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The Western Kentucky Worker | |
Official newsletter of the Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO
Prepared by Berry Craig, KEA-NEA and AFT- Kentucky
Volume 7, Number 1, January 2006
State fed gives early nods to Gray, Cherry and Nesler
The Kentucky State AFL-CIO Executive Board approved early endorsements for some labor-friendly lawmakers, including a trio of western Kentucky Democrats. They are State Reps. J.R. Gray of Benton, Mike Cherry of Princeton and Fred Nesler of Mayfield. “The 2006 races for the House are very critical,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president and executive board member. “The only thing that stands between Kentucky and a right-to-work law is a Democratic House. The state fed wanted to make some endorsements now for incumbents who are tried and true labor supporters.” At its December meeting, the council voted unanimously to recommend Gray, Cherry and Nesler for reelection. “Councils make recommendations in state races but only the state AFL-CIO can make endorsements in state races,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins said Gray, Cherry and Nesler “are our good friends. They have supported us in the past and will support us in the future. They need our help.”
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Council composes questionnaire for 2006 candidates
The Area Council wants to know where candidates stand on a wide range of issues from right-to-work to gay marriage. “We have prepared a questionnaire that we will be mailing out soon to candidates for local and statewide offices from our area,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president. “How they answer the questions will be a big factor when we decide who to endorse or recommend for endorsement. The council questionnaire includes questions about right-to-work, the prevailing wage, party switching, public employee collective bargaining, metro government, protecting worker health care and pension plans, OSHA, gun control, abortion and gay marriage. Wiggins suggested questions about social issues don't belong on a labor questionnaire. “We can ask candidates about those issues when they come down here,” he said.
Delegates Howard “Bubba” Dawes and Benny Adair asked that questions about gun control, abortion and gay marriage be included in the questionnaire. They said the three issues are important to many union members.
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Machinists help poor people have happier Thanksgiving
A quartet of Calvert City Machinists union locals contributed $2,347 to Martha’s Vineyard, a Paducah charity that provides food for the needy.
“This is really what the union spirit is all about,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president. ”Unions are about helping more than just union members.”
The money for Thanksgiving dinners came from IAM Locals 2781, 1294, 1720 and 1969, said Howard “Bubba” Dawes, a Machinist and Area Council delegate. “We took up donations in the plants the week before Thanksgiving,” he added. Martha Bell started Martha’s Vineyard 13 years ago. The charity helps feed poor people year round, not just at holiday time.
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GOP plans to push r-t-w, prevailing, wage, ‘tort reform'
Republicans, with Gov. Fletcher’s blessing, are expected to push several anti-labor proposals in the General Assembly, including a right-to-work bill.
“They also want to gut the state prevailing wage law and they favor what they call ‘tort reform,’ which will limit the ability of ordinary citizens to sue doctors for malpractice,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president.
Wiggins said Speaker Jody Richards and the rest of the House Democratic leadership is pledged to stopping right-to-work and prevailing wage bills. “We don’t expect them to go anywhere," Wiggins added.
He said “tort reform” evidently has a better chance of passing. "We will oppose that, too," Wiggins said.
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Diane Yancey donates old photos for council hall
Delegates at the December council meeting got a look at what the new workers' memorial might look like.
Jeff Wiggins, council president, showed images of engraved stone markers ranging in price from about $7,700 to $11,300. Delegates will approve the design. Money will be raised to pay for the memorial.
In other business, the council received with gratitude a pair of old union photos from Diane Yancey of AFSCME. Her father, the late R.L. Yancey, was a longtime local labor leader.
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City Commission endorses Fletcher's right-to-work proposal
By BERRY CRAIG, AFT-Kentucky/KEA-NEA
Pleas from a labor leader and a college professor didn't stop the Paducah City Commission from endorsing Gov. Ernie Fletcher's right-to-work proposal.
Close to 200 members of industrial, building and construction trades, and public employee unions and their supporters jammed the commission chamber Tuesday night to show their opposition to right-to-work.
Nonetheless, the commission approved a resolution calling for “the enactment of right-to-work legislation by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in its 2006 regular session.” The vote was 3-1.
After the vote, Gerald Watkins, who teaches political science at the West Kentucky Community and Technical College said it wouldn't have mattered if 5,000 people had spoken against right-to-work. “It was obvious their minds were already made up.” Mayor Bill Paxton and Commissioners George Sirk and Buzz Smith voted for the resolution. Commissioner Robert Coleman voted no. Coleman is a retired union postal worker.
Several people signed up to speak. Paxton permitted only Watkins and Larry Sanderson time at the microphone. Sanderson is business manager of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 184. Sanderson conceded that the mayor and commissioners have the right to support a right-to-work law “individually as citizens of western Kentucky.” But he added, “If you pass this tonight, it's not going to represent the views of Paducah or McCracken County or the surrounding counties in western Kentucky. We are going to send a false message to Frankfort. This right-to-work bill was concocted by a governor whose approval rating is lower than the temperature is outside.”
Watkins, an all but announced candidate for the commission in the May primary, said, “right-to-work is about destroying unions.” He added, “In the spirit of my ancestor, Henry Clay, we ought to be able to work out a compromise. If the mayor or members of the commission wish to send the governor of Kentucky a letter expressing their personal support for a right-to-work law, so be it. But why drag the city of Paducah into it? We have good labor-management relations down here. Why poison them?”
Paxton said the Greater Paducah Economic Development Council asked the city commission and McCracken County Fiscal Court to pass resolutions supporting a right-to-work law. Judge-Executive Danny Orazine declined to schedule a vote on such a resolution. “Right-to-work means the right to work for less,” said Herb Segal, a Louisville lawyer who came to the meeting. “If they had let me speak, that's what I would have said."
Meanwhile, several union members thanked Coleman for his vote and vowed to help unseat Smith and Sirk next year. Paxton won't be up for reelection until 2008. But there was no doubt the union members meant the mayor, too, when they filed from the council chamber chanting, “Let's vote ‘em out! Let's vote ‘em out!” Union officials and rank-and-file members came from afar to oppose the right-to-work resolution. Larry Jaggers, state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, drove from Elizabethtown. Steve Earle of the UMWA brought a group of coal miners from the Madisonville-Central City area. Area unions also were planning additional rallies against the council's right-to-work resolution.
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UK CLEAR class set for Jan. 9 at Area Council hall
The UK Center for Labor Education and Research will offer a "Basic Steward Training" class from 6 to 9 p.m. Jan. 9 at the council hall. Plans call for the class to touch on labor history, too. The cost is $20 per person -- prepayment required -- and Jan. 5 is the registration deadline. More information is available from CLEAR at (859) 257-4811.
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Got news? Email it to Berry Craig at bcraig8960@charter.net or Jeff Wiggins at JLWiggins2@Juno.com.