Former Maine AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Doug Born (IATSE 114) to Receive Solidarity Award
Former Maine AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer and IATSE 114 Business Agent Doug Born is the recipient of this year’s Maine AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Award for showing up for every union picket line and worker fight and for years of work building the labor movement.
Born did grew up in the union mill town of Westbrook so he understood the value of unions. While he never planned to be a part of the labor movement, he did always enjoy setting up and breaking down events like church suppers, which turned out to be good preparation for his side career as a stagehand.
“We’d have a bean supper at our church and I’d set it up and take it down. In a way, my work now is an extension of that,” said Born. “Then I started going to concerts and seeing these guys work on the stage between sets and I thought ‘that looks like a cool job!”’
Born served a stint in the Army before going back to college at the University of Southern Maine. While in college, he began working on live performance events. While his classmates were focused on making a lot of money and wearing suits, Born said he was more interested in “being a hippie” and going on tour with the Grateful Dead. He started going to concerts at the legendary Raul’s Roadside Attraction in 1985. One day he covered for the doorman when he went to the bathroom and shortly after was offered a regular job as a doorman himself. That gig led to work doing security at the Cumberland County Civic Center and later at the State Theatre when it opened in 1993.
Born went on to do other events while also working full-time at LL Bean, where he worked until his retirement in 2016. He got his IATSE Local 114 union card in 2000 and became the Local 114 Business Agent in 2018. He also has a union card with the New Hampshire-based IATSE 195. Around 2005, Born found out that WGME workers in the same building where he worked were in the midst of tough contract negotiations and attended one of their informational pickets. There he met IBEW 1837 member Matt Beck and Southern Maine Labor Council President Peter Kellman. Always the organizer, Kellman asked Born to do a presentation about the history of IATSE 114 for an SMLC meeting. As a history buff, he was more than happy to share his research.
In 2013, Born was elected secretary of the Southern Maine Labor Council. A year later he organized workers to back Fairpoint workers in their massive strike. Noticing how strikers were struggling to find a place to relieve themselves he saved the day by securing port-a-johns from a retired Teamster. He later replaced Brother Wayne Poland (APWU) on the Maine AFL-CIO Executive Board and was eventually elected Secretary-Treasurer. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Born and his IATSE 114 brothers and sisters volunteered on a day’s notice to get the American Roots factory in Westbrook ready to transition to making personal protective equipment for frontline workers.
Born’s devotion to supporting workers in his community was returned in 2021, when 100 union members showed up to support IATSE 114 members to protest the City of Portland’s refusal to negotiate a fair contract at the Merrill Auditorium and its decision to use outside non-union labor. The solidarity Born has shown for his union brothers and sisters is an inspiring example for us all to follow.
“I’ve done a miniscule amount of work in comparison to so many people that I love and admire and respect,” he said. “And as much as we have collectively accomplished the work is never done. I was always very proud to be part of all of it.”