SEARCH
Kentucky Union Members Offer Cross Border Solidarity for Indiana Right to Work Fight
| Share |
The Republican-majority Indiana legislature says passing a so-called right to work law is the top priority in the 2012 session.
Unions call “right to work” the “right to work for less,” and Hoosier labor leader Russ Stilwell says such laws are “a cancerous ideology.” Speaking at the recent 29th biennial convention of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO in Louisville, Stilwell said:
If the Republicans succeed in Indiana, ‘right to work’ will spread like a cancer to other states.
Stilwell, 63, a 41-year Mine Workers (UMWA) member and vice president of the Indiana State AFL-CIO’s Executive Board, sought union support in Kentucky, Indiana’s southern neighbor. Kentucky is not a so-called right to work state.
Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) and the Republican legislators failed to get a right-to-work-for-less law earlier this year after all but one Democratic House member left the state for 35 days and thousands of union members and supporters from Indiana and other states, including Kentucky, thronged the capitol in Indianapolis.
“The battle is far from over, and we’ve got a tough fight ahead,” Stilwell says, noting that the term “right to work” can fool even some union members. Read the rest of this entry »
The Government Can Create Jobs
| Share |
The Republicans keep saying the government can’t create jobs. That’s baloney.
Tens of thousands of unemployed Americans were glad to find work under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Depression-era New Deal programs of the 1930s. Their labor benefited the whole country, too.
They earned paychecks from Uncle Sam for constructing or improving streets, roads, highways, airports, courthouses, city halls, schools, post offices, libraries, fire stations, baseball and football stadiums, jails, state armories, band shells and parks. They planted trees, fought soil erosion and brought electricity to even the remotest farms.
They wrote history books and travel guides. They painted murals in public buildings, put on plays and concerts and taught people to read.
They were proud of their work, much of which survives, including the Works Progress Administration-built McCracken County courthouse in Paducah, Ky., where I teach history at the local community and technical college. (My grandfather and uncle were part of WPA crews that cleaned up Paducah after the Great Ohio River flood of 1937.)
Right-wing Republicans of old said FDR was a “socialist” because he believed Read the rest of this entry »
Kentucky Voters Thrash Walker Clone in Governor’s Race
| Share |
 |
||||
|
||||
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) won a second term Tuesday, burying “a Scott Walker wannabe” under one of the largest landslides in recent Bluegrass State history.
Beshear, who earned the Kentucky State AFL-CIO endorsement, piled up 56 percent of the vote to 35 percent for Republican Senate President David Williams. Independent Gatewood Galbraith finished third with 9 percent.
Says Jeff Wiggins, president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council:
Williams invited his buddy Walker, Wisconsin’s union-busting governor, to Kentucky to campaign for him—birds of a feather. But we cooked his goose. Let’s hope the voters of Wisconsin will cook Walker’s goose and recall him next year.
Kentucky Labor Institute Raises Labor’s Voice, Image
| Share |
Dave Suetholz says he got fed up with “the right wing’s effective use of the echo chamber through its network of reactionary think tanks and media.”
So the Kentucky labor lawyer climbed aboard his American-made Ford pickup truck and drove across the Bluegrass State seeking support for a Kentucky Labor Institute (KLI).
His travels bore fruit. Says Sy Slavin, Ph.D., KLI acting director:
If you look at the seven months since we have been in operation, the record is impressive. More than 60 articles supporting labor have been published in blogs around the country. We have had an op-ed piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Ky. Working Families Not Resting on Big Lead in Gov.’s Race
| Share |
 |
||||
|
||||
Union-endorsed Gov. Steve Beshear (D) is up two dozen points over state Senate President David Williams (R), his challenger in the gubernatorial race, which will be decided Nov. 8. Still, Bill Londrigan, Kentucky State AFL-CIO president and member of the Elevator Constructors (IUEC), warns that:
“Anything can happen between now and Election Day. We can expect a whole lot of money coming into the state to undermine our candidate. You can never rest until it’s over. If you do, you give the other side a chance to catch up. We are going to work as hard as we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The latest Louisville Courier-Journal/WHAS11 Bluegrass Poll has Beshear, who also earned the state AFL-CIO endorsement in 2007, leading Williams by 24 points.
