I’ve worked at Bath Iron Works for over 38 years, and I can tell others what every shipbuilder I know actually wants: a fair contract and enough work to keep building ships well into the future.

I’m a proud union member, and I respect Troy Jackson for standing with us back in 2020 when we were out on the picket line. That mattered. But showing up during a strike is just one part of the job. Somebody also has to make sure there’s a next ship to build after this one’s done. That’s why I’m supporting Sen. Susan Collins.

As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Collins is the one who’s actually gotten the destroyers funded, pushed money for modernizing the yard and kept the Navy’s shipbuilding dollars coming to Bath, year after year. Jackson can talk about the picket line all he wants. Collins is the one writing the funding bills. That’s where the jobs actually get decided.

For those of us who make our living building ships, the best speech during a strike doesn’t matter as much as ensuring that we still have good-paying jobs five or ten years from now.

I’m a union worker who is proud to support Susan Collins because nobody’s delivered more results for BIW and for families, like mine, who depend on it.

Glenn Chateauvert
Greene

Read the letter at: Portland Press Herald