Paid Sick Leave & Capitalism in Southern Maine

Many of the stories featured in Build’s publications are tales of success. This makes sense, because people want to know what works. But other, more difficult moments are also worth sharing because everyone suffers setbacks from time to time and it is important for us to learn how to continue building power through moments of defeat. This is a story about paid sick leave legislation and how reforms are concessions from those in power that are won through mass mobilization.

Southern Maine DSA (SMDSA) began our campaign for sick days in May of 2018. We are a relatively small chapter with about fifty to sixty people who regularly show up to general meetings. Our campaign’s focus was on changing a city ordinance in Portland, Maine to require earned paid sick leave to be offered at every business in the city. Portland has a population of only 66,000 but is still the biggest city in Maine. Victories in Portland often lead to wider statewide pushes.

At the time, businesses were not required to allow their workers any sick days. With rents going up, the choice of staying home sick to recover or going into work wasn’t even a real choice--you’ll get a lot sicker if you lose your apartment or can’t afford your next meal. Even workers with PTO plans ran into trouble. A comrade had a miscarriage that required them to call out of work at the last minute. They hoped to miss just half a day, but the situation became so serious that they ended up being out for two days, using sixteen of their hundred accrued hours of so-called “flexible PTO.” When they got back to work, their employer gave them a warning and told them that they were unreliable. Making sick leave an activity protected from such disciplinary action was one of our main goals with this campaign.

Bringing together these stories was no easy task, but we weren’t the only ones on the ground interested in doing the work. SMDSA joined Southern Maine Workers Center (SMWC), another member-led organization funded by our local labor council. Much of the groundwork and coordination was put together by the SMWC, who had been researching possible campaigns back in November of 2016. EPSL was the campaign they decided to pursue, but they were only able to get a policy in front of Portland committee in late 2017.

By the time our chapter joined, the focus was a public pressure campaign attempting to hurry the city council along. Many members of our chapter are new organizers, and we learned a lot from working with the veterans at SMWC. This was a long campaign with many meetings, but SMWC worked hard to keep things fresh with potlucks and excellent icebreaker questions at the top of the meetings. One of the most valuable lessons we learned was the importance of one-on-ones and follow-ups. We can sometimes fall into the trap of thinking our email list and social media presence can do all the mobilizing on its own, but what is really necessary is one-on-one conversations to learn about workers’ interests and let them know they have the power to make a difference. Following up with those workers after to see if they’re on track or need any additional support is also crucial.

When it came to the logistics of getting a sick-days bill passed, we decided to avoid a referendum because we thought having it passed by the legislature would mean a quicker turnaround. But there were drawbacks to our plan. With referenda, a clear finish line can help you measure how close you are to victory with signatures and votes. But when you change law legislatively, you have to watch the process. Closely. This means attending many committee meetings after work, holding public rallies, and writing letters to the editor to keep the topic in local conversation. It can often feel like being a very aggressive fan for a TV show that no one watches.  

The Health and Human Services Committee is the friendliest committee within our current council; yet, EPSL languished in committee for 16 months. EPSL has passed in several other cities and states. We were working off of these other models, but that didn’t stop the committee from going over it line by line—with no opportunity for public comment. It can be difficult to sit on the sidelines while this is happening. Often, after meetings, we would send follow-up emails trying to clarify points the committee had misinterpreted. Sometimes they would respond or set up a meeting with us. Sometimes we were met with silence. Being ignored is a red flag to watch out for.

For example, Councilor Brian Batson, who stopped replying to our emails, began in committee to push for a two-tiered system where businesses with ten employees or fewer could offer unpaid sick days. When Batson added this small-business exemption amendment to the ordinance, continuing to ignore our correspondence and refusing to meet with us, we canvassed his district, collecting over three hundred postcards over two weekends. Then, at a district meeting he was scheduled to appear at, we ambushed him with the postcards and bird-dog questions about EPSL. At the next committee meeting he withdrew his amendment.

As our ordinance change sat in committee, the 2018 midterm election passed us by, leaving Maine with a Democratic Party trifecta controlling both chambers and the governorship. We learned that another coalition was putting together a state EPSL bill, but it also included a small-business exemption similar to the amendment we had just worked so hard to remove.

