Steven Keaten & Jane Gilbert (MSEA) to Receive Working Class Hero Award
PHOTO: Steve Keaten and Jane Gilbert at the Maine AFL-CIO booth at the 2023 Common Ground Fair.
At this year’s Maine AFL-CIO COPE Convention, the annual Working Class Hero Award will be awarded to two Maine Service Employees Association retirees who have done tremendous work in the labor movement to strengthen their union, support other union's campaigns and to elect pro-labor candidates dedicated to workers rights and fair wages. Steven Keaten and Jane Gilbert have spent decades building labor's political power, including knocking on tens of thousands of doors and having thousands of meaningful conversations with voters. They have also always shown up for workers' fights whether it's an informational pickets or strike.
Gilbert was originally paired up with the late Steve Dunn several years ago when canvassing union members at election time. After a few years, she and Steven Keaten partnered up to knock doors. It was the perfect match.
“Steve is easy, he works hard and he’s willing to stay out and do it as long as you want to do it. He is kind. All of the good things I could possibly say about a coworker I’d say about Steve,” said Gilbert. “He’s absolutely wonderful.”
While some people find canvassing strangers intimidating, Keaten says he loves knocking on doors to talk with fellow union members and other workers.
“I just think it’s fun to do,” he told Maine State Labor News in 2022. “I get out and talk to people, get a little bit of exercise and some fresh air, see the countryside and get to places I never thought I’d be before.”
Keaten and Gilbert have their door strategy down pat. If the voter is a woman, Gilbert typically handles that door and if there are a lot of steps or difficult terrain, Keaten will do the knocking. Keaten will typically talk to the men and even homes where no one but the most daring canvasser would visit. It doesn’t matter how many lawn signs they have for the other guy, Keaten will always stop by to check in, though he doesn’t usually stay long. One time in 2022, a man down a long dirt road pulled a gun on him, but Keaten calmly walked away and politely bid farewell. But overall, Gilbert and Keaten say they typically get a warm reception. Voters want to know where candidates stand on labor issues, so the canvassing work involves a lot of political education.
“I think they want to hear from us,” says Keaten. “90 percent of the time they're good conversations. The other ten percent of the time you may get someone grouchy but you just have to let it roll off your back.”
Often people thank them and sometimes offer them a cold beverage on hot days.
“At least two or three times every single day somebody would say, 'Thank you. What you’re doing is very important. I really appreciate it," said Gilbert during the last election. "That really gins you up and makes you feel like you’re really accomplishing something.”
She says it is a “privilege” to do election work, especially with a “gentleman” like Keaten. Gilbert always stresses that it is our obligation as union members and citizens to get involved and talk to people about our elections.
“We need to tell people is that their vote is important. If people don’t believe their vote is important they’re not going to vote,” said Gilbert. "Once we’ve identified if they support our candidates, we like to say to them, ‘You’re vote is important. We really need to count on you in November. In Maine, it’s critical that we hold onto the Senate and the House. This election is just as important locally as nationally.”