the ones who have built this movement of ours.”
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Numerous other labor organizers spoke at the event, which was co-hosted by the Bangor-area group Food AND Medicine and the Eastern Maine Labor Council, a collection of 35 or so unions representing about 5,200 workers.
It took place at a Brewer center that’s used by both organizations and where attendees ate a medley of hot dogs, burgers, salads, macaroni and cheese and other offerings. It was one of three such events organized on Monday by the Maine AFL-CIO, a federation of Maine unions.
Besides La Luz, the speakers included a number of Maine-based organizers who rallied for specific and more general causes.
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The emcee was Erin Oberson, vice president of the Eastern Maine Labor Council and a member of the Maine State Nurses Association. She urged attendees to send postcards to the CEO of Calais Regional Hospital, where local nurses has been locked in negotiations with the administration over a new contract.
Josh Kauppila, a staff member at Food AND Medicine, spoke out against proposed changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that he said would be harmful to poor families that depend on the program. He circulated forms opposing the change for attendees to sign.
Other speakers on the agenda included Cynthia Phinney, president of the Maine AFL-CIO; a member of the Bangor Education Association; Maine Senate President Troy Jackson; U.S. Rep. Jared Golden; and Laura Fortman, commissioner of the Maine Department of Labor.