by Andrew Brown, Business Reporter • Charleston-Gazette Mail
The volume of the crowd grew exponentially louder in the state Capitol and from the far end of the marble-lined Rotunda boos began to mix with the chants of “right-to-work is wrong.”
As Senate President Bill Cole, R-Mercer, made his way toward the House Chamber, his path grew narrower. The walls of unionized teachers, carpenters, electricians and miners squeezed in around the Republican candidate for governor, as a pair of State Police troopers tried to clear a path.
The first day of the 2016 West Virginia legislative session started off with more than a little energy as union members from throughout the state packed the Capitol Wednesday night to protest Republican sponsored bills that would end prevailing wages for laborers working on public projects and prohibit labor groups from collecting dues from non-union employees, even if they benefit from the union’s wage and benefit negotiations.
Many of the union members who protested Wednesday see the Republican majority’s policies as an effort to weaken unions. Most are angered by what they see as a veiled attempt to disrupt their ability to collectively bargain with their employers, and Cole was the target of much of that ire before the State of State address later in the evening.
Jeff Childers, a 40-year member of the Carpenters Union in Parkersburg, said right-to-work legislation — the law that would eliminate mandatory union dues — is nothing more than a direct attack on labor unions in West Virginia.
“It’s political,” Childers said, as he stood outside the Capitol with his son for more than 20 minutes Wednesday waiting to get through new security check points.
Republicans and other conservative politicians in West Virginia have made it a priority to repeal the state’s prevailing wages and to pass right-to-work legislation — now referred to as the “Workplace Freedom Act” — in order to make West Virginia more attractive for businesses.
The union members, who packed the top floor of the capitol in their camouflage jackets, United Mine Workers of America hats and signs reading “Stop the War on Workers,” didn’t buy that argument.
That right-to-work legislation and the repeal of prevailing wage were the first two bills introduced Wednesday was evidence enough for some organized laborers that the Republicans’ real goal was to dismantle unions in West Virginia.
“It says Republicans want to cram it down our throats, whether we want it or not,” said Andrew Keeney, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers from Beckley.
