Maine AFL-CIO COPE Convention Delegates Ratify Contract for Maine’s Working Class, Make Political Endorsements

Last week, more than 150 union members attended the Mane AFL-CIO’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) Convention in Auburn where we shared bargaining, organizing and issue updates; ratified our Contract with Maine's Working-Class agenda; discussed our 2026 political program; and made many endorsements.

The Contract with Maine’s Working Class is a vision and policy agenda to deliver for working people on core cost of living issues like healthcare, housing, childcare, groceries and more and to tackle soaring inequality and the threats and opportunities of AI. The Contract is the result of more than a year of presentations, listening and surveys with around 3,000 workers. About 800 survey responses were collected and helped to shape the platform.

“We live in an economy dominated by big corporations and the billionaire class,” the contract reads. “While the powerful reap all the rewards, the rest of us are left struggling to pay our bills and lead a decent life. We need an agenda that unites working people and puts our interests first, and no one can build it but us. The Contract with Maine’s Working Class is like a contract campaign, but instead of being for one shop or sector, it’s for everyone. These are our demands for what working people want to see our state elected officials fight for.”

The agenda identifies solutions that deliver for working people around issues of healthcare, housing, jobs and wages, and the rising costs of childcare, electricity and groceries. We will campaign around this agenda and seek to win policy changes to enact it in 2027 and beyond. Read the Contract for Maine’s Working Class here!

Addressing the convention on Thursday, labor-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner pledged to support the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to crack down on union busters; end worker misclassification; and fight for upgrades on Davis Bacon Wages and “project labor agreements on every dollar of federal spending."

“This campaign exists because of its relationship with labor in Maine," said Platner to massive applause. “We wouldn’t have even been able to start this thing if it wasn’t for the early support we got from unions.” He added, “When we win in November, we’re going to send a message across the nation that a politics that cares first about working people is a politics about the future. It’s not just a politics that can work, it’s a politics that must work.”

Platner praised the Contract for Maine’s Working Class, noting that his campaign has worked with the Maine AFL-CIO to get working-class people to fill out the surveys and get them engaged with the agenda.

“This country needs an economic bill of rights and the only way we’re going to do it is by taking the same kind of model that the AFL-CIO is doing here in Maine and taking that to the national level, engaging with working people across this country again, building a politics that is built around specifically building power for working people,” he said.

Brother Troy Jackson introduced his former primary rival and Democratic Gubernatorial nominee Hannah Pingree at the convention and urged workers to support her for Governor. Jackson and Pingree were both first elected to the Maine House in 2002. Jackson said labor could always depend on Pingree having our back. He noted that a lot of people in labor had urged Pingree to run for Majority Leader and Speaker of the House when she served in the Legislature.

“I know [Hannah Pingree] knows how important these issues are to us. That’s why as hard as it was on this campaign, I’m really proud to stand here today and have the opportunity to introduce her because I know she’s going to listen to us,” said Jackson. “I know she’s always been willing to stand up for us.”

Pingree noted that she had a 100% pro-labor voting record while she served in the Maine House. She pointed to her work with the Professional Firefighters of Maine to defeat the chemical industry to ban certain cancer-causing chemicals. She also helped pass protections for firefighters who contracted occupational cancers as a result of their employment and voted in support of health insurance support for firefighters. Pingree voted to raise the minimum wage and strengthen collective bargaining rights. During her remarks at convention she also praised the Contract with Maine’s Working Class.

“When I read it, I saw the same priorities that I had been hearing from people all across the state of Maine. For me it starts with the basics – if young people cannot afford to stay in the state of Maine, if working families cannot afford to buy houses near their jobs, if seniors can’t downsize, then nothing else is going to work. We need to build more housing, keep private equity out of our housing market and we need to make sure that Maine remains a state where working people can afford to build a life.”

Pingree expressed support for Medicare for All on the federal level, closing the state employee pay gap and policies to ensure housing and clean energy projects are built with union jobs.

“As governor, I will appoint a senior advisor at the Governor’s office dedicated to labor issues,” said. “I will make sure that every single state agency has a key leader that labor can work with directly....And I will show up on the job site, at the picket lines when you invite me.“

Second District Congressional candidate Matt Dunlap, who has been endorsed by the Maine State Nurses Association, also spoke at the convention and expressed support for pro-labor policies.

“Working families can’t send their kids to college anymore,” he said. “People I talk to can’t afford homes. How many people don’t have access to retirement? The best security for these things is obviously a union job.”

The Maine AFL-CIO will publicly release its next round of endorsements in later July.

Convention delegates heard from a panel of union members running for office and discussed how to expand working class candidate recruitment. We also discussed legislative results from the past two years, learned about the artwork of labor organizer and artist, Ralph Fassanella, and planned out our Labor 2026 political program. There was a lot of discussion about how to continue building a year round organizing model where our political work and political education happens year round and there are many ways for union members and allies to be involved. Delegates also sang Troy Jackson happy birthday - twice! - and shared their appreciation for his recent primary run for Governor. On Thursday night we held an inspiring panel of diverse workers organizing and presented awards. It was a high energy convention for all involved.