Jack Conway: A Fighter for Kentucky's Working Families

The choice is clear in the Kenucky U.S. Senate. A fighter for Kentucky's working families like Jack Conway or Rand Paul who wants to ship our jobs overseas, privatize Social Security and legalize drugs.

Jack Conway has a record of getting results for the people of Kentucky. Elected in 2007 as Attorney General, Jack previously served as Deputy Cabinet Secretary and Deputy General Counsel in Governor Paul Patton’s administration from 1996 to 2001. While there he worked to craft economic development programs that put the Commonwealth on a path to prosperity and the landmark 1997 higher education reform bill, which won national acclaim for propelling Kentucky’s institutions of higher learning into the 21st century.

Jack Conway has always considered the highest duty of a public servant to be protecting those who are unable to protect themselves. Since the voters of Kentucky elected Jack as Attorney General, his office has increased Medicaid fraud
prosecutions by 600%, saving over $100 million for Kentucky taxpayers. He has advocated for consumers and saved Kentucky families over $100 million from proposed utility rate increases. Jack has sued the big oil companies for gas price gouging, and in his first year as Attorney General, increased elder abuse and neglect investigations by 300%. He followed through on his commitment to prosecute child predators and crack down on Internet crimes when he created a Cybercrimes Unit, which has initiated numerous child pornography investigations, eliminated over 68,000 illegal images and videos from the Internet, and continues to conduct trainings for police and prosecutors across Kentucky.

Simultaneously, Jack reduced costs in the Attorney General’s office by 26%, setting a strong example by taking a pay cut and giving his official vehicle back to the state. Jack has a proven record of combating waste, fraud, and abuse in government.

As a United States Senator, Jack has a plan to create jobs, cut the deficit, and restore accountability to Wall Street and Washington. Jack has a plan, which is estimated to create 731,000 jobs nationwide and 10,975 jobs in Kentucky through a
combination of tax credits and small business lending. He has already identified $430 billion in savings that can be recouped for taxpayers by: shutting down offshore tax shelters and closing loopholes in the corporate tax code that encourage companies to invest and ship jobs overseas; making big pharmaceutical companies negotiate with Medicare for lower prices on prescription drugs; and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare. Additionally, Jack will fight for Wall Street reform that puts taxpayers first, protects consumers, and cracks down on the big banks by preventing any institution from ever again becoming “too big to fail.”

Jack is a proud Kentuckian. His father, Tom, was born on a family farm in Western Kentucky’s Union County. He put himself through law school at night at the University of Louisville, while teaching history and coaching at Fairdale High
School. Jack’s mother, Barbara grew in up in Louisville’s South End, the daughter of a union blacksmith.

Jack Conway holds an undergraduate degree in public policy from Duke University and a law degree from The George Washington University. Conway is married with one daughter.

In contrast to Jack Conway's advocacy for working families, Rand Paul is a proven enemy of Kentucky workers.

From the AFL-CIO NOW Blog:

Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan doesn’t pull punches when he talks about the Bluegrass State’s Tea Party-backed Republican U.S. Senate candidate. Speaking to a sun-baked crowd at Paducah’s 35th annual Labor Day picnic Monday, he warned:

A vote for Rand Paul is a vote for the continuation of the economic nightmare now facing workers across Kentucky. Vote like your job depends on it—because it does.

The state AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed Democrat Jack Conway over Paul, whose anti-union views earned him a $2,500 donation from the National Right to Work Committee.

Conway is the state’s attorney general. An ophthalmologist, Paul is the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). Dr. Paul is bad medicine for Kentucky’s working families, according to Londrigan.

He supports privatizing Social Security and increasing the retirement age for Social Security eligibility. He supports so-called free trade agreements like NAFTA, which are responsible for shipping millions of good-paying American jobs overseas.

When it comes to jobs safety, a vital issue for state’s coal miners and other workers, Londrigan said Paul’s response to catastrophic mine accidents and oil rig explosions is:

“‘accidents happen.” In Rand Paul’s world, corporations should be completely unregulated so they can cook the books and undermine our economy.

