Daily Archives: October 28, 2019

Forestry

Here’s why the 1998 logging blockade still matters now

By Troy Jackson, president, Maine Senate
Bangor Daily News
October 25, 2019
Category: Forestry
Region: United States, US East

Mainers shouldn’t have to resort to extreme measures to get the attention of elected officials. People in power have a responsibility to listen to constituents and respond to their concerns. This was true when I joined my logging brothers to block the border in 1998, and it’s true now — more than 20 years later.  By the time I was working in the woods, large landowners had already systemically stripped away workers’ rights by making loggers and haulers independent contractors instead of employees. At the time, folks had no idea how it would threaten our livelihoods. The blockade was the product of generations’ worth of resentment among loggers and haulers, who were just trying to make a living. All we wanted was a chance to provide for our families, doing the work our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers did before us. But we didn’t stand a chance in the fight against corporate landowners.

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