Union Members Gather for Jay Mural Strike Re-dedication

On May Day, about a hundred union members and friends gathered at the Western Maine Labor Council to celebrate the installation of the digital replica of the Local 14 Strike Mural, which adorned the outside of the building for nearly 40 years through and following the 1987-88 International Paper Strike.

"It wasn't just a strike, it was a movement," said former Jay striker Linda Deane, President of the Western Maine Labor Council. "We got a lot of people involved and working on the strike. The union hall was busy every day, full of people doing something, working on the food bank and the clothing bank, putting out mailings and manning phone banks. So many people just came every day because  it was part of what they had to do."

The original mural was taken down, restored, and is now mounted inside with the replica taking its place outside. It was painted by artist Andrea Kantrowitz in 1988 and features scenes of strikers at events during the strike. Kantrowitz, who attended the May Day event, said she was impressed with how much the Maine labor movement values labor history and the past workers’ struggles even if they didn’t prevail.

“It reminded me of all the different people involved, the coordination, organization and just incredible resilience and resourcefulness of the strikers, against really difficult odds,” she said. “It showed what people are capable of when they really set their collective minds to it. It brought me back to those days and why I wanted to understand it and get involved and support it at the time.”

Maine AFL-CIO President Cynthia Phinney told Maine Public that the Jay strike is worth celebrating because it unified workers and helped inspire others within the labor movement

"If you take that in isolation, it might look like they lost," she told Maine Public. But other companies backed down from stomping on their workers, because that happened. Now, that's solidarity beyond Local 14. The company's gone, but the union lives on."

The former strikers told Maine Public that they remain "spiritually on strike" as a way to honor organized labor efforts across the country.