PORTLAND, Maine — A leader of the nation’s largest union visited striking FairPoint Communications workers at their picket line Thursday morning, urging them to vote for Democrat Mike Michaud, a fellow union member and former paper millworker.
Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer for the AFL-CIO, stopped at a picket line early Thursday morning in Portland to visit with and speak to picketers before heading to Brewer to meet with workers there.
Speaking through a bullhorn, Shuler told striking FairPoint workers that she knows what they are going through, having previously worked for a company in Oregon that was bought out by Enron.
“Poor thing,” one union member shouted.
Shuler offered encouragement to the workers who are entering their seventh day on strike, leading many a poncho-clad union member through a chant of “one day longer, one day stronger” on the rainy and windswept morning. The company on Aug. 28 imposed work terms that included frozen pensions, a two-tier wage system that could pay new hires as low as minimum wage and a costlier health care plan.
Shuler said that the workers’ difficulties getting a contract are tied to the upcoming election. Republican Gov. Paul LePage has been a strong proponent of right-to-work laws that would eliminate the unions’ ability to collect mandatory fees from workers covered by its collective bargaining efforts.
Shuler urged the members to vote for Michaud.
“He is a union member and knows what it’s like, and he’s going to be out there and has your back,” Shuler said.