Londrigan went on to highlight the differences between Rand Paul’s world and the world in which most Kentucky workers live.

In Rand Paul’s world, Social Security is a burden and not a reward for a lifetime of hard work and sacrifice and something to be handed over to Wall Street.

In Rand Paul’s world, the budget deficit is a monstrous problem, but tax cuts for the rich are still a priority.

In Rand Paul’s world, teachers and the Department of Education are a hindrance to learning. In Rand Paul’s world, farm subsidies are a handout. In Rand Paul’s world, lowering workers’ wages is the way out of a recession.

And in Rand Paul’s world, property rights trump civil rights. If you’re an ordinary American, a hard-working Kentuckian, you can’t afford to live in Rand Paul’s world.

Jeff Wiggins, a United Steelworkers (USW) members and president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky Area Council, said Kentucky union families are a vital element in the fight to send Conway to the Senate and Paul back to his practice.

But Wiggins, the Labor 2010 coordinator for western Kentucky, also says working families must be mobilized. He doubts Paul will win many union votes, but says the Republican is hoping for the next best thing: a slew of union card-carrying Kentuckians will forget that the GOP’s gospel of greed caused the recession, will blame hangover hard times on the Democrats and will show their disdain by not voting.

Wiggins has a message for potential non-voting union members:

If you stay home on Nov. 2, you’ll be helping the same sort of people who tried to push labor off the cliff under Bush. Democrats like Jack Conway want to throw us a rope and pull us away from the edge. But Republicans like McConnell and Paul still want to push us off.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/09/10/workers-dont-fit-into-rand-pauls-world/

Study Finds No Economic Benefit from "Right-to-Work" laws

Michael Wasser, a research intern at American Rights at Work, dismantles the arguments for right-to-work (for less) laws:

Proponents of so-called “right-to-work laws,” such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Right to Work Committee, argue that they create a more business-friendly environment and lead to economic growth for states and their residents.

But is that really the case?

As Jack Hough noted in a recent Smart Money article, new research suggests that the supposed economic benefits of right-to-work laws may be little more than useful rhetoric for the law’s supporters. http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/employment/do-labor-unions-hurt-employment/#

Because of a provision added to the National Labor Relations Act in 1947 through the Taft-Hartley amendments, states may pass right-to-work laws. These laws ban agreements stipulating that all employees represented by a union have to pay dues. Right-to-work laws currently are on the books in 22 states.

The new research on the economic effects of these laws comes from Lonnie Stevans, Professor of Information Technology and Quantitative Methods at Hofstra University. He compared the business formation and economic growth of right-to-work states with non-right-to-work states using recent data from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Stevans controlled for variables like education levels, population changes, and type of employment in the states to accurately measure the relationship between right-to-work laws and economic growth. http://www.bepress.com/rle/vol5/iss1/art25/

As the Smart Money article states:

Stevans found that RTW [right-to-work] states had lower per-capita income for workers, but higher income for business owners, than non-RTW states… According to Stevans, there’s little evidence of a ‘trickle down’ of benefits in RTW states from business owners to workers.

He also didn’t find evidence that right-to-work legislation affects the states’ employment rates.

Professor Stevans’s findings cast a pall of doubt over the economic claims of right-to-work supporters. Though their talking points may remain unchanged, the fact is right-to-work laws do not improve the economic viability of states and their workers. And as John Adams once said, “Facts are stubborn things…”

http://americanrightsatwork.org

Labor Day 2010: America's Workers Losing Ground

The well-respected Economic Policy Institute provides some alarming statistics for us this Labor Day. There is no doubt at it. Our middle and working class in the USA faces a bleak future thanks to many years of deregulation, union-busting, so-called free trade agreements, outsourcing and tax breaks for the rich. It is time for American workers to fight back and demand an end to tax policies which allow corporations to profit for shipping our jobs overseas. The Employee Free Choice Act has to become law. We need to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the rich. President Obama must impose a 10% tariff on imports to reduce the massive trade deficit which is destroying U.S. jobs. We must hold our Democratic President and Congress accountable but the solution is definitely not to elect more reactionary Republicans with absolutely nothing to offer America's middle class.

