The
Official Newsletter of the
Prepared by
Volume 10, Number 8, August, 2010
Rally for Steelworkers Local 7-669 is Aug. 7
The annual Fancy Farm political picnic is set for Aug 7.
“But that day we need to be across the Ohio River standing in
solidarity with our union brothers and sisters who have been locked out at
Honeywell,” said Jeff Wiggins, council president.
A rally for Steelworkers Local 7-669 is set for 1 p.m. in
Metropolis.
“We have received an overwhelming
amount of support from the community and surrounding area,” Darrell Lillie,
Local 7-669 president, wrote in a letter to area unions announcing the rally.
“…We ask for your support and hope you will attend, we are planning on a very
large turnout and would like to send a BIG message to Honeywell and all other
employers in the area that we stand together in support of Union Labor.”
The lockout
started June 28 after the contract between the union and the company expired. “The company is coming after the union hard,”
Local
7-669, represents 220 hourly workers at Honeywell’s Metropolis plant which
manufactures nuclear fuel.
Workers and supporters are walking picket lines outside the
facility. “We’ve had a lot of support from across the [
So does community backing in Metropolis, he added. “One of our
members was eating at IHOP and he had a picket sign with him,” Lillie said.
“The employees and customers took up a collection and raised eighty-something
dollars right there.”
Lillie said retirement and medical benefits are important issues
in the labor-management dispute.
“I know the company has deeper pockets than we do,” he said. “But
they’re not making any product either. It’s getting into their pockets like
it’s getting into ours.”
He added, “If we stay together, we’re going to win and we’re going
to get the company’s – I’m being nice tonight – hind end.”
The company told Local 7-669 members they could not come back in
the plant until a new contract is hammered out.
The Aug. 7 rally starts in the parking lot of the old
Wiggins
added, “I know that [Kentucky Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate] Jack Conway
and some of our other friends will be at Fancy Farm. But they know we’ll be
working hard for them in the fall campaign.
“But
Local 7-669 needs us now. Let’s help give Brother Lillie the big turnout he’s
hoping for. Let’s show everybody that ‘solidarity’ – that old union byword is
alive and well in western
Smith
says he is anti-right to work and pro-prevailing wage
Rex
Smith conceded that he and organized labor don’t have everything in common.
“But
one thing we do agree on is getting David Williams out as senate president and
sending Bob Leeper home as well,” Smith, the Democratic candidate for Leeper’s
first district state senate seat, told delegates at the July council meeting.
The
state AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed Smith in July, following a unanimous
recommendation for endorsement the council made in June.
Smith,
a former state representative, owns Jim Smith Contracting, a family firm
founded by his father. Smith said his father started with a single bulldozer he
got thanks to a loan from one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal
programs.
Rex
Smith, president and CEO of Jim Smith contracting, took over the company in
1996 after his father died.
Smith
said he opposes right to work laws and supports prevailing wage laws. “Right to
work and prevailing wages are two issues I am 100 percent in agreement with you
on.
“I
have never been for right to work. I can’t see myself as ever being for right
to work. I will never support right to work and it will never happen in
Smith
added that “the prevailing wage is the best thing that ever happened. Without
the prevailing wage, we’d have a hard time attracting people to the building
trades.
“People
don’t understand the prevailing wage. They act like 25, 26 or 27 dollars an
hour for driving a bulldozer is an outrageous wage. But they don’t realize that
that operator might not get 1,000 or 1,500 hours a year – or even less than
that.
“Without
the prevailing wage, you will only get low skilled workers.”
On
other topics, Smith said he already has commitments from Democratic House
Speaker Greg Stumbo and Democratic Floor Leader Rocky Adkins to help pass a
bill that would lift the moratorium on the construction of nuclear plants in
Kentucky. “They told me if I can beat Leeper, they will help me get that bill
through.”
