ORONO, Maine — March 30, 2013 — Maine lobster fishermen are turning to the labor movement via the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers to protect and enhance their interests.
John Drouin, a Cutler lobsterman and vice chairman of the Maine Lobster Advisory Council noted that Maine lobstermen operate as independent business owners, compared with Canadian lobster fishermen, who are represented by unions and thus exert greater influence against the processors.
"Until the day comes when we become unionized or one big co-op, we are just 5,000 individuals," Drouin said.
Justin Dyer, a Vinalhaven lobster fisherman sounded a similar theme: "We've never been organized. We need to be proactive in our own industry, and we haven't been."
Not so. Collective action is not foreign to the "toilers of the sea." History reveals that romantic images generated by our souvenir and gift shops, which cast the lobster fishermen as an independent, sturdy, self-reliant species of workers, may be somewhat limiting.
A glance at the dusty archives of Maine labor history reveals that when they believe they were denied the full "fruits of their labor" (the lobster catch ), lobster fishermen could become militant, engage in collective action, and shatter such stereotypical images of their life and work.
Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald