Sen. Bellows earns high marks for pro-worker voting record

Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester, earned a perfect score from the Maine AFL-CIO for her votes to support working families and strengthen workers’ rights.

“I’m proud to stand up for working families who are the backbone of Maine’s economy,” said Sen. Bellows. “We delivered in a big way for workers on a number of issues, including earned paid time off, workers’ compensation, and equal pay for equal work. I’ll always fight for workers.”

Sen. Bellows has a long history of supporting Maine workers. This year, as Senate Chair of the Legislature’s Labor and Housing Committee, she helped shepherd a variety of pro-worker bills through the legislative process, including a fair earned paid time off policy from Sen. Rebecca Millett, D-Cape Elizabeth, to ensure 85 percent of Maine workers can earn up to 40 hours of paid time off per year, while protecting seasonal and small businesses. Another new law that went through the Labor and Housing Committee allows fire investigators to retire at the same time as law enforcement and other key employees whose jobs entail great personal risk to health and well-being from Rep. Matt Harrington, R-Sanford.

Maine AFL-CIO based their scorecard on 12 bills, including a new law to give workers stronger legal remedies when they’re subject to wage theft, and another that allows loggers to form cooperatives, collectively bargain and advocate for safe work conditions. The Maine AFL-CIO represents more than 160 local labor unions and 40,000 working people in the state. For more information about the votes scored by the AFL-CIO, visit www.maineaflcio.openscorecard.org.