A Small Town Union Leader on Building Vermont’s Labor Movement for a New Generation

For Jeremy Rathbun of Middlebury, a licensed mechanical professional engineer, licensed class III wastewater operator and District Vice President in the Vermont State Labor Council, the art of union organizing is figuring out how to get people with different views to come together around a bigger purpose. “What brings us together is so much greater than what divides us,” says Rathbun.

The symbols of public-sector infrastructure are often associated with urban areas: major highways and subway systems...