By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
Amy McGrath is grateful for "tremendous" union support.
"I would like to think it's because of me," she chuckled. "But to be honest, I think a lot of it is because of Mitch McConnell."
Anyway, McGrath, the Democrat who wants the senator's job, is glad to have the Kentucky State AFL-CIO's unanimous endorsement.
"It's clear that [McConnell]...couldn't care less about working people, and he shows it more every day," she said before a campaign rally in Paducah Friday afternoon. "I want unions to know that they have a partner with Amy McGrath. I'm going to be with you."
Union members were in the crowd of about 50. They included McGrath staffers who belong to Louisville IBEW Local 369. A trio of fans in the stands pack Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 184 cards.
"We've seen what [McConnell]...has done to us," said Brian Courtney. "We've got to get somebody else in there to change things around. We've got to get out there and vote."
Recent 184 retiree Johnny McClintock, Courtney's father-in-law, agreed. "As far as the well-being of all the unions, we need her in there."
"It's an uphill battle to keep our union rights with Republicans in there," said fellow retiree Jimmie Johnson.
Wearing jeans and her old Marine flight jacket for the Paducah rally, McGrath praised union members for understanding "the value of elections and why it is so important to mobilize everybody to vote. And they know how bad Mitch McConnell is--he's the worst in the entirety of Congress."
Indeed, unions consider McConnell one of the most anti-labor lawmakers ever in Washington. He's voted the union position on legislation just 12 percent of the time since he came to the Senate in 1985, according to the AFL-CIO.
"Too many of our country’s leaders haven’t honored us," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in prepared remarks for the Christian Science Monitor Labor Day Breakfast. "They haven’t served us well. They haven’t protected us. They’re letting our country crumble and our people suffer.
"Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are at the top of that list."
Trumka cited McConnell's refusal to take up the HEROES Act, which the Democratic-majority House passed on May 15 in response to the coronavirus pandemic. "It would protect our paychecks and pensions and public services. It would save lives. But Mitch McConnell and his anti-worker colleagues in the Senate have refused to act.
"American workers are sitting awake at night—worrying, suffering, mourning. Our bills are mounting up on kitchen tables because that bill sits on Mitch McConnell’s desk."
When McConnell recessed the Senate for the election, the stack included the original HEROES Act and a revised version the House passed on Oct. 1.
McGrath continues to challenge McConnell for refusing to take up the House-approved COVID-19 relief legislation.
"I want union members to know they have a partner with Amy McGrath," she said heading to the mike to open the rally. "Tell everybody you know to vote."