PRESS RELEASE
BOSTON GLOBE: “Organized labor inspired Troy Jackson’s political career. Now, he’s counting on it."
PORTLAND, ME — New reporting from the Boston Globe highlights fifth-generation logger, former Maine Senate President, and Democratic Nominee for U.S. Senate Troy Jackson’s deep labor roots, and his commitment to organized labor and uplifting the voices of working people. After spending a weekend on the trail with Troy, the Boston Globe reporter named the Jackson campaign the most “labor-pilled campaign” in this midterm cycle.
The Boston Globe joined Troy at some of his 13 stops across Maine throughout Labor Day weekend, standing alongside everyday Mainers at picket lines and celebrating the power of organizing at picnics and barbecues. Read the story, or see highlights below:
But inside the union hall of the United Steelworkers Local 9, Jackson needed no introduction. Arriving for a cookout last Sunday, he seemingly knew everyone wearing the shirt or hat of their union as he shared hamburgers and inside jokes. That’s because while Platner earned the support of the labor movement, Jackson has lived it.
His ties with organized labor in Maine span decades, beginning when he was a pre-teen in the remote north woods of Allagash, watching his logger father participate in a strike. “That really was the beginning for me of understanding more about working class issues and how we get left behind,” Jackson told the Globe in Skowhegan.
After becoming a logger himself, he experienced firsthand what he believed were unfair actions by big conglomerates that wanted to use cheaper Canadian labor over Maine workers — and then ran for office out of outrage. Along the way, he joined five unions; he currently is a dues-paying member of three, the biggest national unions representing engineers, machinists, and painters.
“For him, it’s not a transactional relationship,” Francis Eanes, the executive director of the Maine Labor Climate Council, said at a Lewiston brewery where supporters sang karaoke to Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.” “He’ll leave the campaign trail and come to our organizing events. He’ll be the first one on the picket line, even at 5 a.m., before the camera people show up.”
“Troy Jackson winning would prove our theory of the case that people want people in office who speak their language, who can actually make a positive change on the issues that matter to everyday working people,” Shuler said on the eve of Labor Day in Orono, where the University of Maine graduate workers union gathered for a contra dance event to benefit Jackson.
Jackson’s diagnosis of Democrats’ recent woes with the working class is simple: “Overall, we quit talking about economics,” he said. He acknowledged that some voters fled the party in favor of the GOP over perceptions that Democrats had gone too far on social issues. […] “But we kind of quit talking about everyday working class issues, and that’s where the problem is.”
“Troy was standing shoulder to shoulder with us well before the Senate or governor’s race,” said Amanda Gavin, a professor who was a leader of the drive to organize UMaine grad workers and faculty in 2022. “That’s what gives him street cred.”
“That is who Troy really is. He is the working class champion,” she said, “we needed all along.”
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