Swedish Multinational AAK Tries to Bust Kentucky Union
Amy Masciola, campaign consultant for the National Conference of Firemen and Oilers District of Local 32BJ/SEIU (NCFO/SEIU), sends us this.
This week at the Biennial Convention of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, union members from around the state kicked off a campaign in support of workers at AAK in Louisville. Nearly 50 employees of the oils and fats processor, formerly Golden Brands, are currently working without a contract after voting overwhelmingly to reject the company’s final offer in November. According to unfair labor practice charges the union filed, workers describe a hostile atmosphere in the workplace after managers threatened to fire members of the bargaining committee if they did not recommend the contract offer to co-workers. One worker was fired after he spoke to authorities about management’s threats.
‘Time for Working Class to Have A Voice’ in Budget Debate
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AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.
Fed up with inaction and partisan-political game playing in Washington, Kentuckians gathered in Louisville to call upon Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to stop the partisan politics and pass a budget that works for all working families, not just millionaire CEOs. They called out their senator for putting the 2012 elections ahead of the needs of his own constituents who would be impacted by deep cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
A delegation that included Rev. Charles Elliott, local voters and United Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts attempted to visit McConnell’s office, but when all but two were turned away by security, Roberts joined the crowd marching around the federal building while Rev. Elliott and a local senior citizen met with staff.
In nearly 100 degree heat, the crowd prayed and sang, marched and rallied for a humane federal budget with sane priorities while the pair met with Sen. McConnell’s staff. Roberts said “It is time for the working class to have a voice in this debate.” He called upon McConnell as well as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to stop holding the economy hostage. Even as the rally was coming to a close, another round began arriving on their lunch hour, with signs calling for no cuts to the critical programs that Kentucky families need. Read the rest of this entry »
Kentucky High School Students Stand Up For Teachers, Public Employees
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Nash Whaley and 13 of his classmates at a Louisville, Ky., high school learned a crucial life lesson of courage and displayed a strong sense of justice when they walked out of class earlier this month in support of their teachers and other public employees.
Speaking at the April 4 We Are One Rally in Louisville, Whaley said he and several other students responded to a call by Wisconsin students for a national walkout in response to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-union agenda. The students distributed liers and created a Facebook event to publicize the walkout. Just minutes before the walkout was to begin, the assistant principal announced that any student who walked out would be punished. But Whaley, who admits he was afraid of being punished, asked one of his teachers what to do.
I voiced my concerns to one of my teachers and he replied…the question is not whether you will get punished, but whether the threat of punishment outweighs the benefits of the action.
Political Action Pays Off for State Workers in Kentucky and Tennessee
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| Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear signs two negotiated union agreements covering 9,000 satte corrections and social service workers. |
State employees in Kentucky and Tennessee received early holiday gifts last month: historic new agreements with their employers. In both cases, political action was at the core of the victories.
In Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear (D), who was elected with strong union support, signed two agreements with AFSCME Council 62–their first-ever union contracts.
The agreements cover some 5,000 corrections employees who work in prisons and related facilities, including probation and parole and juvenile justice employees and nearly 4,000 social service employees, including family case workers and managers and social workers.
“This is a tremendous step in building a strong union,” says David Warrick, executive director of Council 62. Read the rest of this entry »
Working Families Vote: Election 2010 Thread
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10:27: Looks like Ken Buck won’t be going to the tea party. The Denver Post has just projected Sen. Michael Bennet (D) the winner over the arch conservative Buck in the Colorado U.S. Senate race.
Nov. 3: Sen. Majority Harry Reid of Nevada defeated Sharron Angle with a big boost from working family voters, who provided his margin of victory.
- Some 270,162 union members voted for Reid by 69 percent, with 29 percent voting for Angle. Among non-union members, Reid lost 49-44.
Also, another former CEO needs to check her business plan. Sen. Barbara Boxer defeated former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina because, reports the Times, Boxer was able to turn “Fiorina’s record at the company against her, accusing the former CEO of outsourcing jobs and laying off 30,000 workers.” It certainly is about jobs.
Union members voted for Brown by a 36 point margin and gave Boxer by a 34 point edge. Some 30,000 union volunteers knocked on 413,000 doors, helped make 4.1 million calls and distributed 2.94 million worksite fliers.
