IAM Union Member Mark Vigliotta Running for Sanford-Area State Senate Seat

PHOTO: Mark Vigliotta (left) with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine

Machinists union member Mark Vigliotta of Lebanon has announced that he is running for State Senate in District 33, which comprises the towns of Lebanon, Sanford, Waterboro and Alfred. Vigliotta is a production machinery mechanic at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and a proud member of IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) Local 836. Vigliotta says he is running for office to address the affordability crisis and improve wages and working conditions for Maine people.
 

“I am running to make life more affordable for working people, improve the tax code and pass worker-friendly laws that support well-paying, good quality jobs with benefits,” said Vigliotta. “More people from Sanford are employed at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard than any other city or town in Maine or New Hampshire. I know their needs because I represented them as a union leader at the shipyard. Now I want to be able to represent them in Augusta.”

Vigliotta says he is very disappointed with his current Senator Matt Harrington for voting against legislation to make state-backed, no-interest loans available to federal workers during government shutdowns. Harrington, who is also the Assistant Senate Republican Leader, has a 0 percent score on the most recent Maine AFL-CIO Working Families Legislative Scorecard.

“For Matt Harrington not to vote for this bill to support his constituents when they are furloughed or forced to work without pay during a government shutdown is just unacceptable,” said Vigliottta.

Vigliotta grew up on the North Shore of Massachusetts and comes from a long line of proud union members. He still has his grandfather’s union card from when he became a lifetime member of the Laborers’ Union in 1924. His father worked at the General Electric plant in Lynn for many years. His mother was also a union member, working as a secretary and HR professional at the company. Vigliotta moved to Maine in 1988 to drive a bread delivery truck for his father.  He has an adult daughter and his wife Wendy has three granddaughters. They are expecting a grandson in March.

Vigliotta started working at the Portsmouth shipyard in 2003 as a production machinery mechanic. After becoming disappointed with his union representation, he ran for shop steward and was later elected President of Local 836. A few years later, he was elected President of the Portsmouth Metal Trades Council, which represents about 3,000 blue collar trades workers at the shipyard. He has also served as IAM District Lodge 4 President and President of the Maine State Council of Machinists. Currently. he works as an associate organizer for the IAM. Vigliotta has spent considerable time lobbying members of Congress on Capitol Hill and state legislators in Augusta for pro-labor policies. He says these experiences will serve him well in the Maine Senate.