Craig Dilger for The New York Times
Yvonne Rosen, a lobsterman and a trustee of the Maine Lobstermen's Union, in her boat this month in Vinalhaven, Me.
VINALHAVEN, Me. — Late last year, Magnus Lane, a lobsterman with the propensity for wearing pirate-themed pajama pants around this rocky island town, found himself at the end of his rope. A glut of lobsters during the previous summer had pushed lobster prices to a 40-year low, while the cost of bait, fuel and complying with state and federal regulations seemed to creep ever upward.
Tired of hearing fellow lobstermen grouse, Mr. Lane, whose 30 years living in Maine have done nothing to dampen the deeply progressive political spirit he grew up with in his home country of Iceland, called some union organizers in the state, and made a wild suggestion: his ailing industry, despite its entrenched ethos of self-reliance, just might be ripe for their services.
That was the beginning of the Maine Lobstermen's Union, a local organized by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The union has signed up 600 members — 240 of whom have paid dues, so far — drawn by the promise of dedicated lobbying at the State Capitol on their behalf and the hope of market clout that could get them higher prices for lobster. But its growth has mystified others in the lobster industry, with its fierce independence and sometimes acrid competition, who have raised questions about whether a machinists' union could, or should, effectively unite lobstermen.
Rocky Alley, the union president, stood up in a diner late last month in Portland and addressed a small group of local lobstermen who had come to hear his pitch. He recalled the first recruitment call he got from Joel Pitcher, the machinists' union's organizer who has been traveling Maine's coast, piecing the lobstermen's union together.
"I said, 'You've got to be joking,' " said Mr. Alley, a towering man who speaks with an unmistakable Down East accent.
It is a wariness shared, at least initially, by many of the union's current members. Maine has about 5,000 licensed lobstermen, all of whom work on an independent basis. They compete for the sea's spoils, and in some parts of the state it can turn nasty. Lobstermen who break unwritten rules can find themselves with cut gear or sunken boats; in 2009, a dispute escalated into a shooting.
But Mr. Pitcher has made gains by emphasizing that lobstermen face bigger threats — from the market or from costly regulations — than from one another. At the meeting, he told potential recruits that union members had already successfully pushed to lower their required contribution to a state-run industry marketing fund, and he spoke of bylaws and articles of incorporation that, he said, allow the union to negotiate with buyers over the price of its members' lobster.
"You guys need to concentrate on what you have in common," he said, at the meeting in Portland. "That saves the way of life you know today."
The pitch was enough to persuade Greg Turner, 53, a lobsterman in Portland who wrote his first check for union dues — $52.22 a month — after the meeting.
"I hate unions, always have," Mr. Turner said with a shrug. But he thought the union might actually help preserve his agency as an independent businessman. "We worry about getting enough support so we can do what we want."
He was in short order handed a bright red union flag for his boat, and a matching T-shirt.
Those flags dot masts here in Vinalhaven, an outpost with a year-round population of 1,100. There is a single retail gas station, a bustling harbor, several buyers and distributors for the day's catch and a tiny diner that gets busy for breakfast when it is still dark out, before lobstermen go out to haul. It is here, as well as in similarly small, lobster-reliant communities like Jonesport and Stonington, Me., where the union has found the most traction.
"Out here, word of mouth travels so quick. They knew something was going on," Justin Dyer, 36, said of his fellow lobstermen. Mr. Dyer is one of about 25 lobstermen who traveled to the headquarters of the machinists' union in Maryland for union and organizing training earlier this year.
Yvonne Rosen, who has captained her own lobster boat for five years, is one of the union's trustees. On a recent morning, Ms. Rosen, who goes by Beba, loaded bait onto her boat before sunrise, ready to start the grueling work of lobstering solo.
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