Maine AFL-CIO Team Aroostook getting ready to talk with voters about labor endorsed candidates ahead of the 2022 election. (Courtesy of Maine AFL-CIO)
Joe Mailey, who is in his 11th year working for Bath Iron Works, remembers when Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden walked the picket line with him and his coworkers during a 2020 strike.
“It’s easy for politicians to say the right thing — Jared does the right thing,” Mailey said. “He’s a fierce advocate not just for our union, but for workers across the state. He’s had our backs, and now we’ve got his.”
That’s why he and other union members from Maine’s largest labor organization representing more than 200 local unions and 42,000 workers and retirees will be supporting Golden in his reelection bid for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
At a virtual press conference Tuesday, President Cynthia Phinney said delegates at the summer political convention for Maine AFL-CIO voted to endorse Golden because of his track record understanding and supporting Maine workers, dating back to his time in the Maine Legislature.
With that endorsement, union members will spend the remaining six weeks of the election working to send the congressman back to Washington for a fourth term as Tuesday’s event also launched Labor for Golden, a coalition of unions and workers.
Several other unions have already expressed their support for the incumbent. The Maine Service Employees Association, Local 1989 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents state workers, as well as the Maine Education Association are also backing Golden.
Phinney cited specific policies Golden has championed such as raising the federal minimum wage and creating a national paid family and medical leave program that would protect the state-level policy in Maine. She also mentioned Golden’s support of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act that preserves the right to form a union, which has repeatedly stalled in Congress.
Just this week, Golden signed a bipartisan letter asking President Joe Biden to delay a new European Union regulation that could have adverse effects on Maine’s forestry industry.
Republican state Rep. Austin Theriault, who is trying to unseat Golden, received a 0% rating in the 2024 Maine AFL-CIO legislative scorecard, which evaluated how lawmakers voted on labor bills during the past legislative session, including forced overtime and minimum wage for agricultural workers.
Overall, Theriault received a 6% score for the entirety of the 131st session, which spanned 2023 and 2024, because of his support for a prevailing wage bill.
Kathy Wilder, a member of USW Local 4-9 who has worked at Sappi Somerset Mill in Skowhegan for 13 years, said Golden shows up to support workers’ rights, mentioning that she met the congressman when he came to speak at the local union hall.
Wilder also cited Golden’s support of women’s reproductive rights, and called out Theriault for his “lousy track record for showing up” for roll call votes. “At the mill, that would get you fired,” she said.
In his first term in the Maine House of Representatives, Theriault missed 45 of the roughly 550 roll call votes. In comparison, his opponent in the June Republican primary, state Rep. Mike Soboleski, missed eight.
Maine Morning Star reached out to the Maine Lobstering Union Local 207 and Teamsters Local 340 about who they are supporting for the 2nd District, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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