EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is a part of a series of stories on the recent 33rd biennial Kentucky State AFL-CIO convention in Lexington.
By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Andy Beshear told the Kentucky State AFL-CIO convention that Nov. 5 will set Kentucky’s course “not just [for] the next four years, but for the next forty years.”
He challenged the delegates, “You know what is on the line—the future for working people.”
Beshear, the outgoing attorney general, hopes to unseat GOP Gov. Matt Bevin, who wants a second term.
Bevin is one of the most anti-union governors in Bluegrass State history. The state AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed Beshear right after he won the May primary.
Beshear visited the convention on Tuesday afternoon, just hours before his second debate with Bevin at the University of Kentucky.
He promised a new administration that respects working people--"that works for them and cares more about them than some out of state CEO does."
Beshear said he came "with good news. If the election were today, we win. But I've got some bad news, too--the election is 21 days away."
A Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy poll releasedWednesday showed Bevin and Beshear tied at 46 percent support each.
Beshear urged the delegates, who represented dozens of union locals statewide, "to take ownership of this race....[and] work day and night until Nov. 5 to get every single vote out. That is how we win this race. None of us want to wake up on November the sixth thinking if we'd just done a little bit more, we could have pulled this thing out."
The union men and women repeatedly interrupted Beshear's remarks with cheers and applause, maybe the loudest time when he announced, "I don't know about you, but I am fed up, and I've had enough of this governor."
He said at the debate he would face "a governor that's called our teachers names, that has tried to tear down our system of public education and has appointed a [state] school board in Frankfort that cares more about for-profit charter school companies than our kids." He vowed to tell Bevin "that's wrong."
He said he would have to share the stage with a governor who backed a "right to work" law and a measure repealing the prevailing wage ( which the 2017 GOP-majority legislature lost no time in passing), who "eliminated the OSHA board that is supposed to keep our workers safe" and who "yelled at you all in a hallway after he tried to cut your wages. I've got to stand on that stage and look at a governor that does not care about working families."
He said that a Beshear labor cabinet would care about workers again and would have "a card-caring union member as...secretary." Beshear also pledged to restore union representation to boards whose actions affect workers.
He wrapped up his remarks by leading the crowd in chanting, "Matt Bevin, you're fired! Matt Bevin, you're fired!"
Beshear's running mate is educator Jacqueline Coleman. The state AFL-CIO endorsed all the Democrats on the ballot. The whole slate of candidates spoke at the convention.