Labor Day by the Numbers
Anna Turner
September 3, 2010
(Note that all numbers are current as of September 3, 2010. States numbers are current as of August 20, 2010.)

JOBS NEEDED TO REGAIN PRE-RECESSION EMPLOYMENT RATE: 11 MILLION

Change in total jobs in August 2010: -54,000; Change in jobs in August 2010, excluding 114,000 temporary U.S. Census Bureau jobs lost that month: +60,000
Change in private-sector jobs in August 2010: +67,000
Change in public-sector jobs in August 2010: -121,000; Change in public sector jobs, excluding 114,000 temporary U.S. Census Bureau jobs lost that month: -7,000
Change in size of the labor force in August 2010: +550,000
Accounting for population growth, number of workers that should have been added to the labor force since December 2007: +3.7 million; Actual change in the size of the labor force since December 2007: +241,000
The number of unemployed workers for every job opening: 5
Total jobs lost since the start of the recession: -7.6 million
Manufacturing jobs lost since the start of the recession: -2.0 million (14.9% of sector’s jobs)**
Construction jobs lost in the recession: -1.9 million (25.1%, one in four construction jobs)**
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 9.6%

Number unemployed: 14.9 million (up from 7.7 million in December 2007)**
Portion of unemployed who have been jobless more than six months: 42%
Portion of unemployed who have been jobless more than a year: 21.9%**
Underemployment rate: 16.7%; Number of under- and unemployed, marginally attached, and involuntary part-time workers: 26.1 million
Male unemployment: 10.6%; female unemployment: 8.6%
White unemployment: 8.7%; black unemployment: 16.3%; Hispanic unemployment: 12.0%
Average weekly unemployment benefit in July: $306; Average weekly benefit in July for those who still receive the $25 provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: $331;
STATES WITH DOUBLE-DIGIT UNEMPLOYMENT IN JULY 2010: 11

Highest unemployment rate: Nevada, 14.3%; lowest: North Dakota, 3.6%
Highest black unemployment rate: Michigan with 23.7%; Highest Hispanic unemployment rate: Nevada with 18.4%
Total change in number of state and local government jobs over the last two years (since the peak in August 2008): -282,000 jobs
CHANGE IN PRODUCTIVITY 2002-07: +11%; CHANGE IN MEDIAN COMPENSATION 2002-07: -0.6%**

Annual private-sector nominal hourly wage growth in the year before the recession: 3.4%; Nominal wage growth in 2010/2009: 1.6%
Share of income growth going to the top 1% of households from 1989 to 2007: 56%; Share of income growth going to the bottom 90% of households: 16%
Ratio of average CEO’s pay to typical worker’s pay in 1973: 27 to 1; Ratio right before the recession in 2007: 275 to 1
OVERALL SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFIT CUT FROM CURRENT RETIREMENT AGE INCREASE (65 to 67): 13%

Average annual Social Security benefit for a retiree: $14,050
Share of retirees receiving all their income from Social Security: more than 1 out of 4
Share of retirees receiving more than half of their income from Social Security: 69%
Share of older Americans (age 45 onwards) who prematurely took out funds from their 401(k), IRA, or other retirement investments in 2009: 18%; Share of Hispanic older Americans who did so: 22%; Share of African American older Americans who did so: 26%
Total decline in assets from pensions, 401(k)-style accounts and IRAs between 2007 and 2009: $1.5 trillion
Number of workers whose employers do not offer a retirement plan: 78 million (49%)
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FOR YOUTH (16-24): 18.1%

Share of youth (16-24) who are neither employed nor enrolled in school:* 17.9%
Number of young people (16-24) who have dropped out of the labor force since the recession began:* 1.1 million
Youth (16-24) share of the labor force in August 2010:* 13.6%; Youth share of the unemployed:* 25.6%
Unemployment rate for young (16-24) black workers in January 2010: 32.5%; For young Hispanic workers: 24.3%; For young white workers: 15.2%
The average student debt of graduates from private four-year institutions in 2000/01: $16,906; Average debt in 2007/08: $25,350
ANNUALIZED RATE OF GDP GROWTH, 2nd QUARTER, 2010: 1.6%

