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Austin Theriault Earns 0% Pro-Labor Record on Maine AFL-CIO’s 2024 Working Families Scorecard

Andy O’Brien
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Theriault Voted to Weaken Unions & Child Labor Laws & Against Fair Pay, Quality Jobs, Child Care & Family Leave for Working Mainers

During his first term in the Maine Legislature, Maine Second District Congressional candidate Austin Theriault voted to weaken unions, loosen child labor laws and against fair pay, quality jobs, child care and family leave for thousands of working Mainers. In the Maine AFL-CIO’s 2024 Working Families Legislative Scorecard, Theriault received a 0% pro-labor voting record for the 2024 session in Augusta and a 6% lifetime score.

During the most recent legislative session, Rep. Theriault voted:

  • Against legislation to address rampant forced overtime in the paper industry (LD 1794);
  • Against improving enforcement of laws protecting workers from wage theft (LD 372);
  • Against strengthening collective bargaining rights (LD 2032);
  • Against addressing chronic understaffing in state government; (LD 2121)
  • Against granting farmworkers a state minimum wage (LD 2273);
  • Against allowing the creation of thousands of well-paying jobs in renewable energy (LD 2266);
  • Against shedding light on corporate income tax avoidance in Maine (LD 1337); and
  • Against helping state and federal employees pay the bills with no-interest loans during preventable state and federal government shut downs caused by partisan infighting (LD 2113).

During Rep. Austin Theriault’s first term in office in 2023, he voted to  support union busting “right-to-work” for less legislation (LD 1539). He also voted against legislation to ban mandatory captive audience meetings (LD 1756) and paid family and medical leave for 90% of Maine workers and their families (LD 1964), according to the 2023 Maine AFL-CIO Working Families Legislative Scorecard.

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“Rep. Austin Theriault has one of the most abysmal records on labor issues in the entire Maine Legislature. From voting against workers’ rights, workplace safety, more child care opportunities for working parents and paid family and medical leave for 600,000 Mainers and their families, to supporting legislation to weaken unions and child labor laws, Austin Theriault has repeatedly put the interests of wealthy corporations over working Mainers,” said Cynthia Phinney, President of the Maine AFL-CIO. “Working people in Maine’s Second Congressional District deserve a Congressman who will fight to raise their wages, provide more job opportunities and improve their livelihoods.”

Phinney said that Congressman Jared Golden, whom the Maine AFL-CIO endorsed at our COPE Convention in June, has a proven record of supporting policies that will strengthen economic security for working Mainers, including voting to create thousands of union jobs in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Inflation Reduction Act fighting to protect mail delivery and emergency services in rural Maine, helping firefighters injured in the line of duty, protecting Social Security benefits for retirees, standing up for workers on the picket lines and leading 75 of his colleagues to demand a floor vote on the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), the strongest worker empowerment legislation since the New Deal.