Wayne Chambers was always glad to answer those ‘special' phone calls

Wayne Chambers earned his share of honors as a union leader. “But the W.C. Young Award would have to be right at the top,” said Chambers, the last vice president of Steelworkers Local 665 at the big Continental-General Tire plant near Mayfield. “Those phone calls were special, too.

“We'd get them once in a while. They came from people who were in other unions or not in a union at all. They'd say, ‘I've got a problem at work, and I can't get any help. Can you point me in the right direction?' People always knew they could call Local 665. That was pretty special to me.”

Chambers, who lives near Mayfield, is the 2008 recipient of the Young Award, the highest honor the Paducah-based Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO, bestows. It is named for the late W.C. Young, a labor and civil rights leader from Paducah . Young died in 1996 at age 74. He received the first Young Award in 1994.

Two years later, Chambers was elected vice president of Local 665. It began as a United Rubber Workers local at the factory which opened in 1960 making car and truck tires. In 1968, Chambers was hired at the plant. He quit, got rehired in 1969 and stayed until the factory closed in 2007. “Nobody worked harder for that local than Wayne ,” said Jeff Wiggins, Area Council president. “He kept working for Local 665 even after the plant closed. Nobody is more deserving of the W.C. Young Award than Wayne .”

Chambers said greed led German-based Continental Tire-North America to close the plant and send production to cheap-labor countries. “I was almost sick to my stomach after I left the meeting where the company said they were shutting us down. They told us they intended to make tires as cheaply as they could. But those tires they're making overseas and shipping back into our country aren't any cheaper to the consumer. All Continental wanted to do was increase their profits at our expense.”

The old General Tire and Rubber Co., a U.S. firm, started the plant. “Some of us were fortunate to hire in right after high school,” said Chambers, who graduated from Mayfield High School in 1968. “Thanks to the union, I was able to provide my two kids with a lot of things my parents couldn't afford for me. Now my kids and grandkids won't have the opportunity we had. We are losing so many jobs overseas because of greedy corporations like Continental Tire. We had signs made that said ‘Continental: the company with no conscience.'

“Companies like Continental are taking jobs like ours to countries that pay low wages, where they don't have OSHA, and they don't have environmental protection laws.

Think about what this is doing to us, our families and our communities.”

Chambers has tried to help hold the Local 665 family together. He assisted in organizing a local chapter of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees, SOAR for short. “We've got a charter, but things are still in the works,” he said. “We want to have some organization where we can get together and fellowship and reminisce and also keep informed about what's going on with the international.”

Chambers helped provide another gathering place for Local 665 members and their families – a memorial to the union on the Graves County courthouse lawn in Mayfield. Dubbed “The Rock of Labor” it is a 3,000-pound, rough-hewn boulder. “IN HONOR OF THE/MEMBERS OF UNITED STEELWORKERS/LOCAL-665/SOLIDARITY FOREVER” is chiseled onto the brown stone.

The Rock of Labor is near smaller monuments to the Illinois Central Railroad and to veterans of Operation Desert Storm. “That's a good place for that rock,” The Mayfield Messenger quoted Chambers at dedication ceremonies in 2007. “After the railroads started shutting down, the auto industry picked up the slack. And we built tires that went on military vehicles for Desert Storm. We had a mural painted in the Curing Department in honor of those tires. They were some of the best tires that they used…in Desert Storm.”

Chambers helped set the stone on a concrete pad the day before the memorial was dedicated. A small chunk accidentally broke off. He saved it as a souvenir.

His said his other souvenirs include happy memories of “all the good people I met and worked with through the union – people like Terry Beane, Kenny Austin, George Miller, Danny Bruce, David Herndon, Donald Workman and H.C. Mason.

“H.C. – we called him ‘Hoochie' – was always encouraging me, always telling me we needed younger people involved in the union. When I was young, he really guided me down the union pathway.”

Chambers' first union job was assistant steward. That was in the mid-1970s.

“There aren't too many perks and plusses for being a steward,” Chambers said, grinning. “It takes a lot of patience and understanding. But being a steward is a good way to find out if you want to do more for your union. I did.”

Chambers climbed the union ladder to full-fledged steward and division representative. “Then I got beat for reelection and became a steward again until 1996, when I was elected vice president for pensions and insurance. Every time after 1996, I ran unopposed. That made me feel good. Apparently, everybody thought I was doing a good job.”

His union brothers and sisters also trusted him to help represent them at the Area Council, an association of AFL-CIO affiliated unions in deep western Kentucky. “I started going to council meetings off and on before I became a delegate,” Chambers said. “I thought that was important.”

Delegates thought Chambers was important enough to elect him as one of the council's representatives on the Kentucky State AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education. He is also a council trustee. In 2007, Trustee Chambers was named grand marshal of the Paducah Labor Day Parade by the Western Kentucky Labor Day Committee, the private non-profit group that puts on the city's annual holiday celebration. "Local 665 has always been a strong supporter of the parade," Wiggins said. " Wayne was not only a leader in his union; he is a leader in the union movement statewide.”

Chambers also got some worldwide union experience. Twice he went to Germany to represent Local 665 in meetings with Continental Tire and IG Metall, the union at the company. “I'm proud to be a Steelworker and proud to be a W.C. Young Award recipient,” he said. 

-- By Berry Craig, a professor of history at the West Kentucky Community and Technical College and a member of the Area Council Executive Board.

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It's time to depose King David

Everybody who carries a union card in Kentucky ought to know by now that we've got to have a worker-friendly state senate in Frankfort.

The following is an editorial from the Louisville Courier-Journal , the state's largest newspaper.

