Tag Archives: Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound
Lobster 207 racketeering lawsuit inching toward trial
A lawsuit alleging racketeering brought by Lobster 207 against the family it purchased a lobster wholesale business from will likely be decided at trial, attorney Thimi R. Mina, the Portland lawyer representing Lobster 207, said Jan. 27. The suit alleges Anthony and Josette Pettegrow, who sold Lobster 207 their wholesale lobster concern, and their son Warren Pettegrow embezzled nearly $2 million over roughly two years, in a price-fixing arrangement that included BJ Co-op manager Stephen Peabody. Peabody, the Pettegrows’ lobster business Poseidon Charters LLC and their Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound were named as co-defendants. >click to read< 10:26
Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound owners file countersuit
The Pettegrow family, owners of the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound, has filed a counterclaim against Lobster 207, which purchased the lobster pound’s wholesale operation and has accused the family of embezzlement, theft and breach of contract. In the new claim filed in federal district court earlier this month, the Pettegrows, who continue to run the Trenton Bridge restaurant, contend that Lobster 207 broke its agreements with the family, engaged in smear campaigns to get out of contractual obligations and made the Pettegrows scapegoats for Lobster 207’s own failings. >click to read< 10:42
Judge orders former owners to come up with $1.43M in lobster sales lawsuit
A federal judge has ordered the former owners of a wholesale lobster business and the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound to set aside $1.43 million,,, The Maine Lobstering Union in December sued the former CEO of its wholesale business and his parents in U.S. District Court in Bangor, alleging that the family defrauded and stole from the group after selling it their wholesale lobster business three years ago. U.S. District Judge Lance Walker accepted an estimate of the amount of money lost as $1,438,181.23. That figure was provided by certified public accountants in Portland hired by the lobstermen’s co-operative, according to court documents. >click to read< 08:59
Why the U.S. Needs More Worker-Owned Companies
The gap in wealth in the United States between the ultrawealthy and everyone else has reached its widest point in decades. One way to narrow the divide is through the use of worker buyouts, in which ownership of a company transfers from a single person or a small number of people to the workers of the company. Currently, about 10% of Americans hold equity stakes in their workplaces.,,, Worker buyouts are particularly likely to blossom in industries with organized workers who transition to union cooperatives. Last year 400 members of IAM Maine Lobstering Union bought the wholesale operation of Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound and turned it into a worker-owned cooperative called Lobster 207. >click to read<07:59
Maine lobstermen tap into union network for retail sales
A few months after buying a lobster pound and processing plant, Maine’s lobstering union is now tapping its connection to unions across the country to rack up online retail sales and reap greater financial returns for its members. The union is now shipping live Maine lobster caught by its 400 members anywhere in the country. The path these lobsters will take on their way from the ocean floor to your door is completely unionized, from the Vinalhaven lobsterman who traps it to the Rockland truck driver who picks it up from a transfer boat to the Lamoine plant worker who packs it to the UPS teamster who delivers it. Anyone can buy them, of course, but the Maine Lobstering Union is definitely looking to make the most of a nationwide union network. click here to read the story 14:31
Maine lobstermen’s union votes to buy Hancock County lobster business
The Maine Lobstering Union voted Saturday to buy a wholesale lobster business near Mount Desert Island to help its fishermen net a bigger share of the profit in the booming, $1.5 billion-a-year industry. At a closed-door meeting in Rockport, members voted 63-1 to buy the wholesale side of the Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound, which includes a tank that can hold up to 180,000 pounds of lobster, for $4 million, said Local 207 President Rocky Alley. “We can’t wait to start buying and selling our own lobsters,” Alley said. “Right now, fishermen sell at the dock, and we get what we get, with no control. But there is lots of money made off lobsters after they leave the dock, and some ought to stay with us fishermen.” The vote enables the Maine union to borrow money from a Kansas City bank and to borrow $1.1 million from fellow locals in the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers as far south as Maryland to purchase the Lamoine-based wholesale business. continue reading the story here 21:36
