Maine AFL-CIO drops plan to stop Workers’ Compensation reform bill

PORTLAND – The Maine AFL-CIO has dropped plans to seek a “people’s veto” of a Workers’ Compensation reform bill enacted by the Legislature this spring.

Edward Gorham, president of the labor federation, said Monday the organization is too busy working on the fall elections to fight for repeal of the workers’ comp bill at this time.

“We didn’t want to collect signatures and then not devote the energy,” Gorham said. “It would be disrespectful to the process if we couldn’t put our full resources into it.”

The legislation was enacted in response to a Supreme Judicial Court ruling that business and insurance officials said would expand the number of injured workers who would be eligible for lifetime benefits. The court said previous, nonwork injuries can be combined with on-the-job injuries to determine whether a worker is too seriously hurt to return to work.

With the backing of Gov. Angus King, lawmakers decided that only earlier on-the-job injuries that occurred in Maine can be considered, and only when combined with a work-related injury that took place in Maine after Jan. 1 of this year.

The vote prompted the AFL-CIO to file papers last month with the Secretary of State’s Office to start a “people’s veto” effort, in an attempt to repeal the law. The union said business owners had used the court decision to unravel previous reforms made in the comp law in 1992.

Gorham said that while the federation’s top priority now is to elect candidates that support working people, it isn’t giving up on its desire to overturn the reform bill.

Given the ongoing controversy, he said, the issue is expected to come up again next year – in a different political climate. The union can get involved at that time, he said.

“New Legislature, new governor, new day,” he said. “We’ll see.”