Larry Roberts

Larry Roberts, state director of the Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council, describes why he and members of the 15 building and construction trades unions have worked to defeat Gov. Ernie Fletcher and elect working families’ candidate Steve Beshear. The building trades join with AFSCME, UAW, United Steelworkers and dozens of other unions and are working in coalition with the Kentucky State AFL-CIO to defeat Fletcher. 

From Pikeville to Paducah and points in between, the affiliates of the Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council (KSBCTC) have been taking it to the streets in record numbers to defeat Gov. Ernie Fletcher on Nov. 6. 

Our members and their families have been under attack from the first day Ernie Fletcher took office. He appointed a commissioner of labor who was the executive director of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), a nonunion contractor association that opposes prevailing wage and supports “right to work” for less legislation. The U.S. Department of Labor has ignored its mission to protect the working men and women of the commonwealth. 

The KSBCTC challenged the Labor Department in Franklin Circuit Court in 2004 and 2005 over arbitrary administrative decisions related to prevailing wage enforcement. [Prevailing wage laws prevent construction contractors from low-balling bids by undercutting wage levels for skilled workers.]  

We also intervened and successfully defended the constitutionality of the prevailing wage law in a 2005 lawsuit that was filed by TECO Mechanical Contractors, an ABC contractor and political contributor to Fletcher’s campaign. 

In recent weeks, the KSBCTC filed suit in Franklin Circuit Court to challenge four state park projects when the Fletcher administration omitted the prevailing wage from the bid documents. Last week, the court issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Fletcher administration from opening bids on these projects. 

This latest ruling sends a strong message and another defeat to Fletcher and his greedy, low-wage contractor buddies’ effort to take the low road to low-wage jobs. 

The members of the 15 unions that comprise the KSBCTC know the importance of this election and their response has been overwhelming. We have supported the AFL-CIO plan and integrated our own mail program into our effort to communicate with our members.

Our members are on top of their game, they have been walking door to door, calling their members and they have distributed a record number of letters and fliers to their members. 

We consistently have been communicating with our members for the past four years about Fletcher’s failed policies and our members and their families know it is time for a change in Frankfort. It is time for a worker-friendly governor—time to elect Steve Beshear.

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

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