Workers for the publicly funded agency Child Development Services rallied on Monday, May 2, outside the CDS Reach office in Portland to demand respect for the essential services they provide.
Last week, Amazon warehouse workers on Staten Island shocked the nation when, against all odds, they voted 2,654 to 2,131 to form a union despite the company’s multimillion dollar anti-union campaign. The workers in the Amazon Labor Union pulled off this shocking victory without support from an established union and only a shoestring budget from a GoFundMe campaign.
University of Maine senior Amber Shane of Vinalhaven is the 2021-22 recipient of this year’s Benjamin J. Dorsky Memorial Scholarship. Amber is the daughter of Patrick Shane, who is a member of IBEW 2327 and Maine AFL-CIO’s executive board. Amber has won the scholarship in previous years and it has helped her pursue a major in psychology with a double minor in sociology and management.
On February 18th, Jack McKay, President of the Eastern Maine Labor Council and Senator Troy Jackson, a special projects organizer for Food AND Medicine (FAM), delivered lunch to AFT Local 5093 at the Bangor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and the AFT Local 6071 at the City of Bangor Fleet Maintenance group. The lunches provided for this event were purchased from Kebab Den in Bangor.
On March 18th, FAM delivered 50 meals from Humble Comfort Foods restaurant in Brewer to ATU 714 Bangor bus drivers and the AFT 6071 Fleet Maintenance group.
Members of Preble Street United (Maine Service Employees Association — SEIU 1989) — a union representing 150 staff at Preble Street locations in Portland, Lewiston and Bangor — are expected to ratify a transformative two-year contract proposal that would improve racial equity, boost wages and provide several new workplace protections and benefits. Preble Street employees — who provide a range of low-barrier services for low-income people, veterans and people experiencing homelessness — began voting on the tentative agreement Tuesday evening and will finish on Friday.
The A. Phillip Randolph Institute Maine Chapter will be hosting historian Bob Greene on April 20th to discuss the history of Black Mainers and their many contributions to the state.
