Bluegrass Express: End of the Road Is Just the Beginning for Ky. Workers

Distributing issues fliers to workers heading through plant gates at dawn, Kentucky union volunteers have election momentum on their side.

Rachele Huennekens, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, has blogged and leafleted her way through a 10-day bus tour through Kentucky, where former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear (D) is challenging Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R), who has canceled bargaining rights for state employees and taken other anti-worker stands. Together with Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan, Rachele sends us a final blog on the Bluegrass Express tour, in which dozens of local labor leaders and union volunteers have participated. 

As the Bluegrass Express tour comes to a close in its second week, we put the remaining time to good use, squeezing  in a few more stops and welcoming many new union members who volunteer to take part from a variety of unions at worksites across the state.

With bright moonlight as a backdrop, the Bluegrass Express pulled off the road Sunday evening at AK Steel in Ashland. United Steelworkers (USW) representative Mike Donta, USW member Thomas Hill, AFL-CIO representative Don Slaiman and I greeted hundreds of USW union members coming into work. The response from the steelworkers was overwhelmingly positive, and many expressed support for Steve Beshear and other union-endorsed candidates.  The same went for the next morning, when the Bluegrass Express traveled to the AT&T call center in Boyd County. There, we were joined by Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 3371 representatives Patty Bostic and Mike Roberts. Before the sun cast its first rays on the surrounding hills, we distributed issue fliers to more than 100 CWA members. 

Following these stops in the Ashland area, the bus headed west to Lexington, where we showed our University of Kentucky spirit. We spoke with building trades members and distributed information about the election at the UK Hospital parking garage construction site along with Laborers (LIUNA) representative Robert Akin and Carpenters representative Jerry Yates. We arrived during lunch break and had the opportunity to meet with union members, give them issues fliers and discuss the importance of the upcoming election. Many of the building trades members were fully aware of Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s attack on the vital prevailing wage statute and agreed that he needs to be defeated on Nov. 6. [Prevailing wage laws prevent construction contractors from low-balling bids by undercutting wage levels for skilled workers.]

Finally, the Bluegrass Express stopped at the former Naval Ordinance Station in Louisville to leaflet the members of the Machinists (IAM) working for BAE Systems and Raytheon. Here, we were joined by Zone Three Coordinator Donnie Colston, T.J. Pickerell of the USW and IAM representatives Ken Koch, George Boyd, Billy Stivers, John Jeffries, Virgil Kleinfelter, Leonard Douglas and other volunteers. As several hundred IAM members streamed from the facilities at the end of their shift, we had the opportunity to talk with them and find out that, once again, most were engaged and motivated by the presence of their representatives and the Bluegrass Express.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the tour is headed to about a dozen more stops near Paducah and Louisville, visiting an industrial complex of steel mills, a coal mine, a fire station and more.

This will be our final blog post about the tour, so we thank everyone who got on the bus or shared the experience with us by reading this blog. With only one week left until the election, we’ve made a real impact by spreading the word about the importance of these elections.

Toot, toooooooot! The Bluegrass Express is rolling out of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and it’s taking the extremely anti-working family governor with it! Goodbye, Ernie!   

______________________________________

Paid for by AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Treasury Fund.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (2)