It is about “King” David Williams, one of the most – if not the most – anti-union Republicans in the state capital.

Williams couldn't promote his anti-worker agenda without help from his Republican majority in the senate. Sen. Ken Winters of Murray is one of King David's happy helpers.

We've got two friends who want to beat Winters in November. Carroll Hubbard and Rick Johnson are running in the May 20 Democratic primary.

We made no recommendation in the primary race. That means individual union members and individual unions are free to support whomever they wish.

Labor will be a winner with either Carroll or Rick. Winters has never darkened the door of the council hall. Carroll and Rick came to ask for support. They support us and our issues.

In November, we will work hard for the one who wins.

Even if we can defeat Winters, the Democrats probably can't take back the senate in November. The numbers don't quite add up.

But if we can retire a Republican like Winters here and there, the reign of King David will sooner or later end -- the sooner the better, of course.

Anyway, here's the Courier-Journal editorial, written just before the legislature adjourned:

“There's responsibility to spread around, but you really have Senate President David Williams to thank for the smoking ruins that will be left behind by the 2008 General Assembly.

“He can go home to Burkesville, stand in the doorway of the big house on the hill and sigh, ‘It's good to be king.'       He loves the smell of his political enemies' defeat in the morning. Never mind that it comes at the expense of ordinary folks who need properly funded health programs, social services and educational opportunities.

“Mr. Williams insists cuts are ‘not so bad.' He thinks belt-tightening is a good thing, as long as the belt is around your neck.

“He has obstructed at every turn, blocking even a pathetic little cigarette tax increase that was passed by the Democratic House and supported by the public. No matter. He doesn't have to explain himself. He's king -- King of Gridlock.

“House budget chairman Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, had the courage to call Mr. Williams on his ruinous indifference to state revenue needs, whereupon he was denounced by the Senate president for "unprofessional" conduct. But in fact it's David Williams who flouts the professional responsibilities of legislative leadership. He doesn't lead. He throttles and thwarts.

“Gov. Steve Beshear would be unwise to veto, outright, the [penny-pinching] budget produced under Mr. Williams' hegemony. He would be overridden, quickly. He should, instead, make aggressive use of the power to strike line items, when the House is willing to uphold him.

            “The Governor should impose efficiencies where he can and concede the possibility of state government layoffs. He should call lawmakers to a special revenue-raising session, if revenues worsen….He should remember that David Williams made himself king, but the people made Steve Beshear governor.”

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Beating Mitch McConnell is our top priority in November

By JEFF WIGGINS

Once again, Mitch McConnell has hit the campaign trail as the hero of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

He is running TV commercials that cite his support for cancer screening programs and for "compensation for sick workers." He calls plant workers “patriots” for their work during the Cold War.

The ad quotes a number of current and former workers. "We found out along the way that it was more dangerous than we were made aware of," says David Fuller, a former union president at the plant. "He's been the champion, he's held hearings, he's kicked open doors, he's appropriated funds, he's delivered the goods for these workers."

Of course, all political advertising is self-serving. The idea is to get the candidate elected.

Many, if not most, political ads don't tell the whole truth. The cancer screening programs and “compensation for sick workers” McConnell brags about have had strong bipartisan support in Congress. Democrats consider plant workers “patriots,” too.

A lot of workers – including more than a few in the plant union, I suspect – don't consider McConnell their “champion.” The senator has one of the most anti-union voting records in Washington , according to the Committee on Political Education of the AFL-CIO.

McConnell voted right on union issues 11 percent of the time in 2007. His lifetime COPE score is 11 percent.

McConnell favors anything that makes it harder for unions to organize and operate. He opposes the Employee Free Choice Act. He favors the so-called right-to-work.

His wife, Elaine Chao, is one of the most anti-union labor secretaries in American history. Chao hates the Employee Free Choice Act as much as her spouse. Last year, she traveled the country – on our tax dollars -- urging newspaper editorial writers to denounce the measure.

If it were up to Mitch McConnell, there would be no union at the Paducah plant, or anywhere else. If it were up to Mitch McConnell, there would be no meaningful worker safety and health laws.

In short, McConnell mainly “delivers the goods” not for workers, but for those who, if they had their way, would turn back the clock to a time when unions were few and far between, when most workers toiled long hours at low pay in jobs that threatened lives and limbs.

McConnell's ad implies that the Paducah plant workers are with him. The ad represents one of the oldest anti-union tools around – divide and conquer. Usually, Republicans use social issues to try to split us up.

Ernie Fletcher tried divide-and-conquer last year and it didn't work. Labor – including members of the plant union – stood united behind Steve Beshear.

Many of the Paducah plant workers helped elect Beshear governor in 2007. We welcome their help in defeating McConnell this year.

But as hard as we worked in '07, we are going to have to work twice as hard this year if we want to beat McConnell. Retiring him is our top priority.

He has fought us tooth and nail for as long as he has been in Washington. This time, we have a real chance to stop him. McConnell's popularity rating in the state is below 50 percent.

Eight Democrats are running in the May 20 primary. McConnell has a token opponent in the Republican primary. Only two Democrats have a chance to win their primary: Greg Fischer and Bruce Lunsford.

The council voted to recommend Fischer for endorsement. The state AFL-CIO endorsed Lunsford. I voted to endorse Lunsford.

Both Fischer and Lunsford are right on our issues. But we think Lunsford has the better chance to win. If Fischer wins, we will get behind him. We have to work hard for whomever the Democratic nominee happens to be.

At the same time, let's not forget our other endorsed candidates. It's time to go to work for them, too.

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