Beshear outlines labor policies

EDITOR’S NOTE: Beshear outlined his labor positions to us in an interview last Friday during a campaign stop in Paducah.

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

Politicians often give voters glittering generalities when they want specifics.

After promising to “to work every single day for our working families,” Attorney Gen. Andy Beshear, the brand-new Democratic nominee for governor, gets specific on union issues: 

“The first thing we’re going to do is support a bill that repeals right to work, and I’m going to fight like heck to get it passed.

“The second thing we’re going to do is support a bill that restores the prevailing wage, and we’re going to fight like heck to get that passed.

“We’re going to make the labor cabinet actually work for workers again. We’re going to have a card-carrying [union] member as the secretary of the labor cabinet.

“We’re going to restore the OSHA board. We’re going to restore all those skilled trade boards, and then we are going to stop giving corporate tax incentives to companies that don’t pay a living wage.

“Everything that we do is going to be about our working families and not an out-of-state CEO. Labor’s going to feel like they’ve got a friend in the governor’s office again, and they’re going to have access to that governor’s office.”

The Kentucky State AFL-CIO Executive Board, acting as the COPE (Committee on Political Education) Committee, meets Thursday in Frankfort to vote on endorsements for the fall campaign.