AUGUSTA — A labor organizer from Monmouth has been tapped to lead Maine’s largest state employees’ union.

On Tuesday, Rod Hiltz was named executive director of the Maine State Employees Association, according to a news release. Since 2007, he had been field mobilization director and a chief negotiator for the union, which serves more than 12,000 workers statewide.

He replaces Chris Quint, who left the position earlier this year to become a spokesman for the University of Southern Maine.

Hiltz, 55, became a union member in 1978 while working at a paper mill that was owned by International Paper in Jay. In 1985, he moved to the Sappi mill in Skowhegan, where he later served as local union president before taking his first position with the state employees’ union. He is married and has two stepchildren.

In a statement, Hiltz said it was “both an honor and a privilege” to be named to the post.


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