AUGUSTA, Maine — Lawmakers gave final approval Friday to a bill scrapping a 2004 law that prompted Irving Woodlands LLC to halt operations on its land throughout northern Maine.
The Senate voted 27-5 to repeal the law that allowed independent contractors working for Irving to enter into collective bargaining.
But before the vote, Sen. Troy Jackson, an Allagash Democrat who led the fight to pass the collective bargaining bill, gave an emotional floor speech that underscored the ongoing tensions over the issue.
“I never thought back then … that I’d be back in the Senate trying to get rid of [the law],” said Jackson, a logger. “It’s unfortunate. But I guess it illustrates the problems we still have.”
The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. John Baldacci, who had sought the repeal after attempting to negotiate among the various sides.
“We appreciate the governor’s leadership in leveling the playing field to provide one law that applies fairly to all landowners,” Irving spokeswoman Mary Keith said in a statement.
The company already has begun recalling workers and expects to have more than 100 staff and woods workers employed within the week, she said.
For nearly two weeks, hundreds of woods workers from northern Maine have been caught in the middle of what was described as a political “game of chicken” between lawmakers in Augusta and New Brunswick-based Irving.
Earlier this month, Irving laid off 80 workers and warned that as many as 300 ultimately could lose their employment unless the state repealed the law singling out the company.
Irving, which owns 1.2 million acres of forestland in Maine, said the law put the company at a competitive disadvantage and called on the state to level the playing field.
Jackson and the 2004 law’s co-sponsor, Rep. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, bristled at Irving’s work stoppage and accused the company of attempting to blackmail the state.
The law was intended to ensure that independent logging contractors received fair pay in labor markets where Irving held a virtual monopoly. No one ever invoked the law to force collective bargaining with the company, however, and lawmakers suspended the statute last year at Irving’s request after the collapse of the forest products market.
Jackson, who said he was elected to the Legislature in part to address local woods workers’ concerns, said lawmakers agreed to suspend the law last year only after Irving warned that it otherwise might have to shut down the Pinkham Saw Mill near Ashland.
“We suspended it for a year because times were tough,” Jackson said. “Lo and behold, that mill is gone now. It was closed anyway.”
Martin and Jackson agreed to sponsor the repeal legislation after a group of contractors desperate to return to work voted in support of the repeal. Both men said they heard from numerous loggers who just wanted to go back to work but also from others who urged the state to hold its ground.
The bill does contain language stating that the Maine Department of Labor will enforce more aggressively the laws regarding use of foreign laborers when Maine loggers are unavailable. The bill also triples the fine for violations of the rules requiring that foreign workers use logging equipment owned by their employer when in Maine.
During his speech, Jackson read a letter from an unnamed contractor who said he and his colleagues reluctantly voted to repeal the law. But the contractor wrote that he hopes the company will see the contractors’ actions as a show of goodwill and will respond accordingly.
Ultimately, Jackson cast his vote against the bill, but not before taking one last shot at Irving.
“I guess I’ll just sit down now and will let the boss man have what he wants,” Jackson said at the end of his speech.
With more than 500 employees, Irving is one of the largest employers in northern Maine. It is also a major contributor to forestry research at the University of Maine. Irving representatives also point out that their investments in training for employees and contractors resulted in a 29 percent increase in harvester earnings since 2004.