Victor Bussie

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Victor V. Bussie (born 1919) retired in 1997 as the 41-year president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO, having first assumed the mantle of union leadership in 1956. Observers often described him as the most significant non-elected "official" in Bayou State politics. Bussie's influence with governors and state legislators became so great in the 1970s that a group of businesspersons formed the trade association known as the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry as a counterbalance to the AFL-CIO. LABI won a huge victory in 1976 with the passage of the state's right-to-work legislation.

Bussie (pronounced BEW SEE) recalled having been born to a poor family with a brother and five sisters. He is half Choctaw Indian:

"My mother and father struggled to send us to school because of the high cost of school books. There finally came a time when they could no longer afford to buy books for seven children. We children were told that we could no longer attend school.

"That very same year, Governor Huey Pierce Long, Jr., persuaded the Louisiana legislature to fund schoolbooks for all children attending public schools. Not only did that mean that my brother and sisters and I could finish our education but also thousands of other children could as well. My family never forgot Huey Long and became longtime political supporters of the Long family."

Bussie was a firefighter and union leader in Shreveport before he assumed the AFL-CIO presidency. He interpreted his union mandate broadly and used his power on many issues not directly related to labor. Over the years, he served on many state boards and commissions, including the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors, and although no longer chairman, is still a member of the powerful Louisiana Public Facilities Authority. On his retirement, a Baton Rouge Morning Advocate editorial concluded, "Bussie might well be the most powerful Louisianian never elected to public office."

[edit] Bussie sues Margaret Lowenthal and Boeing

On October 15, 1985, state Representative Margaret Lowenthal, a Democratic candidate for the Seventh District seat in the United States House of Representatives, addressed the the Lake Charles Optimist Club at its regular luncheon meeting. Lowenthal claimed that she had been told by an unidentified representative of Boeing that the firm had considered locating a manufacturing facility in Louisiana, but ultimately decided to locate in Mississippi because of Louisiana's unstable political climate and its longstanding problems with public education. Lowenthal said that she was told further by the Boeing representative that, " 'As long as you have a man named Victor Bussie sitting in Baton Rouge, calling the shots for labor, we don't need to be in your state.' " Her remarks were telecast over Lake Charles television.

Bussie filed suit against Lowenthal and Boeing alleging that the statements were false and were made with actual malice. Bussie alleged that as such the statements damaged his reputation and held him up to public contempt and ridicule and caused him embarrassment, humiliation, mental suffering, and anxiety.

Lowenthal claimed that the statements had been made to her while she was attending a cocktail party given by the Louisiana delegation to the National Conference of State Legislators.

[edit] Bussie fights right-to-work

Bussie never abandoned his call to repeal the Louisiana right-to-work law, which he calls the "right-to-work-for-less." Supporters of the measure, however, insist that it merely protects employees' freedom to refuse to pay compulsory "fees" to a union which they do not wish to join. Twenty-one other states, including all southern states, have such laws.

Bussie claims that the effect of the law has been "to drive down wages, . . . particularly in the construction industry." Data furnished by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Louisiana Department of Labor show that construction wages in the state have sharply increased relative to the national average since passage of right-to-work. In 1976, Louisiana construction hourly wages were 77 percent of the national average. By 2000, Louisiana construction wages had risen to 96 percent of the U.S. average.

Mark Mix, senior vice president of the National Right to Work Committee in Springfield, Virginia, noted that the same trend is evident in manufacturing. U.S. Department of Labor data show that Louisiana manufacturing hourly wages has risen from 102 percent of the national average in 1976 to 108 percent in the 21st Century. Because the cost of living in Louisiana has been traditionally lower than in other states, construction workers' real, disposable income is above the national average.

Since his retirement from the union presidency, Bussie, who has long been strongly affiliated with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, joined a group of Louisiana business and political leaders in urging President George W. Bush to pardon imprisoned Governor Edwin Washington Edwards. Thus far, Edwards remains behind bars in the federal facility in Oakdale on his conviction of bribery.

In 1994, Bussie was among the second round of public figures inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield. Bussie and his wife, Frances M. "Fran" Bussie (born 1935), herself a political activist, reside in Baton Rouge.