Kentuckians Rally for Wisconsin Union Workers

UPDATE: Hillbilly has the video.

Kentucky is a right-to-work state, I am sorry to say. That the United Mine Workers still have to fight for coal miners on basic life-and-death issues is proof that when Kentucky politicans say they are protecting the "coal industry," they really mean they are protecting the Big Coal corporations, not the miners or their families or their homes.

But hundreds of Kentuckians turned out to support union workers in Frankfort on Saturday:

Several hundred people rallied on the state Capitol steps Saturday in support of Wisconsin public workers, who are battling that state's governor to defend their right to organize in unions and collectively bargain for compensation.

The crowd — including Kentucky school teachers, social workers, postal workers and firefighters — also criticized this state's elected leaders for what they see as the scapegoating of public workers during the recession.

As Gov. Steve Beshear has ordered unpaid furloughs for Kentucky state employees and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, has tried to end state pensions for new hires, there has been a lot of political rhetoric about the drain that public workers impose on taxpayers, said several speakers at the rally.

Many politicians seem to forget the contributions that public workers make, often at modest pay, they said.

"We are the people who teach, we are the people who protect children, we fight the fires, we provide all the services that are needed by the public, and we are not going to stand by and let them ruin us," said Melissa Jan Williamson, vice president of the Kentucky Association of State Employees.

Read the whole thing and see pictures here.