Gubernatorial politics showed up on the FairPoint picket lines Friday, with Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud joining striking workers and using the occasion to take a swipe at incumbent Republican Gov. Paul LePage.

Michaud said he understands the workers’ plight. He was a union negotiator when tradesmen at Great Northern Paper Co. went on strike in the mid- to late-1970s. The impasse was bridged by independent Gov. James Longley, who invited management and labor to meet at the Blaine House over his wife’s homemade éclairs, he said.

But Michaud doesn’t believe that LePage, who often blasts unions and has tried unsuccessfully to weaken their influence through so-called right-to-work legislation, will be able to play a role in resolving this dispute.

“The fact that he vetoed 180 bills shows his inability to be able to negotiate anything, so I doubt this governor will be able to get labor and management together to negotiate a contract,” Michaud said. “It’s just not in his DNA.”

LePage campaign spokesman Alex Willette said the governor is taking the strike “very seriously” and called Michaud’s dig political posturing.

“The governor is willing to work with anybody and everyone who is interested in good public policy,” Willette said. “Unfortunately, Congressman Michaud is just focused on political cheap shots.”

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LePage is setting up a meeting Monday with company and state officials to ensure that there will be no interruptions in service for the state’s 911 system, Willette said. LePage wants to make sure that “this Maine company that has invested so much into our economy makes it through this strike.”

Willette later clarified that the governor was not picking sides in the dispute.

The third candidate for governor, independent Eliot Cutler, issued a statement Friday afternoon about the strike.

“Union members have the legal right to organize and to strike,” Cutler said. “I hope that FairPoint will come to the table and make a fair offer to the workers, and I hope the workers will also be reasonable in resumed negotiations. This stalemate benefits no one. If I were governor, I would not be choosing sides, but I would be making every effort to bring the two sides together and to end the stalemate.”


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