Maine Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson visited People’s Inclusive Welding in South Portland during a Labor Day weekend tour, praising the school’s emphasis on inclusion and pledging support for apprenticeship programs like it.
WGME reported that Jackson stopped at the hands-on welding training facility on Saturday as part of a Labor Day weekend tour to meet working Mainers.
“Making people feel included is how we are going to do a lot better across this state and country,” Jackson told the outlet.
People’s Inclusive Welding shop owner Jo Remillard told WGME, “A lot of funding has been pulled for workforce training, especially because our school has ‘inclusive’ in the name, that can disqualify us from federal funding, and you know, we are creating skilled trades workers who are going to work on Maine’s infrastructure.”
“Apprenticeship programs like this is something I’ve always supported. I am certainly going to support more money and support into this if I am lucky enough to pull this off,” Jackson said.
People’s Inclusive Welding states that its mission is to provide “a safe and supportive environment for underserved and underrepresented communities” to complete welding training and receive workers’ rights education so they can enter “a high paying career within the blue collar industry.”
The school’s handbook says PIW seeks relationships with employers that practice racial sensitivity training and wants every student to have “an equitable chance at receiving every ounce of education that they desire within their chosen course.”
The handbook also tells students that school can be “a triggering and anxiety-inducing space for many people” and asks them to practice kindness and patience with their peers and themselves.
PIW’s handbook lists “fatphobia” among conduct prohibited under its zero-tolerance policy for discrimination, harassment, and violence, alongside “racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, islamophobia, fatphobia, antisemitism, or any other form of discrimination.” Although the handbook says the policy is “as outlined under Maine Law,” the Maine Human Rights Commission’s list of protected classes does not separately include “fatphobia” or weight as a protected status.
PIW further states that it “is committed to anti-racism” and that both “over-expressions and microaggressions will be taken seriously.” The handbook adds, “Under no circumstances will the police be called or be allowed into the shop space.”
Remillard says being the only “femme” in many workplaces prompted questions about representation in the trades.
“As I grew older, my acceptance of this reality dissipated and I began to ask myself why there weren’t more women, people of color, or immigrants? Where are the Indigenous people? Folks with disabilities? Or anyone from the gay community?! Even if there were 1 or 2 people from these groups, why did they hold the less skilled, lower paying jobs?” Remillard states on PIW’s website.
Remillard said the murder of George Floyd led to becoming “a student of anti-racism” and to realizing that “the position I held in my career was given to me through the inequitable advantages and privilege every white person is granted via systemic white supremacy.”
PIW board member Arlo Hennessey, who identifies as “a black trans man with mixed heritage,” states, “I know the trades have a racism and inclusion issue.”
Hennessey said “safe and good paying union jobs are prohibited through gate keeping,” which keeps “otherwise qualified black, indigenous, immigrants, poc, and lgbtqia+ people from ever making it in the door.”
“If they make it that far they have to work twice as hard with twice the harassment just to prove themselves,” Hennessey added.
“Black, indigenous, immigrant, poc, and lgbtqia+ people are going to have a seat at the table, or these industries are gonna die,” Hennessey states.
Jackson’s stop at the school comes as the former Maine Senate president campaigns against incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). He has been endorsed by former vice president and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Jackson became Maine Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominee at the party’s July 25 convention, replacing Graham Platner who withdrew after a former girlfriend accused him of sexual assault, an allegation Platner denied.
Jackson has since faced scrutiny over a Washington Post report alleging he repeatedly yelled and cursed at fellow lawmakers, including during a 2021 dispute in which he threw a water bottle, as well as a 1988 assault case in which he has acknowledged punching a man. A police report from the incident also says longtime partner Lana Pelletier told an officer Jackson had “pushed her around,” though both Jackson and Pelletier now deny that he was violent toward her. Jackson and Pelletier have also been reported to be second cousins who share two children.
Jackson’s legislative record has also drawn attention. In 2023, he voted for legislation allowing some 16- and 17-year-olds to obtain nonsurgical gender-affirming hormone therapy without parental consent under specified conditions, supported taxpayer funding for transgender surgeries involving minors, and voted against several measures intended to protect girls’ sports. He also helped advance legislation that made Maine the first state to decriminalize selling sex and recently described himself as “working class” after Sen. Susan Collins said he had become “essentially a democratic socialist.”
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