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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 3, March 2006
Prevailing wage rally at Local 184 hall draws 500
Gov. Ernie Fletcher “has done more to damage the labor-management relationships in this state than anybody I have ever known in my life,” says Larry Roberts, state director of the Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council.
“The governor cannot tell the truth about prevailing wage and other issues important to working families, but I will share the truth with you today about prevailing wage,” Roberts told about 500 trade unionists and their friends and families at a February rally at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 181 union hall in Paducah .
Fletcher wants to eliminate the state prevailing wage law on public construction projects. Roberts, who is based in Frankfort , called the governor's proposal a “low road plan to low wage jobs.”
The Paducah gathering was one in a series of rallies across the state called “Operation High Road.” The building trades are sponsoring the gatherings in several Kentucky cities.
“ Operation High Road ” will culminate March 7 with a rally in Frankfort .
Fletcher hopes Kentucky will join other Southern states that don't have prevailing wage laws. “I have nothing against our Southern brothers and sisters,” Roberts said. “But they don't make the wages we make.
“They don't have the health care we have. They do not have the pension plans we have.”
Fletcher said getting rid of the prevailing wage law would save $60 million in construction costs. “Where does that saving come from?” Roberts asked.
“From working people,” answered State Rep. J.R. Gray, one of four state House members who came to the rally.
Roberts agreed. “It will come out of the paychecks of the working people in this state – the men and women who build our schools, our roads, our public buildings.”
Roberts also challenged Fletcher's claim that construction wages in Kentucky account for 38 percent of total construction costs. “His calculations are nothing but back of the envelope calculations,” Roberts said.
Roberts cited current U.S. Census data that shows construction wages are slightly lessthan 20 percent of construction costs. “If you roll in fringe benefits it is approximately 24 percent of the total cost of construction.”
Roberts added that, on average, construction wage costs have been declining for several years. “As our skills improve and our wages improve, contractors are able to invest more in equipment and technology that make us more productive. So as you increase wages and increase skills and the contractors invest more in equipment and machinery, there is value added.”
Roberts said Fletcher likes to give examples of how he says the prevailing wage law adds millions of dollars of extra cost to building new schools such as Belfry High School in Pike County .
“The governor did not tell you the truth about Belfry,” Roberts said. “Lloyd Fields, the supervisor of construction for Belfry and for the Pike County Board of Education, said ball fields and extra construction added to the cost.”
Larry Sanderson, Local 184 business manager and a veteran union leader, helped fire up the crowd. “Larry gave you the details and gave you the facts and figures and did one heck of a job,” Sanderson said. “But it's my job to reach into your heart, reach into your chest and rip it out and raise your blood pressure.”
Sanderson praised union pioneers who are “buried in graveyards all around this state. Are we going to let them down? Are we going to fail to fight against this attack on our way of life?”
“No! No!" came shouts from the crowd, which jammed the union hall at 1332 Broadway and spilled outside onto the snowy parking lot.
“Were we to do so, a million ghosts wearing dusty and tattered overalls and scarred up steel toed boots and hard hats would rise from their granite stones shouting to us, ‘Don't let the blood, sweat and tears that we shed and the sacrifices we made be in vain. You must save the union.'"
Sanderson added, “Brothers and sisters, it's time for us to pay our debt. Those people in those graveyards paid theirs.”
Sanderson said Fletcher “has declared war on organized labor with his plan to repeal prevailing wage and pass right-to-work legislation. He has challenged your strength and courage, and you're not going to take it are you?”
“No! No!” came more cries from the crowd.
State Reps. Fred Nesler, D-Mayfield; Mike Cherry, D-Princeton; Gray, D-Benton; and Frank Rasche, D-Paducah, also spoke. McCracken County Judge-Executive Danny Orazine and Paducah City Commissioner Robert Coleman followed the state lawmakers to the microphone.
County Judge-Executives Mike Miller of Marshall County , John Roberts of Carlisle County and Tony Smith of Graves County made brief remarks from the crowd.
Sanderson also cited backing from absent politicians including State Sen. Dorsey Ridley, D-Henderson, and State Rep. Steven Rudy, R-West Paducah, plus Judge-Executives Chris Lasher of Livingston County and Van Knight of Caldwell County .
Several other elected officials and candidates for office attended the rally.
"This rally was what solidarity, that old union byword, is all about," said Jeff Wiggins, council president.
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Council recommends Barlow, endorses Watkins, others
The Council voted to endorse and recommend for endorsement several candidates seeking offices ranging from U.S. Representative to Paducah city commissioner.
The council moved to recommend Tom Barlow for Congress and endorsed Robert Coleman, Richard Abraham, Jason Medley and Gerald Watkins for the city commission. Coleman, an incumbent, is a longtime union member.
Coleman is also the sole nominee for the annual W.C. Young Award, the highest honor the council bestows. He is expected to be officially named the award recipient at the March council meeting. The annual W.C. Young Award Dinner will be in April.
