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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 8, Number 1, January 2007
Watkins: ‘…a good election night from top to bottom'
State Rep. Frank Rasche said his parents taught him to say “please” and “thank you.”
“I asked you to please support me,” the Paducah Democrat told delegates at the December council meeting. “Now I am thanking you.”
Rasche, labor endorsed, won another term in the state legislature. He defeated Republican Bruce Brockenborough, a Paducah business owner, by a 2-1 margin.
“We had a good election night in America from top to bottom,” said Gerald Watkins, who was elected to the Paducah City Commission. “The elite and the wealthy had dominated politics, but working people sent them a strong message.”
Watkins, a political science professor at West Kentucky Community and Technical College , followed Rasche to the podium and also thanked labor for backing him. “I believe we now have control of city hall,” he said. “We'll find out.”
Incumbent Robert Coleman was re-elected. He, too, had labor support.
Richard Abraham was the third union-endorsed commission candidate, but he lost.
“Gail Kaler [who was also elected to the commission] will be the swing vote,” Watkins said. “I hope she'll be with us most of the time.”
Carroll Hubbard also was a guest at the December meeting. A Paducah lawyer and former congressman and state senator, he lost the Second District state senate race to incumbent Bob Leeper (I-Paducah). “I want to say thank you to the Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council for your endorsement and I appreciate the 15,439 people who voted for me,” said Hubbard.
Leeper won by 58 votes over Hubbard. Republican Neil Archer, a Paducah business owner, finished third.
As election day neared, the state Republican party lambasted Hubbard in local media ads. “It's s shame David Williams and his cronies got involved,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president.
Williams, from Burkesville, is leader of the Republican-majority state senate. “If he'd stayed out of it, things might have been different” Wiggins said. “But I thank Carroll Hubbard for running a positive race.”
While the Democrats failed to add any senate seats, they increased their House majority. Hardy Williams, council recording secretary, said he heard David Williams was installing new paneling in his Frankfort office.
“That's probably because he kicked holes in the wall after what happened to the House Republicans on election night,” Hardy Williams joked.
Nationally, the Democrats won control of the U.S. House and Senate and gained several governorships. “A lot of people in this council worked really hard to elect our union-endorsed candidates,” Wiggins said. “That hard work paid off. Most of our candidates won.”
Wiggins said he is looking forward to putting a pro-labor Democrat in the governor's mansion in November. “One more thing I hope we accomplish while I am president is electing a pro-labor mayor of Paducah in 2008,” he added.
Wiggins said Republican Ernie Fletcher is one of the most anti-union governors in state history. “He tried to get a right-to-work law passed and failed. Mayor Bill Paxton and his anti-union friends on the city commission endorsed Fletcher's right-to-work for less bill at the urging of the Paducah Chamber of Commerce.
“We helped defeat George Sirk, Paxton's anti-union ally. We gave Robert Coleman some help in Gerald Watkins. We'll finish cleaning house in '08 by voting Paxton and [Commissioner] Buzz Smith out of office, too.”
Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page
Council hopes Mary Hicks can succeed her husband
When the state AFL-CIO Executive Board met in Frankfort in January delegates left a chair empty in memory of Lewis Hicks of LaCenter.
“It was also draped in black cloth for Lewis,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president and an E-board member. “I don't know how many times Lewis sat by my side in these meetings. But I do know he will be missed.”
A member of Steelworkers Local 5-680 in Wickliffe, Hicks was a state E-board member and council trustee and COPE director. He died in November at age 63.
Hicks had just been elected to another four-year term as mayor of LaCenter. The city council named Hicks' widow, Mary Helen Hicks, mayor until Jan. 1
After Jan. 1, the council was to appoint someone to complete the first year of Hicks' term. A special election will be held in November for the remaining three years.
The area council voted unanimously to recommend that Mary Helen Hicks be allowed to continue as mayor. “Nobody knows better what Lewis wanted and would have done than Mary Hicks,” Wiggins said.
Wiggins also said he sent a letter with the Area Council's wishes to the La Center council.
The December Area Council meeting began and ended with a moment of silence in honor of Hicks, the 2005 recipient of the W.C. Young Award. Named for the late W.C. Young, a national labor and civil rights leader from Paducah , the Young Award is the highest honor the council bestows.
The council decided not to name a replacement for Hicks as trustee and COPE director. “Elections for new officers will be coming up in February and we will be making nominations in January,” Wiggins said. “But whoever replaces Lewis will have some big shoes to fill.”
Wiggins praised Hicks as one of his mentors in the labor movement. “You
appreciate people who help you and do things for you,” he said. “This is a sad time.
“But rejoice and have happiness in your heart that Lewis is in a better place. He isn't hurting with cancer any more.”
