PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 7, 2022
Gov. Janet Mills on Friday vetoed a bill that would allow farmworkers to unionize, saying it would subject farmers to “a complicated new set of laws that would require them to hire lawyers just to understand.” Mills said the bill contains complicated provisions on mediation and arbitration between farmers and agricultural workers that would affect every farm in Maine with more than five workers, even if those employees are seasonal or part-time. The measure, Mills said, “would further burden our small, family-owned farms by saddling them with increased costs” that would likely have to be passed along to consumers. Mills’ veto was criticized by the Maine AFL-CIO, which said the measure would have allowed Maine farmworkers to push back against wage theft, sexual harassment and other abuses.