Our Guest is Andy O'Brien who is the Communication Director of Maine AFL-CIO union organization. He talked about some of the legislative victories that the union has won in the Maine State Legislature this year such as finally winning the right to establish a minimum wage for farm workers. Unfortunately, they are still unable to formally establish a union in the state. He also talked about several other bills dealing with worker rights and benefits, victories for mental health workers at the Riverview and Dorothy Dix facilities in Bangor, and the passage of the state Clean Energy Bill. The bill includes prevailing wage requirements, policies that encourage project labor agreements, and utilization of registered apprenticeships and pre- apprenticeship programs that assure the thousands of clean energy jobs created in Maine will be high quality jobs to retain a skilled workforce.
