The Western Kentucky Worker

Official newsletter of the Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO

Prepared by Berry Craig, KEA-NEA and AFT Local 6038

Volume 5, Number 12, December, 2004

Robert Coleman says liberalism is not un-Christian

Robert Coleman visited the November council meeting to thank delegates for again backing his election to another term on the Paducah City Commission.

"I have had a union card for 49 years," said Coleman, a retired city letter carrier. "I appreciate union support."

The council endorsed Coleman, who said as a commission member, he has always championed labor's cause. "As a result of Tuesday's election, it is clear that organized labor faces some big challenges, but we must not give up and throw in the towel.

The nation is at a crossroads. Imports are killing American jobs. There is the deficit. Over 1,000 families have seen two military people in dress uniforms with their heads down and clipboards in their hands coming up the walk to tell them their husband or father or son is dead. I don't see an end to that."

Coleman said the Republicans are winning because they have succeeded in turning "liberal" into a dirty word to many Americans. "The Republicans have made 'conservative' a sanctified word.

“But if you apply the principles and values that are used to describe a liberal -- helping the poor and the sick -- you have the values Jesus Christ espoused the Bible.

"Look at the other side, the conservatives. It's get all you can, can all you get, sit on your can and not help the poor and the sick."

Coleman said conservatives sometimes say liberalism is anti-Christian. "The Republicans are killing us with one-liners," he added. “'The right to life,' 'the right to work' and all of the other things -- we've got to learn to put our values out there."

Jeff Wiggins, council president, agreed. "We are not telling people what our values are. We want good wages so we can support our families, and we are Christians, too. I am not pro-abortion personally. But I also believe it is hypocritical when you say you are 'right-to-life' when you are also for the death penalty. If you are 'right-to-life' it should be across the board.

"To me, abortion should be between a woman, her God and her doctor. How far do the Republicans plan to go with their opposition to abortion? If a pregnant woman runs a stop sign, has a wreck and kills the fetus, is she going to be charged with murder?"

Delegate Bubba Dawes agreed that the Republicans are successfully splitting the union vote with appeals to social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. "If we are going to get our issues out there in the Democrat party, we have to get involved in the Democratic party from the precinct level up," Dawes said.

He practices what he preaches. Dawes is chairman of the Marshall County Democratic Executive Committee.

The Republicans in Kentucky and other states pushed constitutional amendments to outlaw same sex marriage. Gay rights groups accused the GOP of bigotry and gay bashing. “If we stoop to slander, are we no better off than the Republicans?" Wiggins asked.

Many Republicans also ran as “pro-gun” candidates. They claimed their Democratic opponents were “anti-Second Amendment. “

The National Rifle Association usually endorses Republicans. But the NRA favored State Rep. J.R. Gray, D-Benton, who was also labor-endorsed.

“When you give some people a letter saying our candidate is backed by the NRA, they say it's a lie," Dawes said. "They say 'He's a Democrat and the Democrats want to take away their guns.'”

Wiggins said he appreciated rank-and-file union support for AFL-CIO- endorsed candidates, from John Kerry and Dan Mongiardo down. A quartet of labor-backed state lawmakers from western Kentucky bucked the Republican tide and won. Besides Gray, they were State Reps. Fred Nesler, D-Mayfield, and Mike Cherry, D-Princeton, and State Sen. Joey Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville.

A pair of AFL-CIO-endorsed state representatives lost their seats. They are Charles Geveden, D-Wickliffe, and Buddy Buckingham, D-Murray. Both were veteran House members. For the first time in history, Republicans represent a majority of Jackson Purchase counties in the legislature. Never before have both Purchase senators belonged to the GOP.

"We'll have to work harder next time," Wiggins said. "Next time, the Republicans will go after our county commissioners, judge-executives and other local officials. We all better get ready for a big fight on our hands."

Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page

Randy Gray says unions boosted his father to victory

Randy Gray says it if weren't for union votes, his father, State Rep. J.R. Gray, D-Benton, wouldn't be returning to Frankfort in January.

"My dad can't be here tonight," Gray said at the November council meeting. "But he would tell you labor is the reason he will be keeping his house seat."

Gray also announced his resignation as council sergeant-at-arms. He is stepping down as a state OSHA inspector and moving to Detroit to work for General Motors.

