Thursday night Jared Golden, the Majority Whip of Maine's state House, and the progressive running for Congress in the sprawling 2nd congressional district, was the recipient of the Maine AFL-CIO's Edie Beaulieu Legislative Award "in recognition of outstanding leadership and support for working class people and working families' priorities. He received this award because of his work to pass a new law to increase access to workers' compensation for firefighters, paramedics and police officers suffering from a work place injury related to mental health. He also got it for legislation he introduced to increase fines for wage theft and to bring automatic voter registration to Maine. And finally, because he stood by the voice of the voters and refused to vote for bills that repealed the referendum questions they approved with ballot referendums last fall. "Edie Beaulieu," he said at the awards ceremony, "was a janitor [who] worked hard to help provide for her family. She was a strong, working class woman who saw a need for advocacy in her community and took it upon herself to organize and lead it. And as a legislator, she developed a reputation for taking on the establishment and fighting tirelessly for every cause she committed herself to. We’ve all heard the story of her historic fight to put smoke detectors in homes which has saved so many lives in Maine. The legislation failed several times but Edie kept bringing it back until finally she’d built the coalition necessary to beat the establishment." It was obvious Jason relates strongly with her story and her place in Maine history. This is what he told the union members who honored him Thursday night:

I am receiving this award in part because I took on a fight to pass a bill that had failed several times in the Legislature. This is a law that can save lives too.





It can save the life of one of the heroes that we rely on to show up when the smoke detectors sound. Firefighters and paramedics.





Everyone in this room knows that hard work takes a toll on working men and women. That’s especially true of police officers, firefighters and paramedics. The people who show up to help and protect others, during the toughest times of their lives.





When you put all your heart into helping others, you live their pain. You come to understand it in new ways. And it can take a toll on you.





You almost can’t help it, even though you know that what you’re doing is honorable and right. The repeated exposures and the risks that you take-- catch up and get ahead of you.





I fought this fight for you because I know what some of you are going through. I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress when I came home from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.





And while I worked, pushing a broom in a mechanics shop, and working part-time at night to get by on dirt wages, I had to struggle with a government system that was broken and that let a lot of veterans like me fall through the cracks.





Lucky for me I had friends and family to help and keep me putting one boot in front of the other. But I’ve also lost good friends with the same problems but no one there that knew how to help them or who even understood that they needed help.





That’s why I have no tolerance for standing by and watching a broken system that’s failing good men and women that have given so much.





I didn’t care when people told me that this bill had no chance in hell of passing. That it had already been tried. Or that the insurance and corporate lobbyists were too strong to defeat.





Well I guess they weren’t strong enough to take on Labor.





The success of this bill belongs to the union men and women-- the firefighters, paramedics and police officers who showed up in the Labor Committee and laid their hearts and souls out telling their stories.





They had the courage to share their personal struggles publicly. Not for themselves-- but for others. For their brothers and sisters that serve alongside them and for future generations that are going to step up and follow in their footsteps.





You did this so that your brothers and sisters can get the workers’ compensation that they deserve when they’ve been hurt by the job.





My life experience-- growing up having to earn every penny that’s come my way. Having to overcome struggles that are the result of the jobs that I’ve done. Living paycheck to paycheck. These experiences are what I call upon as a guide to set my priorities as an elected official.





And that’s why you can count on me to always have your back.





Every vote that I take, I’m going to ask “how does this help or hurt working men and women and their children back home. No matter if it’s in the State House or in Congress.





For too long now, some people in the Democratic Party have taken unions for granted. They want your PAC money-- they want the strength of your organizing abilities in the field to turn out the vote.





But at the same time they whisper that organized Labor is dying. If that’s true, then the progressive movement is going to die with it. I’m not one of those Democrats.





My voting record speaks for itself. I admire the hard work that you do and I admire the values that you stand for. The idea that unions are somehow less important in the new economy couldn’t be more wrong.





Now more than ever-- with everything that’s going on in America, now more than ever WE need YOU. Organized Labor is the answer to returning fairness and economic security to working men and women.





And that’s why unions are under attack. Under attack by a conservative Supreme Court. Under attack by a Congress that’s hostile to organized Labor.





I don’t have all the answers, but collectively you do, and I am all ears. I promise you this-- I will not sit by and watch the establishment come after you. I’m sick of just playing defense. Killing union busting bill, year after year.





I want to go on the the offensive to strengthen unions. Stronger unions, stronger America. I believe that from the bottom of my heart.





Earlier this year I sponsored a bill to increase fines on businesses caught stealing workers’ wages. And the Chamber of Commerce said that I had slapped the business community across the face. Well it’s damned right that if you’re stealing the hard earned fruits of your workers’ labor I will slap you with legislation to hold you accountable.





In the New York Times this past Sunday. There was an article about how there’s a lot of work, but not enough pay, and it said

economists assert that the weak growth in wages is an indicator of a new economic order in which working people are at the mercy of their employers.

At the mercy of their employers.





The Labor Movement exists because that is not acceptable.





You are in this room because you will never view a job as an act of mercy from a boss.





And no matter where I am, or what office I hold, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you to demand a different economic order-- based on honest value for our blood and sweat, and based on equal power for our voice.





This award is the greatest honor I’ve been given as a legislator. I thank you-- but it is not mine-- it’s yours. Thank you for the work that you do. And thanks for having me here with you tonight.