Kentucky Voters Thrash Walker Clone in Governor’s Race
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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.
Ky. Working Families Not Resting on Big Lead in Gov.’s Race
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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.”
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 »
Bargaining Wins for Public Employees in Los Angeles, Pennsylvania, Kentucky
Public employees across the country have been battling bruising attacks on their jobs and paychecks as cities and states sink into red ink. No more so than in California, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger achieved through budget cuts what he couldn’t in state referendums voted down by voters in 2008, a drastic reduction in state services. Yet in Los Angeles, city workers—members of several unions—ratified a new contract that averts furloughs and layoffs. State employees in Pennsylvania and Kentucky also have good news after mobilizing successfully to protect their paychecks and turn back cuts in benefits.
The Los Angeles city budget, adopted in May, called for layoffs and 26 furlough days per worker—amounting to a 10 percent cut in services and pay for every city program and every worker. Since then, members of the Coalition of LA City Unions in Los Angeles overwhelmingly approved a new contract with the city that preserves city services and avoids layoffs and furloughs. The new agreement will save more than half a billion dollars over the next three years, primarily through a retirement incentive program and delays in scheduled wage increases.
