Maine AFL-CIO

Psychiatric Nurses who work at Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center and Riverview Psychiatric Center work with some of the most severely mentally ill patients in the state. Some of those patients are voluntarily receiving mental health treatment, while others have been involuntarily committed by the courts for committing serious crimes. The nurses that work with these patients have been thrown on the floor, punched, kicked, choked and verbally assaulted, often during 12-hour night shifts. In recognition of the risks they take every day these psychiatric nurses are now eligible to retire with dignity at age 55 with 25 years of service.

Maine people spend a lot of money through the Efficiency Maine Trust to help improve energy efficiency in Maine. When expending taxpayer or ratepayer dollars, it’s important to ensure that we provide high quality jobs to the people doing the work that is so vital to helping Mainers cut their energy bills and fight climate change. This bill was amended to a study directing the Efficiency Maine Trust to evaluate the quality of jobs - measured by things like wages, retirement, benefits, training - created by energy efficiency projects funded through its programs.

When a worker’s wages are stolen, they can’t pay their rent or mortgage, put gas in their car or feed their family. In the last three years, more than $1.8 million dollars owed to Maine workers went unpaid. These lost wages are from workers not receiving overtime pay, not being paid for all hours worked or being paid less than minimum wage. LD 1587 gives the Bureau of Labor Standards the same investigatory tools already in place at other state agencies, protecting workers against wage theft and ensuring that Maine workers get paid promptly for the important work that we do.

Corporate profits have hit record highs. Meanwhile, big multinational corporations continue to take advantage of loopholes and accounting schemes, like sheltering profits in offshore tax havens, to avoid paying taxes. This bill would have raised Maine’s corporate tax rate on profits over $3.5 million from 8.93 percent to 10 percent, generating $50 million annually to support agriculture and vital services. It targeted large corporations, not small businesses.

Everyone should have an equal opportunity to enter the job market and earn a living without being permanently penalized by an old record. A past record often acts as a lifelong barrier to employment, stable housing, and higher education. LD 1911 would have created a system to seal a limited number of low-level arrest or conviction records for individuals who have remained crime-free for a period of five years. Sealing records helps people find well-paying jobs, addresses labor shortages and expands union membership.

For thousands of working families, finding quality, affordable child care is a constant struggle. The cost is sky high, and there aren’t enough slots to go around. As a result, working parents struggle to pay their bills, have to cut back on hours, and juggle work and home responsibilities. The Child Care Affordability Program supports working families afford childcare. Since 2024, working people eligible for the program have been put on a waitlist for child care subsidies. LD 1955 eliminated the waitlist and allowed hard-working families to get much-needed help paying for the child care they desperately need.

Federal and State employees in Maine are the backbone of essential services, from providing health care, maintaining roads, providing public safety and caring for our veterans to maintaining our Navy submarines and safeguarding aviation systems and infrastructure. During government shutdowns these workers are forced to work without pay or are furloughed. This bill would ensure that eligibility for interest-free loans during government shutdowns is not dependent on applying for unemployment benefits, credit checks, membership status at banks, or appearing in person.

The 2026 ICE raids carried out by federal immigration agents in Maine caused chaos and put working people in danger. Immigrants perform important work in our state, like taking care of young children and the elderly, growing our food and fixing our homes and businesses. Immigrants are also our union brothers and sisters and they are vital to the fabric of our communities, our economy, and the labor movement. One in five workers in America are foreign born and one in four children have an immigrant parent. LD 2106 restricted public employees from voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration enforcement in civic institutions like our schools and hospitals.

Nurses, healthcare workers and working people in rural Maine have been hit hard by hospital unit closures, including a rash of birthing unit closures in Maine. Maine has lost 33 percent of rural hospital labor and delivery units since 2020, and people in rural towns drive an average of 45 minutes to the nearest birthing hospital. This new law will require hospitals to notify the public before termination or change in the level of maternity or newborn care services, requires notification of affected patients and provides opportunities for communities to think about how they can act collectively to address closures.

Before this supplemental budget passed, a nurse or a firefighter was in the same tax bracket as a multi-millionaire. That changed when legislators required millionaires to pay an additional 2 percent tax on annual income over $1 million, bringing some much-needed fairness to our tax code. The budget also added $10 million in annual funding to the Child Care Affordability Program to help working families pay for child care and improved retirement security for mental health crisis workers and workers in the Office of Chief Medical Examiner.