Linda Deane (USW 900/MEA) Wins Working Class Hero Award

Linda Deane (USW 900 retired) is the recipient of the 2025 Working Class Hero Award for organizing her community during the International Paper Strike of 1987-88, leading the USW Women of Steel, and developing the vision for the Local 14 Solidarity Center to become a hub for labor education, community and learning.

Linda was a pioneer in the paper industry as the first woman to work on a paper machine at the International Paper mill in Jay in 1977.

“The feeling amongst the men was that we were just getting hired to meet the quota of women and that women shouldn’t be on paper machines or working in the maintenance department,” recalled Deane in an interview with Maine Memory Network.

“When we first went into the mill chauvinism was quite rampant and a lot of sexual innuendos going on. You had to have broad shoulders and let things roll off your back if you wanted to keep your job.”

She worked there for ten years until the 17-month IP Strike of 1987-88, during which she became a leader. Deane and her union sister Cindy Bennett traveled throughout New England raising awareness about the struggle and raising money for their cause. She recalled that Maine union workers received a lot of support from the local LGBTQ community who gave the women a place to stay while they were in Boston.

“They were the people who stood up and stood behind us,” said Deane. “We had long days. We’d come home from setting up some major rally and just wash our clothes and repack them because we knew we would be sent to Rhode Island or Massachusetts at another local the next day.”

After the strike, Deane went to work at the Rumford paper mill where she entered a four-year millwright apprenticeship. She has served as the USW Women of Steel Coordinator for the State of Maine and has canvassed union households for pro-labor political candidates for many years. After her retirement from the Rumford mill, Deane has gone on to work as an administrative specialist at the Scontras Center for Labor and Community Education at the University of Southern Maine. She currently serves on the Executive Board of the Maine AFL-CIO and as President of the Western Maine Labor Council.

One of her major achievements has been arranging WMLC’s purchase of the Local 14 union hall in Jay from Local 14 retirees in 2023 and turning it into a center for labor history and learning. We congratulate Linda Deane for her amazing accomplishments and never giving up the fight for Maine workers.