When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will cease to provide any boost to growth rate of GDP: Last quarter of 2010
Change in size of the economy since the start of the recession 31 months ago:* shrunk 1.3%
Number of full-time equivalent jobs supported through expansion of unemployment insurance since the beginning of the recession: 1.7 million

* Data is newly updated by EPI but links to original reports with older numbers.

** EPI calculation using Bureau of Labor Statistics

http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/labor_day_by_the_numbers1

Labor and Democratic Party leaders backing Charlie Crist

Florida Governor Charlie Crist is picking up strong Democratic backing in his independent campaign for U.S. Senator. Al Lawson, Florida Senate Minority Leader, is the latest prominent Florida Democrat to embrace the Crist campaign. Labor leaders and Democratic activists are leaning toward Crist as they become increasingly skeptical of the Kendrick Meek candidacy. Meek is consistently running third place in the polls and has a questionable track record on working families issues.

Five Florida Teamster locals have announced their support for the U.S. Senate candidacy of Crist. Endorsing Crist are Local 79 in Tampa, Local 173 in Bradenton, Local 385 in Orlando, Local 947 in Jacksonville and Local 991 in Mobile, Ala., with Teamster members in the Panhandle.

The Teamsters decided to endorse Crist because of his commitment to creating jobs and rebuilding the economy, issues vital to working families.

"Charlie Crist is a good governor who cares more about people than party," said Local 79 President Ken Wood. "He stood up for President Obama's stimulus package when he thought it would help working families in Florida, even though he took a lot of flak from his own party for doing so."

Crist supports relief for pension funds hurt by Wall Street's meltdown, said Wood, who is also an International Vice President for the union and President of Joint Council 75.

Crist also advocates the Express Carrier Employee Protection Act, which would put employees of all express package delivery companies under the same labor law, Wood said.

"We need to elect politicians who listen to us, who represent us and who protect us, and that's exactly what Charlie Crist has done for Florida's working families," Wood said.

In contrast, an essay from Working Life questions Kendrick Meek and his votes as a Congressman for free trade agreements. Instead of protecting American jobs, Meek has sided with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others who want more outsourcing and free trade deals.

Why Should Labor Support Kendrick Meek?
11/15/2009

When NAFTA was passed in 1993, I, and others, argued that the labor movement should mount primary challenges to every Democrat who voted for the legislation,” writes Jonathan Tasini in the on-line Working Life. “After all, labor correctly saw NAFTA as the underpinning for a trade policy that would hasten the evolution of a global economy based on one thing: the search for the lowest wage possible. And that is the kind of trade policy that we now have. The labor movement did nothing, however, to hold the pro-NAFTA Democrats accountable.

“Then came CAFTA -- the Central American Free Trade Agreement. It passed thanks to 15 Democrats who voted for the deal in the House. I argued back then that those 15 Democrats should be held accountable for that vote. But, again, they were not. And, in response, the labor movement has had to fight more NAFTA-style trade agreements.

“Which brings us to the current moment. I pointed out recently that Rep. Kendrick Meek dropped his support for a very important piece of legislation spearheaded by Rep. Mike Michaud. There is only one reason Meek did so -- he is running for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida and wants to attract corporate money to his campaign. Ringing up dollars from sources that are not friendly to the labor movement is not a new thing for Mr. Meek: he took in thousands of dollars from Wal-Mart (as did, in fairness, other Democrats). And it is likely his sudden change of heart on the TRADE Act will aid him again, as reported by CongressDaily PM [Thursday]:

“‘The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week wrote to Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., thanking him for removing his name from a bill that could force the United States to renegotiate several existing and pending trade agreements...

