Feb. 22, 2012 —
National media attention was focused on Olive Hill for about 48 hours last week when it was revealed that 100 garment workers were in danger of losing their jobs.
Keep in mind that unemployment is the No. 1 political issue in this nation and certainly will be in the spotlight in the upcoming presidential election.
With that as a backdrop, here’s the rest of the story.
It seems some bureaucrat in the federal prison system decided that manufacturing dress jackets for the Air Force could be done by prison inmates at far less cost than by the civilian workforce in Olive Hill.
He wanted to shift the work to Federal Prison Industries (FPI) in the U. S. Bureau of Prisons where inmate laborers are paid 23 cents per hour, according to national news agencies.
The jackets are a high profile item because President Obama wears one when he flies on Air Force One, as did his predecessors.
The Olive Hill factory has been making the jackets for 20 years, selling about 70,000 a year to the Air Force. However, the firm’s current contract expires at the end of this year.
When the CEO of the contracting firm learned of the tentative decision to reserve that work for prisoners, he turned to Kentucky’s U.S. senators for help.
We have not agreed many times in recent months with the statements and actions of Senators Mitch McConnell but today we are giving credit where credit is due.
McConnell, the highest ranking Republican in the U. S. Senate, made an issue of the jackets with the national media, calling on President Obama to intervene and save the 100 jobs.
Fox News jumped on the story like a dog on a bone and suddenly it was everywhere.
Michael Mansh, president of the company making the jackets, was interviewed and quoted extensively, saying he couldn’t understand why the President would want to wear something made by a convict instead of an honest, hardworking person from rural Kentucky.
Mansh even invited the President to come to Olive Hill and talk with the workers who would lose their jobs. We don’t know if he was serious but it was grist for the media mills.
The story lasted through two 24-hour news cycles before someone at the FPI called McConnell’s office and surrendered, so to speak. They had changed their minds about the jackets.
We can only imagine what the Obama campaign staff had to say about such a dumb move by the administration in a presidential election year.
For the garment workers in Olive Hill to our senior senator, we say thanks.
Editorials
Power of public opinion can work for good
- Editorials
-
-
Does Kentucky’s top sportsman have a boss?
Like some other media organizations in the state, we’re troubled about recent developments in the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR).
-
State funding of unneeded fertilizer…really?
Just when we thought we had seen every dumb move possible in state government, the Frankfort bureaucracy produced another whopper.
-
Does anyone have the guts to reform taxes?
Public school districts have been operating school buses with no funding increases for 10 years. No textbook money has been available for the last four years at any grade level.
-
Wet or dry, make sure you vote
Like other elections, your opinion about the June 11 local option election in Grayson is just so much talk if you don’t go to the polls and cast your own ballot.
-
Seizure of phone records insult to free press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
-
EKU Regents also lose touch with reality
We criticized Murray State University’s Board of Regents for not doing the public’s business openly regarding the future of President Randy Dunn. Then we criticized the University of Kentucky for its lack of transparency in responding to inquiries from the news media about issues in the College of Medicine. Today, we direct our criticism at Eastern Kentucky University Board of Regents for demoralizing an entire institution through the hiring of a new president.
-
Let citizens draw districts, not politicians
We say “amen” to our colleagues at the Lexington Herald-Leader who have called for a new method of realigning legislative districts to balance population changes from census to census.
-
Which Mitch will be on the ballot next year?
We seldom agree with his policies or his tactics but we make no secret of our admiration of Mitch McConnell’s political survival skills as the senior U. S. senator from Kentucky.
-
Farmer building new ‘Unforgettable’ label
University of Kentucky basketball fans who fondly remember “The Unforgettables,” the 1991-92 edition of the Wildcats, may need to edit those good memories.
-
Can Beshear solve Medicaid slow pay?
We’re trying to understand why Gov. Steve Beshear believes he is smarter than all 138 members of the General Assembly when it comes to Medicaid.
- More Editorials Headlines
-
Does Kentucky’s top sportsman have a boss?