Watkins came seeking council support. He is a political science professor at West Kentucky Community and Technical College .
“You all know where I stand on the issues,” said Watkins, who went before the city commission to speak against a council proposal to endorse a state right-to-work law. Coleman was the only commissioner to oppose the resolution.
Under state AFL-CIO bylaws, councils can only recommend for endorsement candidates for state and national offices. “We can endorse candidates in local races,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president.
Other candidates endorsed for McCracken County offices included Bard Brien, district judge; Jon Hayden, sheriff; Jerry Beyer and John Via, both for county commissioner, and Jeff Jerrell, county clerk.
The Via endorsement may not stand, Wiggins said. “My dad, George Wiggins, has agreed to withdraw his motion to endorse Via,” the council president said. “Other action may be taken on other endorsements and recommendations.”
Wiggins said it was a mistake not to recommend for endorsement Carroll Hubbard, a candidate for state senate. “I understand and respect the feelings of those who opposed his recommendation,” Wiggins said. “But there is no doubt that he is the best candidate for labor in the field. I will ask the delegates to reconsider at the March council meeting.”
Hubbard, a Democrat, has no opposition in the May Democratic primary. Bob Leeper, the incumbent, is running as an independent. He was first elected as a Democrat, then switched to the Republicans before declaring himself an independent.
Three Republicans are running in the GOP primary. “All of them are anti-labor,” Wiggins said. “Leeper's labor record has improved since be became an independent, but Hubbard would be a lot better friend to labor than Leeper."
Hubbard, a former state senator and congressman, spoke to the delegates at the February council meeting. “I would not be a candidate if my friend Larry Sanderson had been running again,” he said.
Hubbard said he opposes a state right-to-work law and is against gutting the state prevailing wage law. He said right-to-work laws enable non-union workers to “enjoy the benefits that the union workers have toiled for decades.”
Barlow, from Paducah , has two Democratic primary opponents. He was elected to Congress in 1992 but was defeated by Republican Ed Whitfield two years later. Whitfield hasrepresented the First District since.
“We've to unite and get to get rid of Whitfield -- Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning, too,” Wiggins said. “Hardly anybody in Congress has a worse labor voting record than these three.
Whitfield's lifetime rating from the national AFL-CIO's Committee on Political Education is 12 percent. Bunning's COPE rating is 14 percent; McConnell's is 11 percent."
The council also recommended for endorsement Rick Johnson, a candidate for the Kentucky Supreme Court. A state court of appeals judge from Symsonia, Johnson was at the February council meeting. Johnson thanked delegates for their past support and added that union backing was critical to his election to the appeals court.
"I also thank you for all you do for the working families of Kentucky ," he said. "Organized labor gave me the chance as a pipefitter's son to go on to college and law school and become a judge and a labor lawyer before that….You can be sure as your next supreme court justice I will know what you're all about."
The Supreme Court race is non-partisan. Johnson will face the incumbent, Justice Bill Graves of Paducah , and another challenger, Lyon County Circuit Judge Bill Cunningham of Kuttawa, in the May 16 primary. Cunningham also came courting council support in January.
Sanderson introduced a pair of local candidates, Brien, and Terry Long, who is running for sheriff.
Long, chief deputy sheriff for 10 years, said he, to, is "a friend to labor. If it wasn't for organized workers like you and labor unions, I wouldn't be standing here. I've been in a union family all of my life. My father was a coal miner who helped organize the coal mines in eastern Kentucky . I have always been a friend to organized labor and always will be."
Jerrell also said he was "for the labor unions. I better be, my wife's father was a member of the union for over 30 years."
Jerrell was appointed county clerk and is seeking a term of his own. He has no opposition. "I've been in the courthouse for 24 years and I come from a common working class family. I'm not a speaker, just a worker and I appreciate everybody's support."
Delegates also endorsed incumbents from other counties including Marshall County Judge-Executive Mike Miller, Graves County Judge-Executive Tony Smith, Marshall County magistrates Jerry English and Hoppy Hicks and Graves County Commissioner Romey Holmes.
Delegates also endorsed Lewis Hicks for another term as La Center mayor. Hicks is a council trustee. In addition, Herbert Henderson Jr. was endorsed for Ballard County jailer.
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Council welcomes new delegates, unveils Hack plaque
The council welcomed Rob Ervin and David Qualls as new delegates. Ervin is the newly-elected president of Steelworkers Local 5-550 at the Paducah gaseous diffusion plant and Qualls is vice president. They were sworn in as delegates at the February council meeting. In other business, a plaque honoring Bill Hack, a W.C. Young Award winner and World War II hero, was unveiled. Hack was a longtime council delegate from Ironworkers Local 782. Also, it was announced that the next CLEAR school will be March 13 and 14 at the council hall. The topic will be arbitration.
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Got news? Email it to Berry Craig at bcraig8960@charter.net or Jeff Wiggins at JLWiggins2@Juno.com.