The Job At Hand

 

Statement from the Governor's Office on Mural Relocation

Monday, March 28, 2011 at 10:58am
Mural Statement

March 28, 2011

Governor's Office

"The mural has been removed and is in storage awaiting relocation to a more appropriate venue. Workers and employers need to work together to create opportunity for Maine's 50,000 unemployed. We understand that not everyone agrees with this decision, but the Maine Department of Labor has to be focused on the job at hand."

Adrienne Bennett, Press Secretary to Governor Paul LePage

Every voter in the state of Maine is aware that Governor LePage relied heavily on his Franco-American Heritage in the last election. Those who voted for him and the majority who did not also must know that he got where he is through hard work, by battling adversity, and a heavy dose of self reliance. We all also realize that Governor LePage is strongly anti-union and anti-labor. That is how he interprets his "pro-business" stance. It is on this point, however, that a strong dissonance between the Governor's heritage and his economic position comes into focus, for among the historic landmarks depicted on those murals were scenes of the great shoe strike of 1937.

When the CIO organized the mill workers of Massachusetts, the mill owners moved operations to more "business friendly" Maine, which had a large and growing untapped and unskilled workforce heavily endowed with Canadian French who had fled here from the depleted soil of Quebec, answering mill owner ads for workers; men, women, boys and girls.

Down into the mills they went, working very long hours for very little pay; much less pay and much longer hours that their unionized brethren in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

The CIO tried to organize in Lewiston/Auburn but found the going extremely difficult. Workers had been forced to sign "yellow dog contracts' that made it a dismissible offense to unionize. When the federal government passed the Wagner Act that guaranteed the worker's a right to unionize, collectively bargain and to strike, all hell broke loose. For the next 95 days workers, most of French Canadian lineage, were punched, stoned, clubbed, tear gassed and locked out of the mills. In the end the mill owners formed their own company union for the workers, LASPA.

Things quieted down. Some workers were allowed back into the mills at slightly better wages and conditions granted by the mill owners out of fear of the CIO. However, in the collective memory of the Androscoggin Valley Franco American community, they had been beaten, beaten by the collective of "business friendly" greed, money and power.

We have come a long way in this state and nation since the Androscoggin violence of 1937, but our gains are now in jeopardy. A sign has been hung at the entrances to Maine declaring it to be "Open for Business". Well funded anti union movements are gaining momentum. Art work depicting our people's labor history has been ordered removed and hidden. Mill owners and other large businesses are reaping large and larger tax breaks paid for by workers and retirees while needed services to the payers are being taken away or seriously curtailed.

Governor LePage, if carrying these policies forward is what you meant by, the Maine Department of Labor has to be focused on the job at hand", have you no shame?