Union members rally at the state Capitol in support of their counterparts in other states.
About 400 union members and supporters gathered on the steps of the state Capitol on Sunday afternoon, to reiterate their support for state workers in Wisconsin and Ohio.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- About 400 union members and supporters gathered on the steps of the state Capitol on Sunday afternoon, to reiterate their support for state workers in Wisconsin and Ohio.
Republican governors and political leaders in both those states are trying to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights and most union benefits.
Gary Zuckett, a leader of West Virginians United for Social and Economic Justice, said the current disputes are "not right against left. It is the [economic] top against the middle and the bottom.
"Bankers and the billionaires broke our economy. They should be required to fix it," Zuckett said.
Tom Conway, an international vice president of the United Steelworkers of America, said, "We have lost 60,000 factories over the last decade, places that paid good wages. They are shipping us out and whittling us down."
House Speaker Rick Thompson said he supports business, but not at the expense of working families.
"Five years ago, [Massey Energy President] Don Blankenship said he was going to take over the Legislature. We stopped him. You can be pro-business and not anti-labor," he said.
Thompson, D-Wayne, is running in the May 14 Democratic gubernatorial primary. He has been endorsed by the West Virginia AFL-CIO, United Mine Workers, United Steelworkers, Service Employees International Union and the Carpenters' Union.
Delegate Cliff Moore, D-McDowell, whose father was a long-time UMW official, said, "We must do all we can to help the men, women and all working people in West Virginia."
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- About 400 union members and supporters gathered on the steps of the state Capitol on Sunday afternoon, to reiterate their support for state workers in Wisconsin and Ohio.
Republican governors and political leaders in both those states are trying to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights and most union benefits.
Gary Zuckett, a leader of West Virginians United for Social and Economic Justice, said the current disputes are "not right against left. It is the [economic] top against the middle and the bottom.
"Bankers and the billionaires broke our economy. They should be required to fix it," Zuckett said.
Tom Conway, an international vice president of the United Steelworkers of America, said, "We have lost 60,000 factories over the last decade, places that paid good wages. They are shipping us out and whittling us down."
House Speaker Rick Thompson said he supports business, but not at the expense of working families.
"Five years ago, [Massey Energy President] Don Blankenship said he was going to take over the Legislature. We stopped him. You can be pro-business and not anti-labor," he said.
Thompson, D-Wayne, is running in the May 14 Democratic gubernatorial primary. He has been endorsed by the West Virginia AFL-CIO, United Mine Workers, United Steelworkers, Service Employees International Union and the Carpenters' Union.
Delegate Cliff Moore, D-McDowell, whose father was a long-time UMW official, said, "We must do all we can to help the men, women and all working people in West Virginia."
UMW President Cecil Roberts said, "All across the country, they are attacking leaders of the labor movement<t40>...<t$>. This fight started 30 years ago, when Ronald Reagan fired a complete union."
Reagan fired 11,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization on Aug. 5, 1981.
"That action hurt steelworkers, autoworkers, sheet metal workers and coal miners," Roberts said. "We should have shut the U.S. down, turned things around and we wouldn't be in this mess now.
"Today, Obama's got a plan. Republicans got a plan. Democrats got a plan. But workers have got a better plan.
"If you want higher wages, join a union. If you want medical care, join a union. If you want better pension benefits, join a union. If you want to be part of the middle class, join a union," Roberts told a cheering crowd.
Kenny Perdue, president of the West Virginia AFL-CIO, chaired Sunday's rally. He reminded people that, "Ninety years ago this year, our brothers marched on Blair Mountain."
The August 1921 march on Blair Mountain, from Marmet to Logan County, sought to organize miners into the United Mine Workers. It was the largest armed confrontation in American history between union members, on the one hand, and police and private guards, on the other.
The West Virginia Public Workers Union, Local 170 of the United Electrical Workers, passed out leaflets during the rally asking gubernatorial candidates to announce their support of the legal right of West Virginia state workers to organize unions and bargain collectively.
Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.
