BREWER, Maine — Emery Deabay, secretary of the United Steelworkers of Maine Local 1188, said Labor Day is typically a day for workers to rest, but in today’s economic climate, there is no resting.
Deabay, who works at Verso Paper in Bucksport, spoke at the Eastern Maine Labor Council’s annual Labor Day celebration, which also included speeches by gubernatorial candidate Libby Mitchell and U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud.
“Labor Day, historically, it’s a day we get to lay down our tools and enjoy a day of rest … but our tools don’t work,” Deabay said.
“We need trade agreements that even the playing field,” he said later. “We need to export, not export jobs. We need the TRADE Act.”
Deabay was talking about Michaud’s Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act, which has been dubbed the TRADE Act.
The act “requires a review of existing trade agreements, and a renegotiation of four existing trade agreements based on that review,” Michaud’s congressional website states.
Trade agreements that would be reviewed include the North American Free Trade Agreement and other NAFTA-style deals.
“Over 40 percent of our manufacturing base [in Maine] has gone since NAFTA,” Michaud said when he took the podium.
Michaud spoke about the TRADE Act and the need for an economic recovery package that puts people back to work. He thanked military veterans for their service and spent a good amount of time talking about how the Obama administration has increased funding for Veterans Affairs and made it easier for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange to get health care benefits.
Scott Cuddy, an IBEW Local 1253 member who works at United Electrical Systems, introduced Mitchell and said she, unlike the other candidates for governor, has been working in the Legislature for a decade to improve life for Mainers.
Mitchell started out her speech by saying that one of her favorite bumper stickers, which was stuck to one of her son’s Jeeps, states “If you’re enjoying this weekend — thank a labor union.”
Labor unions are responsible for safe working conditions, child labor laws and eight-hour workdays, she said.
She, like many other mothers in Maine, said she was powerless as she watched her children leave the state as young adults and is proud to say “all four have been able to come back to the state of Maine to work.”
There is hope, she said, adding that she knows Maine has a long and tough road ahead to recover from today’s hard economic times.
“Everyone is angry, their jobs are at risk, and we’re worried about benefits,” she said.
Getting people back to work will create positive change, Mitchell said.
“For the past decade we’ve been working for Maine,” she said. “We want fair trade, sustainable agriculture and health care for everyone.”
Eastern Maine Labor Council and Food AND Medicine were hosts for the annual gathering at the Solidarity Center. The event included dinner, folk music provided by Grammy-nominated performer Bill Morrissey of New Hampshire, and the first-ever Farmer Labor Art Show.
Thirty percent of the proceeds from the art show benefit the Solidarity Harvest, which provides a Thanksgiving Day meal to laid-off workers and others in need, and a community greenhouse that is under construction at the union house.
“I’m still working, but I have” a brother, a cousin and friends who have recently lost jobs because of foreign trade, Deabay said.
Even on Labor Day — the day set aside for U.S. workers — the fight to maintain and build jobs must continue, he said.