Our chapter has probably made the most growth in organizing around municipal public hearings in Portland. When it comes to agitation, the rhetoric for paid sick leave is powerful because it makes the exploitation and abuse perpetrated by bosses apparent. With minimum-wage discussions, the pain and oppression can hide behind abstract numbers, and business owners will smile as they complain about lazy workers. With paid sick leave, we can point to a clear and relatable hardship—having to work when you’re feverish, vomiting, or too fatigued to get out of bed.

We can connect the suffering of the working class directly to bosses unwilling to hire and pay for extra staffing. We can bring together families both new and old: the new parents trying to find time for the many doctor’s appointments growing children require, or the now grown-up children looking for time to take care of their ailing parents. We bring together survivors of domestic violence to talk about the need for safe days. And we bring in even more workers who talk about throwing up in trash cans because they were threatened with losing their job if they went home sick. When all of these stories are brought together, they clearly reveal that the only thing perpetuating this suffering is the ravenous capitalist appetite for profit.

Centering grievances from our communities is the best way to build power, but it wasn’t easy at first. The process is inherently intimidating. It’s incredibly hard to find an explanation of how public hearings work, including the special traditions you’re supposed to know, such as greeting the chair or stating your address as you introduce yourself. That decorum only makes class divisions more apparent. Then you have to witness what business owners will actually say to protect their profit margins. Many times they will belittle any display of emotion.

In such a hostile environment, it’s important for socialists to show up and try to transform the space to feel welcoming to those suffering under capitalism. The best way to welcome testifying workers is through numbers. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder in solidarity signals to workers that they made the right choice in coming to share their story. Getting up to share our own stories of vulnerability also makes other speakers feel comfortable. We also claimed space outside the chamber, allowing attendees to find some quiet. We organized food and drink for these hearings, which often go for over four hours.

We tried to make these events feel more like celebrations than work. We threw rallies beforehand, coupled with press conferences. The slogan we landed on for our last public hearing was “Portland without Paid Sick Days is Prehistoric.” Several members showed up wearing T. Rex costumes and ordered a sheet cake with chocolate icing evocative of a primordial swamp, and members formed a marching band to play songs with lyrics changed to fit the struggle. It was amazing to hear our song ring out through city hall.

Despite our efforts and the growth of the movement, we were out-maneuvered. The night of our big dinosaur rally, we learned the state EPSL bill had been altered by the new Democratic Governor, Janet Mills, transforming it into a state PTO plan with no enforcement provisions or private right to action. The Maine Democratic Party leadership and many Republican legislators rallied behind Mills’ new bill, and it was hailed as a bipartisan milestone for the new administration. The coup de grace was pre-emption language barring any municipality from passing stricter legislation, rendering our Portland ordinance powerless.

Activist groups including DSA took part in a push to pass the city ordinance anyway. We phonebanked with the Portland delegation of legislators to delay the state vote so that Portland could vote. Portland’s passage of EPSL could have sent a message to Augusta that cities’ right to home rule should be respected. Unfortunately, some Portland councilors showed no interest in governing locally and were eager to cede responsibility to the state. The local hospital, Maine Medical Center, had long opposed our bill because they did not want to abide by the enforcement rules, nor did they want taking sick time to be a protected activity. Many of the councilors parroted these points as they spoke in opposition. The city council voted not to pass, with a five to four vote.

We were defeated—but we had gained a few things of our own. We built organization knowledge and capacity, and the coalition work had also brought us deeper into the community in Portland. This campaign was a class struggle. It’s hard to hear bosses lie about why they can’t afford to give sick time and not have your class consciousness raised a little bit. In fact, there were quite a few small businesses that started to offer earned paid sick time to their own employees even without the law passing. As we moved deeper into the community, more organizations entered our orbit. The city manager recently released a budget to cap beds at one of our city’s overflow shelters. Now an even bigger coalition is forming to fight against this budget. The ability to shift community organizing into a broader city-wide scale is one of DSA’s strengths.

Often people will get politically active to cast votes at the ballot box, but then return home and stop paying attention. But the most important time to start paying attention is after the election, because that is when the change we believe in is made—or not. Keeping the public engaged post-election is the only way to keep our politicians accountable to their campaign promises. We can’t be quiet, we can’t be intimidated, and we for sure can’t be boring! By flowing with and growing out of the community, we build power regardless of the results. A movement does not gain strength by talking about the “politically feasible,” but by expanding horizons through mass mobilization.

Written by Aaron Berger. To learn more about Southern Maine DSA, visit their website and follow them on Twitter.