Recent Press
- Statement from WV AFL-CIO President Josh Sword regarding Senate Bill 841
- A statement regarding Senate Bill 841 to cut unemployment benefits
- Cutting Earned Unemployment Benefits is Wrong
- WV AFL-CIO devastated at sudden passing of former President Kenneth Perdue
- A statement from West Virginia AFL-CIO President Josh Sword regarding Senator Joe Manchin’s decision to not seek re-election to the U.S. Senate
- Join a Labor Day Celebration!
- Ceremony Friday to honor WV workers who died on the job
- Teamster Members Unanimously Authorize Strike At Coke
- The PEIA Cost Shifting Bill (aka SB 268)
- Public Employee Representatives to Discuss Sweeping PEIA Legislation
- Union leaders’ statement on Senate PEIA bill
- Workers Will Rally for Fair Treatment at Italian Opera-Themed Tecnocap Celebration
- A celebration of former WV AFL-CIO President Jim Bowen's life Sunday
- A statement from Mike Caputo regarding the passing of Jim Bowen
- Former WV AFL-CIO President Jim Bowen Passes Away
- This Labor Day weekend, celebrate the momentum of working people
- A statement from West Virginia AFL-CIO President Josh Sword regarding the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
- Ceremony Thursday to honor WV workers who died on the job
- 2022 AFL-CIO Convention - In Memoriam
- IUPAT DC 53 HOLDING PROTEST MONDAY
- WV AFL-CIO Holds 30th Constitutional Convention
- United Food Operation Food Drive Kickoff Friday
- A statement from West Virginia AFL-CIO President Josh Sword on Senator Joe Manchin’s position on the Build Back Better Act
- IUPAT DC 53 Hosting Open House for National Apprenticeship Week
- Honor and Celebrate the Labor Movement this Weekend
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When: 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Friday, January 13, 2017
Where: United Food Operation Warehouse | Institute Industrial Park, Institute, WV | (Entrance across from Institute Post Office)
United Food Operation, Inc.(UFO) celebrates its 35th year of community service with a special kickoff event on Friday, Jan. 13 at 11:00 AM. UFO is an all-volunteer organization that purchases and distributes food to 12 participating community food pantries each winter season. The group serves Kanawha and Putnam counties.
The event will recognize the growth of food insecurity in our region and role that local food pantries and the United Food Operation play in fighting hunger.
This year’s food distribution program will run from Jan. 13 through April 1. For additional background information on United Food Operation please visit the program website at unitedfoodoperation.org.
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West Virginia AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Josh Sword has been appointed to fill the unexpired term of President Kenny Perdue, who is retiring at the end of this year.
Noting Sword’s extensive experience in the West Virginia labor movement and his dedicated service with the West Virginia AFL-CIO, the organization’s Executive Board decided in a unanimous vote Tuesday that Sword should take the helm, and that Joe Carter, a member of the Executive Board and longtime United Mine Workers of America leader, will serve as interim Secretary-Treasurer.
The WV AFL-CIO Executive Board includes 14 vice presidents that represent 575 local unions and 140,000 active and retired members of the AFL-CIO. The current presidential term expires in October 2017, when the WV AFL-CIO will hold its constitutional convention.
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After more than four decades of working in the labor movement and nearly 20 years with the West Virginia AFL-CIO, President Kenny Perdue plans to retire at the end of this year.
“While I look forward to spending more time with my wife and family (which includes eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren), this decision didn’t come easily,” Perdue said. “Throughout my years of service, I have been inspired by the work ethic, integrity and kindness of working West Virginians, who ask for no more than the fair wages, quality benefits and safe workplaces they deserve.”
Prior to taking office as President of the West Virginia AFL-CIO in 2004, Perdue was Secretary-Treasurer of the organization for seven years, and served as Vice President of the WV AFL-CIO from 1989 to 1997. During his career as a sheet metal worker, Perdue was elected business representative for the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union #33, as was his father and one of his brothers. In addition, two other brothers, three nephews, a son-in-law and a grandson are also part of the sheet metal worker trade.
“It has been a true pleasure advocating for West Virginia working families and representing our union partners,” Perdue said. “I look forward to assisting as the West Virginia AFL-CIO and the labor movement across our country continues this critical work.”
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As if he hasn’t shown enough disdain for working people, Bill Cole is bringing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to West Virginia today.
Scott Walker has built his political career on attacking unions. In Wisconsin, he pushed through Right to Work, among many other initiatives intended to lower wages and benefit big corporations, and now he’s coming here to help Bill Cole and his legislative allies this election.
Union members will gather outside their Charleston event to tell Bill Cole and Scott Walker their anti-worker agenda isn’t welcome here.
Who: Working People
What: Protest of Bill Cole and Scott Walker
When: 11:30 a.m. today, Oct. 28
Where: Corner of Capitol and Virginia Streets, Charleston
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The fact that Bill Cole is owner of a company that has a history of workplace safety violations that drew more than $20,000 in fines -- including one that ultimately resulted in the amputation of a worker’s hand -- comes as no surprise to West Virginia AFL-CIO President Kenny Perdue.
“Bill Cole and his Republican leadership team have repeatedly pushed legislation to loosen safety regulations and put in place policies that make workplaces less safe,” President Perdue said. “Bill Cole has shown a consistent pattern of placing the profit of his corporate allies far above the safety of West Virginia workers, and unfortunately that pattern appears to also hold true for Tennessee workers.”
As the Charleston Gazette-Mail noted in an article today ( https://goo.gl/K2MBRk ), government records show that S&S Screw Machine Holding Co. LLC in Sparta, Tennessee, which Bill Cole co-owns, paid more than $20,000 in fines after being cited for workplace safety violations during the past five years.