Be sure and check back tomorrow for late results and other election news. Read the rest of this entry »
Rand Paul Supporters Attack Satirical Protester
Looks like Rand Paul supporters can’t take a joke, but they sure can stomp somebody in the head.
Last night before a debate between Paul, who has the strong backing of corporate interests and corporate money, and Democratic Senate candidate Jack Conway, Lauren Valle attempted to present Paul with an “Employee of the Month” certificate from “RepubliCorp.”
RepubliCorp is MoveOn.org’s “business,” a satire of an organization created by a merger of the Republican Party and Big Business. Click here for a closer look at the site, Buying Democracy One Race at a Time.
Vale was surrounded by Paul supporters who then pushed her to the ground and one man stomped on her head. You can see in this video from Fox41.com, that Valle is forced to the ground by a man as another man holding a Rand Paul sign steps forcefully on her head. Media Matters has documented right-wing violence this year against progressives. Read the list here.
Valle told the New York Daily News:
They tried to grab me and chased me around Rand Paul’s car. And once I’m in front of the car, they take me down….I remembered someone stomping my head in the ground.
As Part of One Nation, Union Members Mobilize to Get Out the Vote
While tens of thousands of union members were marching for jobs and economic justice on 10-2-10 in One Nation Working Together rally in Washington, D.C., thousands of their brothers and sisters across the country were knocking on union family doors and volunteering to get out the vote for 11-2-10.
In Ohio, union families in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton fanned out in neighborhoods spreading the word that Nov. 2 is about jobs and the candidates who will fight for jobs to rebuild the economy–candidates like Ted Strickland for governor, Lee Fisher for U.S. Senate and Betty Sutton for U.S. House.
Along with organizing a 28-bus convoy to One Nation, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO launched a Day of Door Knocking Action around the state where several hundred union volunteers spent part of their Saturday visiting union households to communicate with their co-workers, friends and neighbors about working family issues.
In California, union members distributed fliers outlining the Wall Street/corporate platform of Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.
Kentucky working families were out in force for U.S. Senate candidate Jack Conway who is running strong campaign against Tea Party-backed Republican Rand Paul and Paul’s platform to phase out and privatize Social Security and Medicare.
For more on Labor 2010, click here.
Rand Paul to Workers: ‘Hell, No,’ I Won’t Talk to You’
When Senate Republican candidate Rand Paul made the rounds in a local Dairy Queen in Pineville, Ky., diner, he went out of his way to avoid talking with workers sitting at one table (see video). And when they followed him outside to ask if he’d talk with them, his response:
Hell, no.
Maybe Paul was afraid the workers might ask him about why he wants to increase the retirement eligibility age for Social Security—a move opposed by some 68 percent of voters—and Kentuckians are no different. Says Mason Caudill, president of Teamsters Local 1569 and one of those who tried to talk with Paul:
Most of the people around here live on Social Security. That’s all they got.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders Meets with Kentucky Union Leaders
Nate Byer, AFL-CIO communications director in Kentucky, sends us this report.
As part of his congressional August recess, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was in Kentucky yesterday to witness firsthand how residents of the Bluegrass State have risen to the challenging economic realities that face the region. During his first-ever trip to the Commonwealth, Sanders, who was joined by Rep. Jim Yarmuth (D-KY), stopped in at the UAW Local 862 union hall to hold an informal roundtable with union leaders and interested members.
Kentucky AFL-CIO President Bill Londigran briefed Sanders on how the state’s implementation of federal stimulus funds and where union leaders see the greatest potential for job growth in the state. Yarmuth contributed valuable insight into the political challenges friends of labor face across the state and made it clear that he believes the progressive community will be geared up for the upcoming November elections. Says Londrigran. Read the rest of this entry »
Rand Paul: Easing Unemployment Means More Drug Use
UPDATE: Rand Paul’s campaign says he stands by his claim of helping unemployed workers with drug abuse.
Eddie Vale, AFL-CIO political communications director, brings this to our attention. He’s asking the Paul campaign for a clarification.
Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul has already told miners across Kentucky that “accidents happen” and so the federal government shouldn’t be involved in regulating health and safety on the job. Now he shares how helping jobless workers would create drug abuse. This, from an interview today with WYMT-TV:
Paul says reinvesting money in the local economy will help ease the unemployment, which he says leads to more drug use.
“You want rich people because that’s what creates jobs. If you punish people, they won’t expand or create jobs,” Paul said.
