Union Members Receive Awards in Moving Banquet Ceremony

PHOTO: USW members at the Biennial Convention Awards Banquet

During the Biennial Convention’s Awards Banquet we heard moving tributes to union members who have gone above and beyond for their members and all workers in Maine.

Working Class Hero Award Winner Pat Carleton (USW 9)

Former Maine AFL-CIO Vice President Pat Carleton (USW 9) was presented with the “Working Class Hero Award” for all of his work as a union leader and in the broader labor movement, all while working full time at the Somerset Mill in Skowhegan.

Over the years, Brother Pat has stood on many picket lines, lobbied lawmakers in Washington D.C. and Augusta, attended countless conventions and meetings, campaigned for pro-labor candidates, run food drives for Mainers in need, helped chart the course for the labor movement and much more. USW 291 leader Dave Hebert of Madawaska called Carleton a “mentor, friend, role model and inspiration."

“Pat, I want to thank you for your leadership and loyalty,” said Hebert. “You’ve made a difference in many lives. You’ve shown us what it means to be a unionist.”

In receiving his award, Carleton recalled his life growing up poor as the son of a shoe worker in rural Maine. As a kid, he wanted to become a union man so he never had to experience the kind of poverty his family suffered. He repeatedly tried to join the former Winslow-based Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 138, but was turned down because no one in his family had been members. But due to his persistence, he was finally given his big break at Local 131 in New Hampshire in 1978. After proving himself to be a hard worker, the business agent Ray Welch told him to go home and sign up at Local 138. Once again, the business agent at Local 138 told Carleton to “hit the bricks.”

“So I called Ray up and I said, ‘Ray what’s going on?’ And he said ‘stay in your car for fifteen minutes and then walk back in that building. I walked back in and he said, 'I don’t know who the hell you know son, but you’re getting a book,’” recalled Carleton. “And from that day forward I learned what it meant to be one of us. I want to say it one more time, you people are the greatest people on earth. You have made me a better person.”

Steward of the Year Award Winner Shaun Fisher (IBEW 2071)

Shaun Fisher (IBEW 2071) proudly received his Steward of the Year Award. He recalled how he was a touring heavy metal musician in his youth until one day his father urged him to apply for a job at the shipyard. He remembered how nervous he was in his first interview.

“It took about nine months, but I got the call,” said Fisher. “I was so excited to see the excitement on my mom and dad’s faces and how proud they were, I was ready to become a working man.”

Taking his father's advice, Fisher immediately joined his union at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The shipyard is an open shop, but Fisher says he loves helping all of his coworkers whether they choose to join the union or not. He said often non-union workers spread the word in the yard that the union was there for them in a tight spot, incentivizing others to join.

“Being a steward means a lot to me. It’s never ‘I won this or that.’ We win as a team,” said Fisher. “We all help each other out and our President Alanna Schaeffer runs a tight ship. The union has always been a help for me and it is an honor to be a part of it. All of the chief stewards are such great people to me and every one of us has something to offer.”

Solidarity Award Winners: Maine Health Interpreters (MSEA-SEIU 1989)

Maine State Nurses Association member Jonica Frank presented the Solidarity Award to the Maine Health Interpreters, for building their union and winning their election last year with the Maine Service Employees Association (SEIU 1989). Forty-nine medical interpreters from more than twenty different countries, scattered across all of the Maine Health hospitals and clinics in Southern Maine, voted unanimously - 49-0!!!! - to join MSEA and to fight for better wages, respect and a voice in the management decisions that affect them.

Frank described a situation before the holidays when it was critical to have an health care interpreter on hand. A teenage girl needed emergency surgery, but the doctor and nurses had difficulty communicating with the girl’s anxious mother because they couldn’t speak her native language.

“I could see the distress in her mother’s eyes so I suggested an interpreter,” said Frank. “When the interpreter arrived in our waiting area it gave mom the opportunity to ask questions, have her concerns heard and have me explain exactly what was going to be happening to her daughter while she was under my care.”

Frank said she could immediately see relief come over the mother’s face as she began to understand the care that her daughter was receiving.

“I’ve watched patients laugh and smile and joke for the first time when they are really able to finally communicate with someone," Frank added.”But we work at a health care conglomerate that doesn’t really prioritize the working conditions of the people who actually provide the care that the entire depend on.”

Janice Jaffe, a Spanish interpreter at MaineHealth, said the new union is bargaining for a first contract now and may be calling on the support of union members in the near future to defend in-person interpreter positions so they can provide “the best health care for our community and keep good jobs in Maine for Mainers and New Mainers alike.”

Ellen Campbelll (IAM S-89) Receives President’s Award

Ellen Campbell receives her award from Cynthia Phinney & Carol Sanborn

Carol Sanborn, President of IAM S-89, presented the President’s Award to her former colleague Ellen Campbell for her work advocating for injured workers for 50 years at the labor law firm McTeague Higbee. Sanborn estimated that Campbell had put in at least 104,000 hours, not including the many years of fifty work weeks, as a paralegal helping workers and their families get the support they needed following a devastating work-related injury. She said Campbell trained many well-known labor attorneys and worked with every union in the state.

“It’s not the kind of job where at 5 o’clock you forget about the day and just go home,” said Sanborn. “These are the types of problems that weigh on you. Those aren’t paid hours, but when you believe in what you do, it’s an opportunity, not a sacrifice. Ellen has found opportunity in thousands of people to do what she believes in.”

Campbell said she was surprised to get the award and joked that she didn’t think she had ever been recognized “in such a positive way.”

“To be recognized is wonderful, but I could not have chosen a better group to received this award from,” she said. “The only thing that could make this better for me would be for my husband and my father, both longtime Machinists Union members, to be here with me to take [this award] home.”

Senator Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland Cty.) was also given the Edie Beaulieu Legislative Award for her work passing pro-labor legislation including banning anti-union captive audience meetings, supporting safe nurse-to-patient ratios and passing twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave for 600,000 Mainers.