18 months ago
BREWER (NEWS CENTER) -- Food and Medicine, an advocacy group for working people, released a report that states that mill workers in eastern Maine are moving to jobs that pay on average 20% to 40% less than their mill jobs.
The report also shows that 46% of the people surveyed for the report say they lost insurance when they lost their job.
Now, 21% of them still have no insurance at all.
Ron Allen was laid off from Georgia Pacific in Old Town three years ago. Since then he hasn't been able to land a permanent job, and still has no health insurance.
"It's been frustrating I mean I've had to sell a few things, I had like six or eight years left on my home equity loan. I've had to refinance so now I'm back to 30 years on a loan that with another eight years would have been paid off," he said.
Steve Husson authored the report. He says he hopes it leads to policy changes that can help mill workers in the future.
"We're hoping that there will be a social change. That things will change, not only on a political level," he said.
The report outlined specific policy recommendations including extending unemployment benefits and creating a single payer healthcare system.
Representative Mike Michaud says these recommendations are being worked on by congress.
"I was very pleased to see the recommendations that they came up with. A lot of them actually we're dealing with, working on roight now in congress. Some were actually passed even though it's on a temporary basis, like not taxing the unemployment benefits," he said.
The report surveyed 107 Maine workers - 96 from the pulp and paper industry. According to the report, more than 2,000 pulp and paper jobs have been lost, and on average workers get a 30% cut in pay. Mill workers make an average of $58,136 per year, translating to a $37 million loss for the Eastern Maine economy per year.
To read the report visit: http://foodandmedicine.org/index.html
NEWS CENTER
