Food AND Medicine In the richest country in the world, no one should have to choose between food and medicine 20 Ivers Street - Brewer, ME 04412 989-5860 www.foodandmedicine.org | |
Bangor, ME- Members of Food AND Medicine today protested Senator Susan Collins’ efforts on worker rights generally and specifically on the Employee Choice Act specifically.
Food AND Medicine is a Brewer based non-profit whose mission is to support worker rights and aid laid off workers.
“Last year Senator Collins filibustered the Employee Free Choice Act, whose purpose is to aid workers organizing into unions. To our knowledge she hasn’t talked to a single Maine worker who has actively supported organizing a union. That’s like filibustering legislation on banking without ever having talked to a banker,” said Food AND Medicine director Jack McKay.
McKay adds, “We met with her on Monday and for the first time she had the chance to listen to a worker, Steve Husson, who has been in an organizing campaign. She claimed that she has met with workers in organizing campaigns and when we asked who, she said a worker at Hannafords and one at a paper mill. The Hannaford worker was not engaged in an organizing campaign and the paper mill was organized in the 1940s.”
“And now, with these anti-union ads, Senator Collins is using the exact same ridiculous talking points. She says she can’t in good conscience take away the private ballot of a worker in an organizing campaign. She doesn’t seem to get that the only workers who vote by private ballot on worker conditions are those in unions. Her filibustering has directly hindered workers from getting a voice or a vote on the job.”
McKay adds, “It’s just incredible that she has failed to do her homework, filibustered this bill and still doesn’t get it.
Steve Husson, a board member of Food AND Medicine and a former DHL worker who participated in their organizing campaign, “I finally got a chance to speak to Sen. Collins about what really happens in the process of a union election from my experience at DHL. How unbalance the election becomes when the company has a captive audience. I told her that it is as fair an election in Zimbabwe. A short description of what happened after we won the vote: we were fired for supporting the union. Democrats like Mike Michaud and Tom Allen met with us to support us. Republicans like Sen. Carol Weston, Paul Davis and Richard Rosen all met with us. We tried to speak with Senator Collins, but got no response. Sen. Collins stuck with her standard position on the private ballot and offered no proposals. She seemed to be close minded to the reality of what goes on in organizing campaigns.”
William Rice, a board member and Secretary of Food AND Medicine states that “by blocking EFCA, Collins is actually denying workers the ballot, not guaranteeing them the ballot- because only union members vote.”
- October 23, 2003 
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