Reinstedler: 'When working people are targeted...we organize. We speak out. We fight back.'

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT and KEA/NEA retiree

"When working people are targeted, whether it’s by anti-LGBTQ legislation, attacks on reproductive freedom or efforts to silence voices in public education, our response is the same," said Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Dustin Reinstedler. “We organize. We speak out. We fight back."

Recently in Louisville, a crowd of about 2,000 people — many of them union members, including Reinstedler, rallied in support of about 200 immigrant workers from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela whom the Trump administration wants to deport. They belong to Local 83761 of the International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America, located at GE Appliances-Haier at Appliance Park.

"We didn’t stay silent," added Reinstedler. "We worked alongside union leaders and advocates to gather accurate information, communicate it clearly, and bring public attention to the crisis. These workers are our neighbors, our coworkers, our community. Their fight is our fight. That’s what solidarity means."

Worldwide, organized labor stand in solidarity with groups like Amnesty International to advance human rights. "Trade unions are critical to protecting and promoting human rights including economic, social, and cultural rights and the right to be free from discrimination," says AI.  

"First, they play a key role through negotiations with employers and collective action in supporting workers’ rights. In so doing, unions balance the scales of power, ensuring that workers are in a position to advocate for their rights, and holding those who run wealthy and powerful companies to account.

"Second, the benefits of trade unions go far beyond the workplace. Unions are the fuel that keeps the fires of social justice and people power burning so that workers’ rights are respected and protected by law. Throughout history, unions have been the driving force behind calls on governments and employers to acknowledge and prevent human rights abuses that are connected to their business operations. They also ensure laws are adopted and reformed to better respect and protect the rights of workers.

"Finally, unions have a long history of solidarity with other global human rights movements. From strikes in the 80s against apartheid in South Africa to the union-backed campaigns against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, their actions consistently demonstrate the bond between trade unionism and social justice."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. saw the civil rights and union movements as natural allies. "At the turn of the century women earned approximately ten cents an hour, and men were fortunate to receive twenty cents an hour. The average work week was sixty to seventy hours. During the thirties, wages were a secondary issue; to have a job at all was the difference between the agony of starvation and a flicker of life. The nation, now so vigorous, reeled and tottered almost to total collapse. The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society."

Picket lines and rallies like the recent one it Louisville, according to Reinstedler, are reminders "that none of us are free until all of us are. The labor movement has always been strongest when it’s been willing to grow, to listen, and to recognize that dignity at work must include dignity everywhere.

"We believe in a labor movement that reflects the full, beautiful diversity of Kentucky– and we are committed to building it together."