He
said America’s energy independence depends on “fully utilizing coal and nuclear
power. If we build them both up, they will provide thousands and thousands of
jobs for a long time. We could create 5,000 building trades jobs tomorrow if we
could build these coal to liquid fuel plants. Fuel you get from coal is cleaner
and hotter than fuel you get from oil. We need to put those kinds of
technologies into effect.
“Send
me to Frankfort and I will help create the jobs and that will give unions the
opportunities to organize. I have zero problems with unions. We have operating
engineers and laborers [working for Smith Contracting].
“The
best thing we can do is give David Williams and Bob Leeper their pink slips and
create an environment that fosters investments and creates jobs.”
Smith
added that his step-grandfather was a union plumber-steamfitter. “People ask me
all the time, ‘Why are you a Democrat, Rex?’ Why aren’t you a Republican?’ I
tell them because I can remember when we didn’t have anything. I tell them to
stop and think where we’d be if we didn’t have TVA or a USEC and all of those
things that have helped working people and evolved through the years from
Roosevelt and Truman on up.”
Smith
was introduced at the at the July meeting by Benny Adair, council vice
president.
“We’ve
got a good candidate,” Adair said. “He believes in bringing jobs to this end of
the state.
Leeper,
a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned independent represents Marshall, McCracken
and Ballard counties in the state senate.
MINUTES OF THE JULY 1,
2010 COUNCIL MEETING
Compiled by
The
monthly Executive Board meeting set for 6 p.m. was cancelled because there was
no quorum.
President
Jeff Wiggins gaveled the regular meeting to order at 7 p.m.
After
the customary Pledge of Allegiance and prayer, delegates voted to suspend the
regular order of business to hear Rex Smith, Democratic candidate for the First
District State Senate seat held by Bob Leeper (I)
Delegates
also heard from Darrell Lillie, president of Steelworkers Local 7-669, which
has been locked out at the Honeywell Plant in Metropolis, Ill. Lillie thanked
delegates for the support his local has received from union members in
Kentucky.
In
other business, Treasurer Brandon Duncan read the financial report.
Delegate
Jim Key announced a July 19 meeting of the Labor-Management Committee in
Calvert City. Wiggins announced that since the June meeting, he had received
two newsletters, one mass mailing and seven letters of attention. He said he
emailed the council newsletter and meeting notice.
Wiggins
also urged delegates to boycott Mott’s food and juice products because of the
company’s anti-union activities.
In
addition, Wiggins announced that the state AFL-CIO COPE Committee would meet
July 14 to vote on candidate endorsements.
Frances
Willey, treasurer of the Western Kentucky Labor Day Committee, asked for
donations from local unions to help fund this year’s program and keep the
programs going. She also said she planned to send out candidate invitation
letters by July 9.
The
meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
The Lexington
Herald-Leader reported that UAW regional director Mo Davidson said Conway has
a plan to create and save American jobs. Larry Roberts, building trades state
director, called
“Our Labor 2010 program is underway and one
of our top priorities in electing Jack Conway to the senate,” said Jeff Wiggins
council president.
From AFL-CIO Blog News
Time for Unity in Kentucky U.S. Senate Race
By Berry Craig, Jul 15, 2010
Kentucky
Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo (D) didn’t quite pull a “Happy” Chandler when he told
the Lexington Herald-Leader he is “not taking a position” in the U.S. Senate
race between fellow Democrat Jack Conway and
Tea Party-backed Republican Rand Paul.
Albert
B. “Happy”
In
May, Mongiardo lost a close primary battle to Conway, the state attorney
general. Both have good labor records. So before the primary, the Kentucky State AFL-CIO
didn’t endorse either candidate, leaving individual unions to support whomever
they pleased.
The
state AFL-CIO [in July]…unanimously endorsed Conway for the general election.
Meanwhile, Mongiardo’s decision not to back
I am
very disappointed that he would take that stance when we have a chance to elect
a senator who will support labor.
Wiggins,
who is also on the state Kentucky AFL-CIO Executive Board, voted for Mongiardo.
Union
members in
Paul
was pleased to get a $2,500
contribution from the National Right to Work Committee.
