Unions Protest Lexington Chamber's Shameless Seminar

While business owners and managers gathered at a union-bashing seminar inside the Chamber of Commerce in Lexington, Ky., on Monday morning, some 40 proud union members gathered outside with picket signs.

The two-hour demonstration in zero-degree weather Jan. 29 was arranged by Barbara Pierce, secretary-treasurer of CWA Local 3372 and new president of the Bluegrass Central Labor Council. In addition to CWA members, participants came from the Plumbers, Teamsters, Carpenters and Letter Carriers.

"We got a lot of traffic coming by — it's on a major four-lane highway," Local 3372 Executive Vice President Bryce McGowan said. "People were honking their horns in support like crazy."

That was an especially good sign in an area that is often hostile to labor, he said. The event even drew media attention.

The chamber seminar was titled, "How to Keep Your Workplace Union-Free." McGowan said CWA learned about it when the chamber, apparently mass-faxing flyers to businesses about the $399 program, sent one to the local's fax machine.

McGowan said a member of the Teamsters paid the fee to attend. Shortly before it started, the man told McGowan that there "were 32 people signed up and he was going to go in and stay as long as he could until he got sick to his stomach."

The seminar apparently is being put on at chamber offices throughout the country. McCowan said he knows of two more coming up in Kentucky, in Louisville and Bowling Green.