Four years ago, Beshear unseated Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher. Jeff Wiggins, a United Steelworkers member (USW) and president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council, says, “Williams is another Fletcher.”
Ky. CLC Offers Musical Salute to Wisconsin Workers
| Share |
 |
The union movement has a rich musical heritage.
So when my central labor council—the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council—talked about doing something unique to show solidarity with our Wisconsin union brothers and sisters who are battling for their collective bargaining rights, I suggested a special rendition of “On, Wisconsin!”
Though I had fun writing the lyrics, I sing poorly and cannot play any musical instrument. But I knew where to find top flight performers. One lives in our house. The other is a frequent and welcome visitor.
Lee Scarbrough, the son of a union electrician, sings our special “On, Wisconsin!” while Berry Craig IV accompanies him on the trumpet. Lee and Berry are seniors at Mayfield High School and standouts in the Cardinal marching band. They have been buddies since kindergarten.
Father Tony Doesn’t Forget He Is Son of Union Members
| Share |
 |
|
Father Tony Shonis includes the the local central labor council on his pastoral rounds wherever the church sends him. Says Shonis:
“I come from a union family. Both of my parents retired with a pension from the union. My father was in the Bakery and Confectionery [Tobacco] Workers [and Grain Millers] union and my mother was in the old ILGWU [International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, now UNITEHERE!]. From them, I learned what the union means to a working family and how civic minded union members are.”
A Pennsylvania native, Shonis is associate pastor at the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in Henderson, Ky., an old Ohio River town in the western end of the Bluegrass State. The Tri-County Labor Council meets in Henderson.
Which President Jumped Out a Window to Prevent a Vote?
| Share |
Here’s a history quiz. What state legislator tried to prevent a crucial vote by hopping out of a window in hopes of depriving the other party of a quorum?
Hint: He’s the same one who said, “Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration.”
OK, last hint: He was a Republican.
Give up? It was Abraham Lincoln.
Scott Walker, Wisconsin’s Republican governor, is still in high dudgeon over the 14 Democratic state senators who have stalled his union-busting bill by seeking refuge in Illinois, you know, the Land of Lincoln.
Walker’s GOP Senate majority has ordered the absent loyal opposition arrested.
Would the Dairy State solons sic the cops on Honest Abe? After all, he was the GOP’s first president. (Given his politics, Lincoln might be a Democrat today.)
In Wisconsin, a Repeat of Revolutionary War History?
| Share |
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker reminds me of old Lord North. OK, I’m a history teacher.
North was the Revolutionary War-era British prime minister who wanted to bust the American colonies. Walker is the Wisconsin governor who wants to bust public employee unions in the Dairy State.
- North was an uber-conservative. So is Walker.
- North’s strategy was divide and conquer. I suspect Walker’s is, too.
- It backfired on North. It may boomerang on Walker.
Kay Tillow: Civil Rights, Union Organizing Mark Decades of Activism
| Share |
 |
||||
|
||||
Kay Tillow, a veteran union activist from Louisville, can inspire us all as we start the New Year. “Set a stout heart to a steep hillside” is an old Scottish proverb that reminds me of Tillow, who’s executive director of the Nurses Professional Organization. She and the NPO have spent 21 years battling to organize nurses who work for Louisville-based Norton Healthcare, Kentucky’s largest health care system. Says Tillow:
“The [National Labor Relations Board] has ruled in our favor time and again. But management has continued to threaten and intimidate nurses who want the union and we’ve never gotten recognition.”
Even so, Tillow refuses to give up. “This is a human rights issue to me.”
Bill Londrigan, Kentucky State AFL-CIO president, is one of Tillow’s biggest fans.
Kay has worked tirelessly on behalf of nurses who have had to fight one of the most anti-union health care corporations in the nation. She’s a warrior for workers.
