550 Union Members and Maine Workers Have Provided Input for Contract with Maine’s Working Class

PHOTO: Kevin Ready (APWU 458) gives a presentation on the Contract for Maine's Working Class.

Working class people are rightfully skeptical because for decades we have been in period of wage stagnation, skyrocketing costs of health care and housing and a rapid decline of well-paying union jobs. That’s why we need to develop an agenda by workers and for workers. Since last summer we have been holding listening sessions and taking input from union members about what should be part of labor's agenda as part of our Contract for Maine’s Working Class. So far, union members and other working class people have provided 550 responses to our survey covering issues like jobs and wages, healthcare, childcare, housing, the cost of groceries and utitlies and other economic issues.

“Unsurprisingly, the cost of living is definitely the biggest issue we’re hearing from union members,” said Arthur Phillips, Campaigns Director for the Maine AFL-CIO. “And the people who have taken the survey come from more than 100 union locals, chapters, and other organizations.”

The Maine AFL-CIO has done in-person presentations of the Contract for Maine’s Working Class before more than twenty unions including USW Local 449 in Winslow, Ironworkers Local 852 in Augusta, MSEA SEIU 1989, all of the Central Labor Councils, APWU Local 458, USW Maine Labor Council, IBEW 567 and many other unions.

We will continue giving presentations and engaging workers with our survey in the coming months. Once we have collected all of the data, we will assemble a Contract committee to build our agenda based on the survey results. Once we have rolled out the contract, we will engage candidates up and down the ballot to enlist their support for it. After that, we will work to elect candidates who support these priorities and then, hopefully, turn the contract into a governing agenda in January, 2027

According to our surveys the number one issue for the workers surveyed is health care, followed by housing, jobs and wages, groceries, child care, taxes, education and utilities. Members have told us they were very concerned about the rising costs of health insurance and prescription drugs. Respondents have also told us lousy insurance coverage is a problem.

“We're all just one paycheck away from a catastrophic medical event that can put us straight into bankruptcy,” one respondent told us.

As far as housing respondents have told us rents are too high, first-home homeownership is out of reach and young families are simply unable to afford a home. When it comes to jobs and the economy, respondents expressed concerns about layoffs and plant closures, low wages, prices rising higher than wages, lack of job security and too much over time.

So far, respondents have told us we should be fighting for solutions like:

• Medicare for all and expanding Medicaid coverage
• Protections from medical bankruptcy
• The ability of the government to negotiate prescription drug prices
• Build affordable, union-made housing
• First-time homebuyer programs
• Regulating rent increases
• Stop Wall Street from buying housing
• Progressive taxation to relieve property taxes
• Raise the minimum wage
• Empower and incentivize unionization
• More apprenticeships and other training
• Militant unionism

Some of the popular solutions among respondents were:

• Universal health care
• Taxing the rich
• Directly controlling costs including rent and utilities
• Our culture: militant unions, accountable elected representatives
• Raising class consciousness
• Build the public sector: new public housing, tuition-free higher
• Education, universal pre-k, and state-owned power generation.

If you would like us to give a presentation to your union or would like to be involved in this project, email arthur@maineaflcio.org.