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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 Local 6038
Volume 9, Number 6, June 2008
Bruce Lunsford wants to meet with atomic plant workers
Bruce Lunsford knows about the TV ads that portray Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell as the savior of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion plant.
He wants to talk to plant workers.
“Not living here, I don't know all the facts, but all my friends tell me that [the adds are]…really gobbledygook,” said Lunsford, the Democrat who will challenge McConnell in the fall. Lunsford said the first thing he will ask plant workers is, “What does [McConnell] have in common with them?...He's great at showing up when he's got a check or good news. But when bad news is being spread across the state, you can't find him with Sherlock Holmes.”
Jeff Wiggins, council president, said he will be glad to help arrange a meeting between Lunsford and the plant union, Steelworkers Local 5-550. Wiggins is a Steelworker.
“I am confident my brothers and sisters will see that Lunsford is our friend,” Wiggins said. “Mitch McConnell's record clearly shows that he is one of the most anti-union members of the United States Senate.”
Lunsford said he is looking forward to talking with plant workers.
He advanced to the November election by outdistancing six other candidates in the May Democratic primary. The state AFL-CIO endorsed Lunsford.
“We all know that Mitch McConnell will be tough to beat,” Wiggins said. “But we have a real shot with Bruce Lunsford if we all get behind him and work as hard as we can for him.
“As hard as we worked to help Gov. Steve Beshear last year, we'll have to work twice as hard for Bruce.”
In another primary race of interest in western Kentucky , former Congressman Carroll Hubbard of Mayfield won the Democratic nomination for the state senate by defeating former Appeals Court Judge Rick Johnson of Symsonia.
Hubbard will face incumbent Sen. Ken Winters, R-Murray, in November.
The council voted no recommendation in the race. That meant individual unions and union members were free to support either candidate.
“Carroll and Rick have been our good friends in the past,” Wiggins said. “I am sure all of labor – even brothers and sisters who supported Rick -- will now unite behind Carroll. Winters is one of the most anti-union members of the state senate. He is just a puppet for [Republican Senate leader] David Williams.”
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Heather Ryan comes courting labor support again
Heather Ryan brought her message back to the Area Council in May. 
“I'm here to spread the word that you've got a good candidate who will stand up for labor in Washington ,” said the Democratic candidate for Congress.
Ryan, from Paducah , is challenging Rep. Ed Whitfield, a seven-term Republican from Hopkinsville .
“I don't have the money to refute Whitfield's false campaigning,” she said. “But we need a representative in Washington who is not afraid to stand up and say what needs to be said.”
Ryan admits she's fighting an uphill battle against a well-entrenched and well-financed incumbent. “But I just couldn't stand to see him run again unopposed.”
Ryan said she entered the race because no other Democrat would.Return to Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council Home Page
Wayne Chambers thanks Area Council for W.C. Young Award
Wayne Chambers said he was glad to see his picture smiling at him from a council hall wall. It's a wonderful feeling,” Chambers, the 2008 W.C Young Award recipient, told delegates at the May council meeting. Chambers was the last vice president of Steelworkers Local 665 at the big Continental-General Tire Plant in Mayfield, which closed. Chambers is a council trustee, and he represents the council on the state AFL-CIO COPE Committee. A picture and brief biography of each Young Award winner goes in the council hall. Several members of Local 665, including Terry Beane, the last president, were in the crowd at the annual Young Award banquet in April. The award is named for the late W.C. Young, a labor and civil rights leader from Paducah . Young was the first recipient of the award in 1994.
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Benny Adair, W.C. Young Award dinner emcee, presents Wayne Chambers with the W.C. Young Award. |
Jeff Wiggins holds up the plaque with Chambers' picture and biography that has been placed in the Council hall. |
At the May council meeting, Chambers again urged young union members to get involved in their locals. “For a long time, I'd go to union meetings in different places and see people in their 40s and 50s and 60s. Now I'm seeing more people in their 20s, and that's great.” Chambers said a Local 665 brother, “Hoochie” Mason, got him active in the union. “I was in my 20s when he told me we had to have young people who would step up,” Chambers said. “Hoochie is dead and gone. But he was a great union man.” |
Chambers said he and several other Local 665 members are organizing a chapter of SOAR, Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees. “We want keep up with what's going on in the union and stay involved in politics,” he said. “It's a constant fight. We've got to keep the battle going.” A number of state and local politicians, union officials and others spoke in honor of Chambers. They included Labor Commissioner J.R. Gray; Bill Londrigan, Kentucky State AFL-CIO president; Larry Jaggers, state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer; McCracken County Judge-Executive Van Newberry, Paducah City Commissioners Robert Coleman and Gerald Watkins, Steelworkers Vice President Kip Phillips, Steelworkers District Representative Joe Villines, Don Mitchell of the Carpenter's Union, Heather Ryan, Democratic candidate for Congress, and Rick Johnson, a Democratic candidate for the state senate. The dinner was held at MLC's Restaurant in Paducah . “We had another good turnout,” said Jeff Wiggins council president. “When I presented Wayne with his picture and the plaque at the dinner I told him he couldn't keep it – that it was going up on the wall at the hall with the rest of the fraternity. No one was more deserving of this year's W.C. Young Award than Wayne . He did so much for his union – more than many of the members will ever know. He kept working for the union even after the plant closed. He is still working for his union, helping with insurance and starting the SOAR chapter.” |
Terry Beane, left, embraces his former vice president.
J.R. Gray presents Chambers, right, an Honorary Commissioner of Labor Award. Looking on is Benny Adair, the W.C. Young Award dinner emcee. |
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AFSCME officials, including Paducahan, tout Clinton at council
A pair of AFSCME officials, including Janice Harris, who is from Paducah , sought support for Sen. Hillary Clinton at the May council meeting. As expected, Clinton easily won the Kentucky presidential primary. But she still trails Sen. Barack Obama in the delegate race for the Democratic presidential nominee. Harris, a 2000 Tilghman High School graduate, works for AFSCME in Washington . Joe Delio, an AFSCME official from Trenton , N.J. , came to the council with her. “Our union and others have endorsed Hillary Clinton, and other unions have endorsed Barack Obama,” he said. “But we've got to beat [Sen.] John McCain [the Republican nominee] and I don't think there is anybody in this room who disagrees with that.” Delio and Harris have been on the road for the Clinton campaign. They have been visiting states before primary elections, urging union members to support Clinton . “Unions are lucky in that we have two friends running for the Democratic nomination,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president. “My union, the Steelworkers, endorsed Obama. Other unions have endorsed Clinton . |
Janice Harris, right, and Joe Delio campaigned for Sen. Hillary Clinton at the May Council meeting. Clinton easily defeated Sen. Barack Obama in the May Democratic primary. “Sen. Clinton's AFL-CIO COPE rating is 96 percent and Sen. Obama's is 98 percent. John McCain's is 14 percent. “It's clear that with McCain we get four more years of Bush.”
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