College interns work at local unions

BREWER – The six summer interns at the Greater Bangor Area Central Labor Council, or GBA-CLC, haven’t had much of chance to relax since arriving five weeks ago in Brewer from colleges all over the country.

These young men and women, who come from as far away as California, have had a common goal of working with local union members to help them better understand their rights in the workplace.

“This is more of a proactive, kind of get-your-hands-dirty type of internship,” Matt Berger, 21, of Indianapolis said, comparing this experience to other internships he has had. “You are organizing and talking with workers, you aren’t sitting at a desk all the time. It’s quick, and it’s concentrated.”

The five-week internship ends today for the students, who are six of 80 interns selected nationwide from a pool of 700 applicants to promote the AFL-CIO labor movement at a local level.

One of the areas on which the team focused was organizing the different union groups in the area, a detail the interns described as a key component for growth of that particular union. The interns worked with two unions, Teamsters Local 340 and Machinists District Council 65.

“Something I find that keeps coming up in this program is the concept that the ability to organize is such a fundamental right, but I feel like it’s so easily forgotten, … even stifled,” Preston Johnson, 21, of Corona, Calif., said in a recent interview.

One of the projects the team spent a big part of its time doing was organizing the Machinists at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. The local union at EMMC is made up of employees such as CNAs and unit secretaries. The interns did house calls, where they actually went into the workers’ homes to speak with them about their rights within the union and to get a feel for where the workers stand regarding their support for the union.

“It’s just great to sit down and let the worker talk to you about their concerns, their troubles and really listen to them,” said Nick Martin, 20, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native.

“The amazing thing to me is, on every house call and every organizing meeting we’ve had, it always comes up that the workers are saying, ‘I want this union for respect.’ Everyone considers wages and hours, but what [workers] really want is respect,” Martin said.

The GBA-CLC is one of 10 sites nationwide that offer internships through the AFL-CIO.

Jack McKay, GBA-CLC president, said each interested site must submit an application to the national labor council, explaining its program and week-to-week goals. This is the first summer that the Brewer location has hosted interns.

“I think an important part of the labor movement is the ability to work collectively to address and solve problems, and I think we’ve done that each step of the way,” McKay said. “These [interns] have done a great job.”

Another project in which the interns took part was paving the way for the Farmer Labor Small Business Alliance, which was launched to help the local economy. The alliance “focuses on getting union members to buy their produce from local farms and to utilize small businesses in the area so money doesn’t have to go outside of the community,” Kimberly Johnson, 24, of Kansas City, Mo., said.

Johnson added that although a few farmers have joined, the alliance is in its “very first baby steps.”

Regardless, the crew has created another way to raise public attention to the labor movement.

One intern, Courtney Pecquex, 21, of Centerville, Va., will carry the skills she’s learned in Maine, she said, to Seattle, where she will continue doing similar union work for the remainder of the summer. Also joining the crew was Alex Labinov, 20, of Hartford, Conn.

The hard-working group, who lived together during their stay, worked 12-hour days in the area. Nonetheless, they did find time away from their responsibilities to enjoy a Maine lobster dinner.