It's not too early to volunteer for 2009 Labor Day parade

Frances Willey says the day after Labor Day she “got a long distance call from some civil defense somebody who said he wanted to get in the Labor Day parade.”

  Willey told the caller he was a day late. “He said, ‘I mean next year's parade,'” she added with a smile. “I told him, ‘Mister please give me one week off and call me Tuesday.'”

  Willey is secretary-treasurer of the Western Kentucky Labor Day Committee Inc., the non-profit group that puts on Paducah 's annual end-of-summer holiday program. “I'm just the figurehead – Frances does all the work,” said Jeff Wiggins, committee president. “Kudos to Frances and [parade organizer] Bubba Dawes for giving us another great program.”

  This year's festivities were pared down from three days to just Labor Day. Even so, Wiggins said the parade was one of the longest-ever processions. “We had a lot of union floats, including some new ones,” he said. Judges Ken Tyler, Gladys Morphew and Larry Johnson voted the Paducah Plumbers Local 184 float best in the parade.

  “But I was also proud to see the Steelworkers Local 680 float,” added Wiggins, who is also the area council president. “It was in honor of our brother, Lewis Hicks, whom we all miss.”

Hicks, a council trustee and veteran union activist, died almost two years ago.

  Wiggins said the parade, which also had fire trucks, high school bands, other marching units and politicians on foot, “came off without a hitch one more time. The guy from the parks department, Mark Thompson, asked Bubba if we'd like to do the Veterans' Day parade and the Christmas parade for the city. We said, ‘No thank you, we've got all we need with the Labor Day parade.'”

But Wiggins said the Labor Day committee is still short of volunteers. “That's why we cut back from three days to one day,” he said. “But we've got to have more help to keep it going even for just Labor Day. We're getting older. We need some new blood, some new faces. With 20 new people we can do just about anything. But we've got a lot fewer than 20 helpers.”

Meanwhile, several candidates made speeches at Carson Park after the parade. All but two were labor endorsed or enjoy at least some union support. The exceptions were Mayor Bill Paxton and Brent Housman, the Republican candidate for the House seat vacated by Frank Rasche. Rasche resigned to work for the state education department.

Labor is backing City Commissioner Robert Coleman, Paxton's challenger on Nov. 4. “Bill Paxton is probably the most anti-union mayor in the history of the city of Paducah ,” Wiggins said. “I'm saying that as area council president, not as

president of the Labor Day committee, which is non-profit and non-partisan.

“But before the speaking, the mayor came up to me and said he wanted to speak and welcome everyone Paducah . I looked him in the eye and said, ‘Mayor, I'm going to let you speak out of common courtesy, even though when I came down to the city hall to speak before the commission you wouldn't let me speak.'”

Wiggins said Paxton also denied Benny Adair, council vice president, an opportunity to speak, too. “Benny and I came down there twice to talk about union issues and the mayor didn't let us speak. The mayor said he didn't know we wanted to speak even though we signed the list and I sat right down in front.

I asked the mayor, 'How could you miss me? I also told the mayor that I expected him to show us the same courtesy I showed him when we next come to a commission meeting.”

Coleman spoke as did Zana Renfro, Housman's Democratic opponent. At its September meeting, the council unanimously recommended that the state AFL-CIO endorse Renfro.

“It's no secret that we supported somebody else – somebody who has been behind us 100 percent on the city commission,” said Wiggins, meaning City Commissioner Gerald Watkins. County Democratic officials chose Renfro over him. “But Zana answered our questionnaire the right way,” Wiggins said. “She is against right-to-work. She supports the prevailing wage. She is in favor of bargaining rights for public employees.” Renfro sought labor support at the September council meeting.

Others who took their turns at the podium included Bill Londrigan, state AFL-CIO president; McCracken County Judge-Executive Van Newberry; County Commissioner Ronnie Freeman; Sheriff Jon Hayden; Labor Secretary J.R. Gray of Benton (who emceed the event and spoke on behalf of Gov. Steve Beshear); State Rep. Fred Nesler, D-Mayfield (who spoke for Bruce Lunsford, Democratic candidate for U.S. senator who left after the parade); Kevin Brewer of Metropolis (who spoke for the Barack Obama presidential campaign); State Senate candidate Carroll Hubbard of Mayfield; Heather Ryan of Paducah, Democratic candidate for Congress; State Representative candidate Mike Lawrence of West Paducah; State Rep. Mike Cherry, D-Princeton; State Rep. Will Coursey, D-Sharpe; State Rep. Mike Cherry, D-Princeton; Eric Youngblood, Richard Abraham and Carol Gault, all candidates for the Paducah city commission; Melissa Youngblood, city school board candidate, and Barbara Lahndorff, who spoke about what she said were radiation hazards at the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant.

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More volunteers are needed for the Labor 2008 program

Labor-to-labor walks in September turned up too few walkers, says Jeff Wiggins, council president.

“We've got to have more people,” said Wiggins, who is also Zone One coordinator for Labor 2008, the AFL-CIO program that is sponsoring the walks statewide. “Thirty people would make a good walk. Forty people would make a better walk and if we got 100 people we could touch everybody we need to touch.”

Wiggins said Labor 2008 is designed “to get the word out to our members about our union endorsed candidates. We all know what's at stake on Nov. 4. We have a chance to elect the first labor-friendly president in a long time and get rid of one of the most anti-union senators in Washington and one of the most anti-union mayors in Paducah history.”

Wiggins said volunteers are also needed to staff phone banks and pass out literature at plants and other work sites. “We know that if we can get our literature into the hands of our members, they will vote four our union-endorsed candidates about 80 percent of the time,” he added.

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Council nominates Beverly to replace Wiggins as trustee

In other business, the council donated $100 to the guide dog program sponsored by the IAM and nominated IAM member Donnie Beverly to succeed the late George Wiggins as a council trustee.

The council also discussed appointing a labor representative to the Purchase Area Development District to replace Don Mitchell, who retired from the Carpenters' union. Names mentioned included Jeff Wiggins, council president; Benny Adair, council vice president; and Hardy Williams, council recording secretary. The council will name Mitchell's replacement at its October meeting.

            
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Bruce Lunsford, Democratic candidate for the U.S. senate, shares the microphone with John Wientjes of UNITE/HERE at a Labor 2008 rally at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park on Sept. 10. The rally was held during the Labor-Management Conference and attracted several labor-endorsed candidates and union members. Gov. Steve Beshear and House Speaker Jody Richards also spoke to the crowd, which included Labor Secretary J.R. Gray. Beshear again thanked unions for helping him win. Richards said Kentucky will never have a right-to-work law as long as he is speaker.

(Photos by BERRY CRAIG, copyright 2008)

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