'It's the working people of Kentucky who had a bad week in Frankfort'
By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
The Kentucky Republican party “has finally done the bidding of the Chamber of Commerce, passing both the so-called ‘Right to Work’ bill and legislation that eliminates the requirement to pay a prevailing wage in public construction projects,” says state Sen. Morgan McGarvey’s current newsletter.
The Louisville Democrat opposed RTW and PW repeal. He also voted against a measure to make it harder for unions to collect dues through payroll deduction. The paycheck deception bill also passed.
“‘Right To Work’ is largely symbolic, but make no mistake, its intent is to undo privately bargained-for contracts between labor and management,” McGarvey wrote. “This will reduce workers' ability to approach employers from a position of strength.”
The newsletter explained that prevailing wage laws are meant to safeguard worker wages by preventing companies from cutting wage rates to qualify as low bidders on government contracts. “The current formula might need some tinkering, but the overall intent is a laudable concept.
“Asked to eliminate prevailing wage, I voted no. Like my colleagues who voted yes, I want to see more investment in infrastructure, and I want to see taxpayers get the best deal. But the ‘best’ bid is not always the lowest. It's wrong to balance the state budget on the backs of the men and women who work hard to build the things we use every day.”
McGarvey said the Capitol Rotunda “was full to overflowing with protesters on the day the Republicans finally had their way on these issues. The dissent was so full-throated that Senate President Robert Stivers had to warn doorkeepers to keep the chamber closed against the vocal assault.”
Gov. Matt Bevin waited “eagerly on the first floor to sign these bills into law, as he gleefully pledged to be when he spoke to some 1,500 business executives from across Kentucky at a largely Republican Kentucky Chamber of Commerce dinner earlier in the week,” McGarvey wrote. “The menu was steak, crab cakes and self-satisfaction.”
Bevin, House Speaker Jeff Hoover and Senate President Robert Stivers presented the GOP message, McGarvey said. “I spoke for the Democrats. One of my Republican friends later posted on Facebook that I had ‘walked into the shark tank with chum in [my] pockets . . . .’ It wasn’t that nasty, but I did begin my speech by saying I felt like a new guy at an AA meeting: ‘Hi. My name is Morgan. I'm a Democrat.’
“Things had got so bad for us Democrats, I told them, that Mariah Carey called our caucus to say, ‘You guys are really having a rough week.’”
Added McGarvey: “Of course it's the working people of Kentucky who had a bad week in Frankfort, as well as the women whose right to unimpeded healthcare was being compromised. But once these items from the national right wing think tank agenda are checked off the Kentucky GOP list and signed into law, we still face the big policy dilemmas – tax reform, healthcare, education, job creation and pensions. They will be more difficult to railroad through the General Assembly.
“Politics is easy. Policy is gnarled and nuanced.”