Striking workers at the Woodland Pulp mill in Baileyville say that five picketers were arrested on Monday.
Dan Loudermilk, with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, says that local and county law enforcement arrived at the picket lines early on Monday and arrested five strikers, including four from Bath Iron Works Local S6. Loudermilk says the reasons for the arrests weren't immediately clear.
"One of them was a local town guy from Baileyville. And he was just asking the chief, 'Well, you know, you tell us not to block traffic, but your cars are.' And all of a sudden, they put flex cuffs on him and hauled him off. He was given a fine for disorderly conduct," he says. "The other four, it started out, we heard that they were arrested for trespass. But then they changed the charges. So we don't really know what they were arrested for."
Brendan Wolf, Woodland's director of human resources, says that he and other staff called law enforcement to report trucks being blocked by picketers.
"People that were on the picket line weren't just walking, per their constitution rights. They were actually stopping and blocking vehicles. Now, whatever law enforcement did, as a result of whatever facts they saw, is on them. We obviously can't control what the sheriff's department and local PD does. We just inform them, and in our viewpoint, we saw that it appeared that people were not exercising their first amendment rights. Instead, they were violating the law," he said.
Baileyville police, and the Washington County Sheriff's Office did not immediately return requests for comment.
The workers have been on strike for more than a month, and the company hired temporary replacement workers last month.
The striking workers are pushing back on a company proposal to reclassify specialized workers. Union officials say that the two sides met alongside a federal mediator last week, but the union rejected the company's latest contract, saying that, "in some instances, the changes were deemed regressive compared to the initial offer that prompted the strike."
