There must be a lot of happy lobster fishermen, Mark Brewer said.

Otherwise, the Boothbay man said he didn't know why just six license-holders came to Damariscotta on October 17, to hear about the new union trying to make things better for them. “I figured there’d be a lot here.”

Brewer fishes out of Boothbay Harbor. He's a member of, and recording secretary for, the months-old Maine Lobstering Union.

Banding together is the path to better prices, laws, boat and health insurance and saving the livelihood for future generations, union leaders and a lobbyist for the union said.

Unless fishermen work together for change, corporations will eventually own the lobstering industry, using a limited number of boats and having fishermen as their employees, lobbyist Joel Pitcher said.

“That's their end game,” Pitcher said of corporations. The union can work as a cooperative, to get more money for the lobsters than the “cull” prices companies are paying now, speakers said.

Speakers dispelled a rumor they said is going around, that the union would strike. Some unions can legally strike, but not theirs, they said.

But few potential new union members were inside the American Legion Post 42 hall on Main Street to hear those messages. The six who showed up just equaled the panel of Pitcher, Brewer, union president Rocky Alley, one more union member and, in the audience, an insurance representative and Alley's wife.

Jason Lord of Pemaquid said he came because he was interested in learning more about the union he'd heard about. “Anything that would make the situation better would be good,” he said.

Turnout has been much better at other meetings the union has been holding up and down the Maine coast, speakers said. They offered to hold more meetings in this area, maybe closer to where pockets of fishermen work; and they encouraged the fishermen to tell others what they had learned about the union that night.

The union is up to about 600 members, leaders said; but there are thousands more to stand with them on state and federal issues: The union is part of the International Association of Machinists, which has 5,000 Maine members and 450,000 nationwide.

“Where else can you get that many people to support you? Nowhere,” Alley, of Jonesport, said.

Lawmakers pay attention to them when they go to the State House in their union tee shirts, he said.

“It's like a light has been switched. That's the way they look us now,” Alley continued.

“We need to stand up for ourselves, and this is it right here. The last hurrah, the union. This is the only way we're going to do it.”

Already, the union was able to knock out one bill that would have let fish draggers sell their bycatch lobsters in Maine, Alley said. Now, they'll have to keep taking them to Massachusetts for sale.

The union helped get a new law that gives reservists called up to active duty 10 years before they lose credit for completing their lobstering apprenticeships, Pitcher said.

Alley’s son lost credit for his while serving in Iraq; the expiration bumped him off a waiting list for a lobster fishing license.

Alley outlined dues to belong to the union: They're $52.22 every month the fisherman's traps are in the water; and $2 a month when they're not. Only lobster fishing license-holders can join.

For more information, call Pitcher at 207-407-1222.

“We're going to take a whack if we don't stick together,” Brewer said in an interview.