Wiggins added, “Lewis was a great union man and a great family man. Let's remember him in our thoughts and prayers.”Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page
Benny Adair promises ‘to work hard for all Machinists'
Benny Adair, newly-elected directing business representative for Machinists District Lodge 154 in Calvert City , says his “first order of business is to bring us back together.”
Adair is area council vice president and a member of IAM Local 1720. “The election is over,” Adair said. “We've got to move forward together. We've got to organize. We've got contracts coming up and we've got arbitration cases.”
Adair, who lives near Benton , has been a member of the IAM for 21 years. He serves as secretary-treasurer of the Kentucky Council of Machinists and is on the Machinists Non-Partisan Political League National Committee.
“Directing business representative is a full-time job,” he said. “It is my intention to work hard for all Machinists.”Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page
Council donates the ‘Rock of Labor' to USW Local 665
The council's “Rock of Labor” is going to a new home.
Delegates voted to donate the memorial stone to Steelworkers Local 665 in Mayfield. “We really appreciate this,” said Wayne Chambers, Local 665 vice president and Area Council trustee. “Hopefully, we can have it engraved and put up somewhere in Mayfield or Graves County as a memorial to our union.” Local 665 represents hourly workers at the Continental-General Tire plant in Mayfield. Virtually shut down, the factory is slated to close all operations around Feb. 1.
A few years ago, the council purchased the large brown stone, dubbed “the Rock of Labor” in hopes of turning it into a memorial for western Kentucky working men and women. But delegates decided against that memorial after the state AFL-CIO donated the state Workers' Memorial to the council when the state AFL-CIO headquarters in Frankfort was sold.Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page
‘National Day of Action' draws 53 supporters in Paducah
Several signs and a pair of big banners at the Paducah “National Day of Action” rally didn't pull punches. “WILL GOODYEAR'S REPLACEMENT WORKERS KEEP DRIVERS SAFE?” the banners asked. A picture of an overturned SUV punctuated the question.
“We want to make people aware that replacement workers are not qualified to build tires,” said Willis Hicks, recording secretary of Steelworkers Local 878L in Union City , Tenn. “One mistake can make a bad tire. That one
mistake can be fatal when that bad tire is put on a vehicle.”
About 15,000 other Steelworkers are on strike at 15 Goodyear tire plants, including one at Union City , about 60 miles from Paducah . Goodyear has hired several replacement workers at the plants affected by the strike. The union says the replacement workers are unqualified to make tires.
Local 878L members, other Steelworkers and supporters from other unions gathered in Paducah on Dec. 16 as part of a “National Day of Action” for the striking Steelworkers. The USW and AFL-CIO jointly sponsored more than 120 such rallies across the country to help build public support for the strike.
Hicks said defective tires made by replacement workers during a 2000 strike at the Bridgestone-Firestone company were linked to 271 fatalities and more than 800 injuries. “We don't want anybody to get hurt by a bad tire,” said Hicks, a 35-year Union City plant employee. “We think the best tires are built by experienced, professional people.”
Union members rallied at Purcell Tire on U.S. highway 60. “This isn't against Purcell,” said USW Vice President Kip Phillips, who lives near Benton . “They're good people. We just want to send Goodyear a message.” At least 53 people showed up for the Paducah rally, said Ron Spann of Paducah , a USW international representative.
Steelworkers are walking picket lines at a dozen Goodyear plants in the U.S. and three in Canada . Job security and the protection of retirees' benefits are two big strike issues, according to the USW. “In '03, Goodyear was in trouble, so they asked us for concessions,” Phillips said. “The union gave them concessions and helped them restore their profitability.” The union says Goodyear posted $489 million in pre-tax profits in 2005. Even so, the company has shifted jobs to low wage countries, including China , “where violence against union activists is the worst in the world.” Also, since 2004, Goodyear has invested $150 million in foreign plants where workers are paid “as little as 50 cents an hour in some cases.”
Messages similar to the one on the banners' were displayed on smaller signs that showed flat tires framed by crumpled fenders. “GOODYEAR: Recklessly Driving Jobs Out Of America” said other signs that were printed bright red to look like Communist Chinese flags. “Goodyear wants to close plants,” said Kevin Brown, another of the striking Union City workers at the rally, most of whom rode to Paducah in a charter bus. “We want to keep them open." He added, “They're trying to throw people who are retired with 30 or 35 years service out to pasture with nothing. That's not fair.” Meanwhile, at the December Area Council meeting, delegates voted unanimously to give $500 to local 878L. At its December meeting, AIM-UNITE! Chapter 22, a group of union retirees and union supporters, gave food, drinks and $110 for the strikers to Hicks and Mike McKenzie, a Steelworkers Rapid Response coordinator, who were special guests at the gathering. (A longer story and photos will be posted on the council website -- www.wkyafl-cio.org .) (Direct link to story: Steelworkers Rally)Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page
Got news? Email it to Berry Craig at bcraig8960@charter.net or Jeff Wiggins at JLWiggins2@Juno.com.