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A mural depicting vignettes of state and national labor history was removed over the weekend from Maine’s Labor Department headquarters in Augusta, Gov. Paul LePage’s office said Monday morning.
The 11-panel mural that includes images of worker strikes and “Rosie the Riveter” was moved into a storage facility over the weekend, said Dan Demeritt, the governor’s director of communications and legislative affairs. It will be kept in storage until it can be “transfer[red] to a more appropriate venue,” he confirmed to POLITICO.
LePage, a Republican who took office earlier this year, last week ordered the removal of the mural from the department’s lobby, citing complaints from several members of the public, including one who said the images were reminiscent of “communist North Korea, where they use these murals to brainwash the masses.”
Tensions are high in state capitals around the country, where new Republican governors are pushing for changes to state labor laws seen as less friendly to unions in both the public and the private sectors.
“I’m trying to send a message to everyone in the state that the state of Maine looks at employees and employers equally, neutrally and on balance,” LePage said last week. “The mural sends a message that we’re one-sided, and I don’t want to send that message.”