“‘"The Chamber appreciates your record of support for agreements that have opened foreign markets for U.S. exports and created American jobs," Josten wrote. He added his group thanked Meek for recognizing the Michaud bill "would have the opposite effect."’

“Let's be clear -- the Chamber is doing what it does in the current electoral financing system. I don't fault the Chamber. Those are the rules, as bad as they are and as much as they pervert our system of governing.

“The real question is: what will labor do? If Meek continues to get labor support -- financial and otherwise -- will that not simply signal other Members of Congress that they can do as they please and jump ship on critical labor legislation? I think the answer is obvious.

“The question should be: who does Meek work for? The people? Or the Chamber?”

https://www.editorsguild.com/LaborNews.cfm?LaborNewsid=2393

ADA Calls For Action To Boost Manufacturing Jobs

The Labor Day celebration will be muted for 27 million Americans and their families
this weekend”, said Michael J. Wilson, National Director of Americans for Democratic Action,commenting on unemployment data issued today, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The rest of us can honor American workers and go to the beach, but we as a Nation should be taking further robust action to put Americans back to work.

The BLS reported that the total non-agricultural employment jobs declined slightly by
54,000 in August, while the overall unemployment rate remained at 9.6%. Federal government employment fell, as 121,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. On the other hand, the private-sector payrolls increased by 67,000 workers. This summer,the unemployment rate of 9.6% meant that 14.8 million would-be workers were unemployed.

An additional 2.2 million were marginally attached to the workforce, 1.1 million more were so discouraged by long-term job searches that they stopped looking for work, and 8.8 million took part-time work when they wanted and needed a full-time job. In other words, the real rate of unemployment was 16.7%, or 27.2 million individuals needing full-time jobs.

The only bright spots in the report were the growth of health care by 28,000, mining
by 8,000, professional and business services by 17,000, construction up 19,000, and retail trade gained 8,000 among motor vehicle and parts dealers.

On the other hand, manufacturing employment declined by 27,000 and offset the small but important gain of 36,000 manufacturing jobs in July . Employment of fabricated metals rose by 9,000. The country added 183,000 manufacturing jobs since December 2009. Our future prosperity rests on the restoration of manufacturing. America’s economic greatness has rested on making things, not on Wall Street’s shuffling of money by trading in obscure credit default swaps and derivatives that almost sent our economy over a cliff. According to the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, the federal government, working in partnership with businesses, local and state governments, resulted in 11 straight months of growth in the manufacturing industry, creating 135,000 jobs over the six months preceding August.

Wilson advocates ADA’s agenda calling for additional actions that Congress should
take to put our nation’s unemployed back to work in good middle-class jobs, restoring our manufacturing base, boosting our exports, and refurbishing our infrastructure. “The federal government, working with private industry, state and local governments and together can support the growth of U.S. manufacturers for the markets of the future. Blather about the deficit is hypocritical nonsense and counter-productive until we have achieved full employment, so our workers are taxpayers”, he said.

Congress needs to develop, and the executive branch needs to implement, a National
Clean Energy Technology Export Strategy, and help U.S. firms find and navigate foreign markets. We should be building wind turbines, battery technologies, and solar panels to power our homes and businesses, not importing them from low-wage countries. To do so, Congress can help the clean-tech manufacturing sector to reduce production costs and encourage innovation, investment, and productivity. Clean energy technology exports could increase by $40 billion per year and create more than 750,000 jobs by 2020.

A Clean Energy Technology Manufacturing and Export Assistance Act of 2010, H. R. 5156, passed the House on July 28, but is currently languishing in the Senate.
Congress should close tax loopholes and enforce corporate accountability by
preventing corporations from shipping jobs overseas and sticking American taxpayers with the bill. By passing HR 1586, the $26 billion jobs bill, Congress has already closed one loophole, the misused foreign tax credit, which encouraged corporations to shift jobs and profits off shore. But those who blocked a more robust jobs bill should be ashamed.

Another example: the House passed, but the Senate has held up, extending TANF Emergency Funds beyond September 30. The program employed 250,000 parents and youth, providing them with much needed job skills.