He fiercely opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, too. He bashes “big labor.”
Polls
show a close race and Wiggins worries that Mongiardo’s neutrality, if it
continues, could tilt the election to Paul. “I hope Mongiardo will change his
mind and step up to the plate for
Trey
Grayson, the guy Paul pummeled in the GOP primary, has gone to bat for the
victor, at least for public consumption.
No
sooner did Paul win than he, Grayson and McConnell joined hands and sang
Kumbaya at a Republican “unity rally.” Looking at the united trio, Wiggins
warns fellow union members, “None of them are our friends, that’s for sure.”
Wiggins
says Mongiardo should take a lesson from the GOP’s post primary unity and the
Paducah labor council’s solidarity following the May vote. Before the primary,
the council voted better than three-to-one to recommend Mongiardo’s endorsement
to the state AFL-CIO. After the primary, the council voted unanimously to
recommend
We
don’t always agree on things that come up in the council. Sometimes we fuss.
But then we take a vote, the majority rules and we go out the door united.
That’s what’s got to happen in the Senate race. Jack Conway won, but Dan
Mongiardo is our friend, too. I urge him to stand with his many labor friends
behind
Is proud to announce that we will be
hosting the Pre-Fancy Farm Luncheon
(Labor Luncheon)
Friday August 6, 2010
Lunch Served At 11:30AM
Political Speakers Start Promptly
After Lunch Is Served
Please Contact Kyle Henderson if you
should have any questions
270-444-6545 office
270-519-3465 cell
The
Teabagger Pledge
I,
________________________, do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a
socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly
adhere to the following:
I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this
country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights.
I will complain about the destruction of my 2nd Amendment Rights in this
country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights by
legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public.
I will foreswear the time-honored principles of fairness, decency, and
respect by screaming unintelligible platitudes regarding tyranny, Naziism, and
socialism at public town halls.
Also, I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will
abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services
including but not limited to the following:
• Social Security
• Medicare/Medicaid
• State Children's Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP) • Police, Fire, and
Emergency Services • US Postal Service • Roads and Highways • Air Travel
(regulated by the socialist FAA) • Amtrak • Public Subways and Metro Systems •
Public Bus and Light Rail Systems • Rest Areas on Highways • Sidewalks • All
Government-Funded Local/State Projects (e.g., see Iowa 2009 federal senate
appropriations) • Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet,
shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, garden sprinkler) • Public and State
Universities and Colleges • Public Primary and Secondary Schools • Sesame
Street • Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children • Public Museums
• Libraries • Public Parks and Beaches • State and National Parks • Public Zoos
• Unemployment Insurance • Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services • Treatment
at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, State or
Federal Government (pretty much all of them) • Medical Services and Medications
That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding
(again, pretty much all of them) • Socialist Byproducts of Government
Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions) • Use of the
Internet, email, and networked computers, as the DoD's ARPANET was the basis
for subsequent computer networking • Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That
Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown
With Government Subsidies • Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. Cotton) That Were
Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies • If a veteran of
the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and
insist on paying for my own medical care • I will not tour socialist government
buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
• I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of
the following types of socialist locations, including but not limited to:
* Smithsonian Museums, e.g. The Air and
* The socialist
* The government-operated Statue of Liberty
* The
* The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials
* The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as
* All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in
DC
• I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forego their
government salary and government-provided healthcare.
• I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist
military of the
• I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE,
Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana,
FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our
socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.
• I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI,
CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their
socialist employees.
• Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist
Social Security checks.
• Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private
health insurance until I die.
SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS _____ DAY OF __________ IN THE YEAR
_______.
_____________________________________________________________________________.
By Mike Workman on Facebook
Rex Smith photo: http://www.rexsmithstatesenate.com/images/Rex-in-Washington.jpg
Conway Bumper Sticker: http://www.democraticstuff.com/common/images/products/large/BS32093-2.jpg
Jack Conway photo: http://jackconway.org/images/JCwWife_Daughter-68.jpg
