Sunday, March 27, 2011

Maine Governor Denying History, Removing Mural, Renaming Conference Rooms

Dolores LaChance forwarded this article by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich

Why We Need a Fighter in the White House: "Maine Governor Paul LePage has ordered state workers to remove from the state labor department a 36-foot mural depicting the state’s labor history. Among other things the mural illustrates the 1937 shoe mill strike in Auburn and Lewiston. It also features the iconic “Rosie the Riveter,” who in real life worked at the Bath Iron Works. One panel shows my predecessor at the U.S. Department of Labor, Frances Perkins, who was buried in Newcastle, Maine.

The LePage Administration is also renaming conference rooms that had carried the names of historic leaders of American labor, as well as former Secretary Perkins.

The Governor’s spokesman explains that the mural and the conference-room names were “not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals.”"

Wasn't the Department of Labor set up to protect workers? How bizarre?

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