ELKINS, W.Va. — Labor leaders at the local and state level are hoping voters go to the polls and use a simple philosophy when making their choices this year: supporting West Virginia’s working families.
“I think when you go to the polls you have to decide who is going to help you make a change for working people for the issues that we’re talking about,” Pat Jack, President of The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3219, said. “For healthcare, for sending your children to college, for having a good living wage.”
About 150 people in Elkins and 100 in Charleston joined several high-profile Democratic candidates for state office in West Virginia at the “Rally for Working Families,” which is an ongoing set of rallies throughout multiple West Virginia towns.
“I’m not telling people how to vote or what to vote,” Jack said. “I just want them to realize the issues at hand.”
Candidates who attended at least one of the first two rallies in Elkins or Huntington included Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Justice, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, Democratic Auditor candidate Mary Ann Claytor, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams, Democratic Attorney General candidate and current House Delegate Doug Reynolds (D – Cabell, 17), and 11th district candidate and current House Delegate Denise Campbell (D – Randolph, 43).
“We gave people just the opportunity to sit around and talk and eat hot dogs and talk about what our issues are,” Jack said.
Jack did offer criticism of Republican leadership in Charleston regarding PEIA, prevailing wage, and Right to Work. He believes the leadership’s handling of PEIA and support for the latter two issues have ultimately hurt working West Virginians.
“I think we should expect more from our elected officials in Charleston,” he said. “I think we should expect more from, really, the leadership over the last years.”
“Are we going to vote people in that’s going to cut our wages or increase our wages? That’s important to most people out here trying to feed their family.”
Jack had another pointed criticism to offer top candidates running state-wide races.
“I ain’t got nothing against Hillary Clinton, and I ain’t got nothing against Donald Trump,” Jack said. “But I tell you what, if that’s all they have to talk about, they have nothing to say for themselves.”
The next two rallies are coming up this weekend.
The first is this Saturday at the West Side Second Avenue Community Center in Charleston from Noon to 4 pm.
The second is this Sunday in Morgantown at Plumbers & Pipefitters Hall from 2 pm to 4 pm.
You can read more on this subject by checking out Hoppy’s Commentary about the wedge between Labor and Business this election has exposed.