Political News

Brothers and Sisters,

 I’m sure that you are aware of the recent attacks on unions in other states. We have been monitoring the situation very carefully. We have known for a long time that if the wrong people got in the state and Federal elected positions that we were in trouble. We didn’t know that it would be so soon, and so blatant.

 Governor Walker of Wisconsin stood strong and caused a dead lock in the state legislature over state workers right to collective bargaining.  You have to give them credit for their creativity. They knew that due to the economy that something was going to have to be done about the budgets at the state level. They claim that doing away with the collective bargaining rights is the only way to accomplish a reduction in the state cost.

The truth is that the union had agreed to pay a substantial amount more for premiums on their health care, and agreed to reduce the financial burden on the state by cutting cost on their retirement. Wages could be worked out also. So why is there a deadlock?  Governor Walker has set out to make history as a union buster. He wants the unions busted so they can never bargain on a level playing field with the state again, even if the economy is fully recovered.  Governor Walker thought that labor would put up a fight for a few days, and we would get tired of the fight, and the situation would be over. If we don’t stand up and help our brothers and sisters, we will be next. The right to collective bargaining is your American right, and don’t let anyone take these rights away.

Alabama is one of 10 states where collective bargaining is already illegal for public sector employees.  What that means for us is one less layer for the politicians to attack before they get to us. Back in December, Alabama’s lame duck Governor called for a special session to address what he called ethics problems with Lobbying in Montgomery. At the same time he was spending Alabama’s money for these reforms his office was accepting over 20 tickets and parking passes to the Iron Bowl.  The reality was that the teachers union had not supported Riley’s endorsed candidate in the Governor’s race so he wanted to take one last shot at them. This Special Session passed a law that said public employees could not have union dues deducted from their pay if the union spent money supporting political candidates. Doesn’t union money belong to the members of that union? Shouldn’t that money be spent the way that membership votes to spend it even if it is spent on something the Governor, who isn’t a union member, disagrees with? 

In Montgomery this session, there are attacks being made at Federal Prevailing Wage Laws also known as Davis-Bacon. The Davis Bacon Act of 1931 is a federal law which established the requirement for paying prevailing wages on projects using Federal Funding. The Davis Bacon bill was introduced in 1931 after a contractor from Alabama took his workers to New York to build a Veterans Bureau hospital. Complaints were made that out of state contractors were bringing low paid labor from the south to take the local peoples jobs.

The intention of this law is to see that any federal job pays a rate that is comparable to local standards, and if every contractor that bids the project has to pay prevailing wage, it makes it harder to bring in out of state workers and pay their expenses.

The newly elected Super Majority in Alabama’s State Legislature are so arrogant that they have introduced a bill in the House (HB214) saying that in Alabama the Davis Bacon Act will not be adhered to. HB214 had its second reading in the House on March 24th.  It will be voted on soon. We must fight to stop this from moving forward. Contact your State Representatives and demand this insanity stop. You can use this web site to find your senator and their office phone number using your address. http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/zipsearch.html

Sometimes you may feel that voting is a waste of time, but if you stay on top of the issues that are at hand, you will see that voting is far from a waste of time. The important thing is to look through the clever choice of words, and see what the real issues are.

We will continue to keep up with the political races, and try to ask the work related questions that would pertain to us being able to make a living for our family, and we will report to you our findings so you can make a choice based on facts instead of clever choice of words as most will give.

Jerry Keenum, Business Manager
Bill Blackman Jr., President