Maine AFL-CIO Says Collins' Husband Worked for IP in Jay Strike
Tom Daffron told Bowdoin College in a 2009 interview that he joined International Paper in 1988 as director of government and public relations.
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The Maine AFL-CIO said Tom Daffron, a lobbyist and the husband of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, worked for International Paper during the 1987-88 strike at the company's Androscoggin Mill in Jay.
The labor federation pointed to a 2009 interview Daffron gave to Bowdoin College, in which he said he left Republican Sen. Bill Cohen's office in 1988 to become International Paper's director of government and public relations for "nine or ten months." In that interview he described a fight over decertifying the union and said it was "nasty business."
The strike began in 1987 when 1,250 members of United Paperworkers International Union Local 14 walked out after the company moved to end double pay for Sundays and holidays and cut 178 jobs. International Paper kept the mill running with more than 1,000 replacement workers and spent as much as $20,000 a week on newspaper and television advertising, according to the Maine AFL-CIO.
Local 14 ended the strike after 17 months and accepted the company's terms. In 1992, mill employees voted to dissolve the union.
Daffron hired Collins as an intern in Cohen's office in 1974 and later ran her Dirigo PAC from 2003 to 2012.
This story was first reported by Maine AFL-CIO.
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