More than 80 demonstrators stood in union solidarity Sunday afternoon with a Day of Action Rally in Circus Square Park.
The Kentucky State American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations gathered union leaders and members from across the state, as well as other community leaders and figures, to kick off the Kentucky AFL-CIO’s 36th biennial convention.
“You’ve got just about every union you can think of represented here, all labor and trades, multiple industrial unions,” said Jim Rogers, Vice President of United Steelworkers Local 550 in Paducah.
The convention hosts representatives from more than 60 unions, which represent more than 130,000 workers across the Commonwealth, said Dustin Reinstedler, President of KY AFL-CIO.
“Kentucky has the largest union density of all Southern states, around 12%,” Reinstedler said. “Kentucky is kicking ass and it’s because we got some strong people that stand up and fight back.”
Patti Minter, WKU professor of history and legal studies and former state representative, underscored the importance of unions across professions. Minter said the Kentucky General Assembly’s replacement of prevailing wage laws in Kentucky with what she called “right-to-work for less” laws in 2017 has had cascading effects.
“It’s a ruse,” Reinstedler said. “Billionaires have plenty of money to pay people to come up with catchy slogans and things for people to not really understand.”
Minter served as the elected faculty regent on the WKU Board of Regents from 2007 to 2014, when she said prevailing wage laws meant that workers on public projects were paid 20% more.
“When you pay people what they’re worth, you get the best work,” Minter said.
Minter said those buildings, constructed largely by union workers, including carpenters, plumbers, pipe fitters and bricklayers, are still standing, occupied and “not falling apart.”
“WKU has $88 million worth of brand new buildings that they can’t even use because they hired contractors from whoever, wherever. They don’t have training programs. They don’t have safety programs,” Reinstedler said. “They didn’t follow the blueprints. Bricks and stones were literally falling off the buildings.”
Rick Hernandez, president of the Louisville chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, said the progressive growth of Bowling Green will lead to more jobs and development.
“Opportunity doesn’t knock, it waits for us to swing, and we’re swinging at every opportunity that comes our way,” Hernandez said. “If we don’t, someone else will, and far too often that is an out-of-town contractor or a crew that doesn’t meet the standards that we fight to uphold.”
Hernandez said that part of the importance of unions is “to let the community know who’s cutting corners.”
“When it’s our turn up to bat again, those contractors need to think twice before ignoring the skilled, qualified union labor right here in Bowling Green,” Hernandez said. “Let’s swing hard, let’s swing together, because when we stand in solidarity, we don’t just change job sites, we change lives.”
Jason Watson, bargaining chairman of UAW Local-2164 at the Bowling Green assembly plant, said that union density across the country is much lower than it has been in decades past, meaning far fewer workers are represented by a union. He correlated this fact to record profits across industries, the salaries of corporate executives and payouts for shareholders, all while workers are struggling.
“Having a union at your workplace gives you a seat at the table when it comes to fighting for what you and all of us as employees deserve, which is a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work,” Watson said. “Without a union, employees are at the mercy of what your employer decides is best for you. Quite frankly, that doesn’t make any common sense.”
Watson said major national strikes in recent years, including 2023 and 2019, advocated for more assurances, protections and benefits for workers.
“To be clear, a strike is never what any union wants or wishes to seek out,” Watson said. “However, it is a means to leverage our labor as workers when the company chooses not to come to the table and negotiate fair agreements.”
William Dakota Compton, a candidate for Kentucky’s second congressional district, a seat that has been held by Brett Guthrie since 2008, made an appearance and spoke at the event. Compton, an orchestra teacher for Warren County Public Schools, said he was a “proud” member of the Kentucky Education Association, a union for teachers and public school employees.
Compton shared a story about a complication he faced with voting for a member of a Site-Based Decision-Making board because he travels between different schools. SBDM boards are made up of parents, teachers, faculty and staff to make decisions for schools as the people who know them best.
“They made sure I had a voice, I had a vote, and now I have people representing me at my school that make sure my job is secure in the school,” Compton said.
Compton said he does not believe Guthrie favorably represents union workers in Congress.
“Every single vote to help our unions, he’s voted against, and I’m sick and tired of it,” Compton said.
Kirk Gillenwaters, president of the Alliance for Retired Americans and WKU alum, began by asking retirees in the crowd to raise their hands to identify themselves.
Gillenwaters said he hopes to see the protection and expansion of the improved pay and benefits that workers like him worked to get in the past.
The crowd jeered as Gillenwaters identified Bowling Green as “the home of Rand Paul, minority senator, the guy that every year puts in the Right to Work bill as national legislation.”
Gillenwaters said that Rand Paul wants workers to wait until they’re 70 years old to retire, referencing Paul’s proposals to raise the age for Social Security benefits.
“Who wants to work ‘til they die,” Gillenwaters asked.
Gillenwaters also said “we’re going to fight like hell” for the 600,000 Kentuckians who lost SNAP benefits on Nov. 1.
The Trump administration announced on Oct. 27 that it did not plan to release benefits for more than 41 million Americans through the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program on Nov. 1, one month after the federal government shutdown began.
Two federal judges ruled Oct. 31, that the Trump administration was legally compelled to tap a $5 billion U.S. Department of Agriculture emergency fund for the program to distribute payments in whole or in part. The Trump administration announced Monday, Nov. 3 that it would pay eligible Americans half of what they normally would have gotten, but it is not yet clear when the benefits will go out. One top official told a federal judge in a court filing Monday that the disbursement could take months.
“That’s food for seniors, for children across this state,” Gillenwaters said. “Who’s taking this away? There’s one party that’s taking that away from everybody. That’s what our workers in our unions need to realize.”
Lillian Brents, president of the Amalgamated Transportation Union Local 1447 in Louisville, said she hopes to see a new ATU chapter in Bowling Green, as well as locals in Covington and Lexington.
Brents said that increases in costs of living across the board make it harder for working people of all backgrounds and incomes to afford things like car insurance.
“Having public transportation is so important. It bridges that gap,” Brents said. “It levels the playing field. It really is a very important part of the community.”
“You always hear people say, ‘this is a union town’, or ‘that’s a union town.’ Reality is, anywhere there’s workers, that’s a union town.” said Ron Richmond, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 962, representing Indiana and Kentucky.
Alex Murphy from Teamsters Local 89 said that this rally is not just about one workplace, but the right for all workers to earn fair wages, work safe jobs, and organize freely without fear. Murphy said that it is the labor and innovations of workers that drive progress, and that when workers stand together, it makes them unstoppable.
“For too long, our voices have been ignored,” Murphy said. “But today, we rise to say loud and clear: Our labor is the heartbeat of this state.”
