Maine Gov. Paul LePage Extends War on Workers to War on Art About Workers

Judy Taylor's Maine labor history mural

Maine Gov. Paul "elected with 38% of the vote" LePage apparently isn't content with going after collective bargaining rights for workers, raising pension contributions for public employees while exempting himself, and a host of other measures designed to drive down wages and working conditions.

No, his anti-worker crusade extends to artwork.

LePage has ordered a labor history mural removed from the walls of the state's Department of Labor, and conference rooms renamed so they won't honor labor leaders.

The artist, Judy Taylor, whose design won a jury selection by the Maine Arts Commission,

said she'd never heard that her mural painted an unflattering picture of business.

"There was never any intention to be pro-labor or anti-labor," she said. "It was a pure depiction of the facts."

She said people had always reacted positively to the mural, even businesspeople who came to her studio.

"At one point, maybe their grandmother or their grandfather had worked in the mills, so they had a very moving, emotional reaction to the mural," she said. "It touched them in a way because there was this ancestral legacy there."

But maybe LePage is feeling sensitive because one of the mural's panels depicts child labor, and he is supporting a rollback of child labor laws.