February 7th, 2022
Portland to consider reinstating hazard pay for workers
The Portland City Council will discuss bringing back hazard pay on Monday. That would effectively raise the minimum wage for workers in the city. Hazard pay only took effect for a few days at the beginning of the new year but ended with the city’s state of emergency. The new amendment up for debate Monday night…
Read MoreFebruary 4th, 2022
Pandemic calls for us to rethink impossible expectations of teachers
The role of the teacher in this crisis environment has been impossibly expansive: All at once, a teacher may have to serve as a student’s content expert, surrogate parent, social worker, mentor and tech support professional. Before vaccines were available, teachers were at a higher risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19. Yet teachers continued to assume…
Read MoreFebruary 1st, 2022
Workers hold rally to call on Portland to reinstate hazard pay
Portland City Councilors are being asked to reinstate hazard pay for minimum wage workers. The hazard pay ended last month when the council terminated the COVID-19 pandemic state of emergency. In 2020, Portland voters approved a new minimum wage that included a hazard pay provision for essential workers during a state of emergency.
Read MoreFebruary 1st, 2022
Portland council will consider whether to restore hazard pay for workers
The Portland City Council will consider whether to bring back emergency hazard pay for workers while the city’s mask mandate remains in effect. “It’s not a perfect solution. It’s not a permanent solution,” said Councilor Victoria Pelletier, who is sponsoring a hazard pay amendment to the mask ordinance. “But it’s at least something so that…
Read MoreJanuary 12th, 2022
USM center will build on historian’s legacy by strengthening labor education
Nine pizza workers recently walked out of a Portland pizza shop because of onerous working conditions; Bull Moose is planning to sell its stores to its employees in an ESOP, and Bates College has filed with the National Labor Relations Board to interfere in an attempt by workers to unionize. These were all stories in the Portland Press Herald on…
Read MoreDecember 21st, 2021
Celebrating Arlo
Arlo has transitioned away from his role at SMWC, which gives us all a special occasion to come together to lift up all the direct support, power, victories, and relationships they have built and dedicated themselves to these last 5 years. Please join us next Tuesday between 12:00PM and 1:00 PM to record some thoughts and appreciations for them.
Read MoreSeptember 1, 2021
Solidarity School
This Fall, we are diving into SMWC’s first ever Solidarity School! This seven-session political education event is focused on understanding SMWC’s core values and theory of change. We’ll learn about human rights and how, through organizing, we build the collective power necessary to win them. We will also examine the root causes of oppression and how we build…
Read MoreAugust 24, 2021
The Political Economy Study
Abridged Summary Click here to read en français! The Southern Maine Workers’ Center is committed to putting working class and poor people first in all of our endeavors. We undertook this political economy study to help prioritize our efforts as we continue to build a strategic and transformative movement towards racial, economic, worker and gender…
Read MoreJuly 12, 2021
Portland’s restaurant industry should be a place where people can work with dignity
Published in the Portland Press Herald on May 19th, 2021(link to original here) Restaurant series doesn’t represent Portland food workers’ perspective Unsafe conditions and the lack of a living wage and health insurance are driving people away – not reluctance to work. BY KATIE KEATING AND HEATHER FORAN (SMWC Board Co-Chair) In the recent series…
Read MoreMay 4, 2021
T.O.A.S.T Workshop Series: Transformative Organizing And Skills Training
This seven-part series of organizing skills and theory will start on Thursday, May 6th and run every other Thursday from 5:30-7:30pm through July 29th. Workshops will focus on building some of the basic skills needed for community organizing and building grassroots power. The series will be focused on applying skills to SMWC’s practice, but friends…
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