J.R. Gray, a former Machinists union official and a veteran lawmaker, is chairman of the House Labor and Industry Committee. "Mitch McConnell, Elaine Chao, Ernie Fletcher and every other big name Republican in the state wanted my dad beaten because they know he is the one stopping a right-to-work bill" and protecting the state prevailing wage law from repeal, Randy Gray said.

He added, "We are barely hanging onto those issues. If things keep going the way they are, we may lose them in two years."

The Republicans added to their Senate majority and picked up seats in the House, which the Democrats still control. The GOP hopes to take the House in 2006.

"We've got to do more than dig in our wallets and give $25 or $100 to our candidates," Gray said. "If you think that's all you have to do, then Kentucky will be a right-to-work state. We've got to get out and work for our candidates -- volunteer, go door to door like the UAW retirees did in dad's race."

J.R. Gray isn't ready to retire or concede the House to the Republicans. "He is fired up," his son said. "He will run again in two years."

Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page

Officer, Young Award nominees to be sought in January

Nominations for council officers will be accepted at the January council meeting. "We will also start taking nominations for the W.C. Young Award," said Jeff Wiggins, council president, who plans to seek reelection.

The Young Award, named for the late W.C. Young, a national labor and civil rights leader from Paducah , is the highest honor the Area Council bestows. Wayne “Windy” Wallace was the 2004 Young Award recipient.

Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page

'These are the times that try men's souls' -- again

By BERRY CRAIG, KEA-NEA/AFT Local 6038

“I'm for moving to Canada ,” I joked with one of my fellow teachers the day after Election Day. “Nah,” he replied. “That's what the Republicans would like for us to do. Let's stay here and cause trouble for them.”

That lifted my spirits a little. Otherwise, my mood matched the weather on Nov. 3. It was windy, cold and rainy in my corner of Kentucky .

When I pulled the Kerry-Edwards sign from the leaves and mud in my front yard, I thought of Thomas Paine, that great American patriot. Okay, I teach history.

Paine is my favorite Revolutionary War hero. “These are the times that try men's souls,” he wrote during some of the bleakest days of our struggle for independence. (I'd bet George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would have been Tories.)

Paine also penned, “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot may, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

Our souls will be tried for yet another four years. Again, many of our union brothers and sisters helped do us in. Thirty-eight percent of union members voted for Bush, according to a CNN election day exit poll. Sixty-one percent voted for John Kerry, the labor-endorsed Democrat, and one percent of union members cast ballots for independent Ralph Nader.

Had the whole country voted like union members, we'd be celebrating a Kerry win and probably a Democratic House and Senate, to boot. Even so, 38 percent is a sizeable number. It proves the Republicans again caught more than a few fish in labor ranks with the old social issues sucker bait. Veteran Paducah labor leader Larry Sanderson calls it “the Three Gs -- God, Guns and Gays.”

“A lot of union members have their own hot buttons,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president. “They don't vote on union issues. They vote on social issues that don't have a thing to do with their jobs or their unions, and they say the Democratic party has left them.”

The Democrats haven't left labor, though some conservative “me-too” Democrats would like to see the party act more Republican, including on union issues. President Harry Truman said the only thing worse than one Republican party would be two Republican parties.

Democrats are still far more likely to side with unions than Republicans. Democrats commonly come to union halls seeking labor support. Republicans hardly ever darken union doorways. Instead, they try to scam union members from afar with the Three G's.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt and liberal New Deal Democrats gave unions the basic right to organize in the 1930s. Most Republicans fought -- and still fight -- unions tooth and nail. Bush was proud to be a right-to-work governor in Texas . Gov. Ernie Fletcher, State Senate President David Williams and the other Bluegrass State GOP honchos can hardly wait to put Kentucky in the right-to-work column.

“When you go back and look at history, history will tell you the Democrats ramrodded every meaningful piece of legislation for the benefit of working people,” said State Rep. J.R. Gray, a Benton Democrat. Gray is one of labor's best friends in Frankfort . The Republicans blew a bundle trying to take him out Nov. 2. Gray's victory was one of the few bright spots for labor on election day. He beat one of those Republican holy warriors who campaigned as if GOP stood for “God's Own Party.”

Gray, a former Machinists union official, knows his history. Unfortunately, a lot of union members don't, and they seem disinclined to learn.

How can union leaders convince more rank-and-file members to vote their wallets and not the Three-Gs? That's the big question for labor officials, not just in Kentucky but also nationwide. A big part of the future of the union movement is riding on the answer.

Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page