Congress should raise $100 billion by repealing myriad corporate deductions, like
those for the oil industry, which interfere with sound investment decisions and shift the tax burden onto working people. By enacting President Obama’s proposals to crack down on off-shore tax avoidance by corporations, Congress could raise $122 billion in a decade, according to Citizens for Tax Justice.

Wilson reiterated his call for effective job creation, restoration of America’s
manufacturing base, while fully paying for our action agenda by restoring basic tax fairness.

http://www.adaction.org/

Where are the economic patriots to save America ?

Tula Connell writes at Our Future:

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka yesterday described the upcoming elections this way:

This election is about economic patriots, and it’s also about corporate traitors.
Economic patriotism resonates among working people and the millions ofAmerica's jobless workers--and corporate traitors is an all-too apt description of many in Big Business, such as anti-patriotic corporations moving jobs out of this country. A graf buried in an a New York Times article on Wall Street this week me hard:

Just last week, Paul S. Otellini, chief executive of Intel, said at a dinner at the Aspen Forum of the Technology Policy Institute that "the next big thing will not be invented here. Jobs will not be created here."

Mr. Otellini has overseen two big acquisitions in the last two weeks — the $7.7 billion takeover of the security software maker McAfee and the $1.4 billion deal for the wireless chip unit of Infineon Technologies. If he is true to his word, those deals will most likely lead to job cuts in the United States, not job creation.
Otellini is not an outlier. Reports this week say Citigroup--which received $45 billion in taxpayer bailout funds--now is creating 12,000 jobs. In China.

Also this week, a new report shows that between November 2008 April 2010, the CEOs of the top 50 job-cutting companies made $598 million in compensation. The top 50 layoff firms reported a 44 percent average profit increase for 2009, the Institute for Policy Studies report said.

Calling out such behaviors and casting them for what they are--unpatriotic, anti-American--can help us take back the ground grabbed by reactionaries for so long, with the Tea Party just the latest manifestation of such warped usage of the red, white and blue.

Patriotism means more than lip service. It means taking action to ensure that working families have the good jobs they need to support their families--creating an environment that's worthy of our American Dream.


http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010093502/wanted-economic-patriots-save-american-dream

The Great American Stickup exposes how Wall Street and corrupt politicians destroyed our economy

Check out this review from Nation Books:

In The Great American Stickup, celebrated journalist Robert Scheer uncovers the hidden story behind one of the greatest financial crimes of our time: the Wall Street financial crash of 2008 and the consequent global recession. Instead of going where other journalists have gone in search of this story—the board rooms and trading floors of the big Wall Street firms—Scheer goes back to Washington, D.C., a veritable crime scene, beginning in the 1980s, where the captains of the finance industry, their lobbyists and allies among leading politicians destroyed an American regulatory system that had been functioning effectively since the era of the New Deal.

This is a story largely forgotten or overlooked by the mainstream media, who wasted more than two decades with their boosterish coverage of Wall Street. Scheer argues that the roots of the disaster go back to the free-market propaganda of the Reagan years and, most damagingly, to the bipartisan deregulation of the banking industry undertaken with the full support of "progressive" Bill Clinton.

In fact, if this debacle has a name, Scheer suggests, it is the "Clinton Bubble," that era when the administration let its friends on Wall Street write legislation that razed decades of robust financial regulation. It was Wall Street and Democratic Party darling Robert Rubin along with his clique of economist super-friends—Alan Greenspan, Lawrence Summers, and a few others—who inflated a giant real estate bubble by purposely not regulating the derivatives market, resulting in the pain and hardship millions are experiencing now.

The Great American Stickup is both a brilliant telling of the story of the Clinton financial clique and the havoc it wrought—informed by whistleblowers such as Brooksley Born, who goes on the record for Scheer—and an unsparing anatomy of the American business and political class. It is also a cautionary tale: those who form the nucleus of the Clinton clique are now advising the Obama administration. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/29/how-obama-got-rolled-by-wall-street.html

http://www.nationbooks.org/book/213/The%20Great%20American%20Stickup