PORTLAND, Maine — Unions around the state have been holding Labor Day observances.
In Portland, the Southern Maine Labor Council held a breakfast, then staged a march down State Street from the Irish Heritage Center to Longfellow Square.
In the square, several speakers urged increases in the minimum wage.
"Every day more than 600,000 Maine people go to work," says Matt Schlobom of the Maine AFL-CIO. "They keep our state running. They make it a great place to live. Working people are, quite literally, the backbone of our economy. But working people are getting squeezed, and squeezed, and squeezed. People's wages and income are not keeping up with basic, rising costs."
Portland's council has enacted a minimum wage ordinance, but plans to revisit the measure after learning it would more than double the sub-minimum wage paid to "tipped" workers.
"What the City Council is saying to me," says Heather McIntosh, who works as a waitress, "what the restaurant association is saying to me, and anyone who does not support an increase in the minimum wage for tipped workers, is that I don't matter."
The Portland council measure would raise the city's minimum to $10.10 an hour in January and eventually to $12 an hour. There will also be a referendum on the city ballot that would raise Portland's minimum to $15 an hour.
