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CapitalPress.com
Friday, March 4, 2022
Opinion
Voters never get last word
against administrative state
P
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Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
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All other commentary pieces are
the opinions of the authors but
not necessarily this newspaper.
Our View
rogressive politicians in the
Pacific Northwest are big fans
of voter initiatives, right up
until voters use the process to limit
government’s overreach.
In Olympia, House Bill 1837 would
repeal a 2003 voter initiative that
banned the Department of Labor and
Industries from writing ergonomics
rules. Voters then were reacting to an
L&I rule that required all employers
to identify “caution zone jobs.”
That rule, adopted in 2000, was
fairly short, but the “concise explana-
tory statement” accompanying it was
127 pages. It reached into virtually
every workplace.
Workers with “caution zone jobs”
had to receive “ergonomics awareness
training.” Plus, caution zone jobs had
to be further analyzed to determine
whether they were hazardous.
If hazardous, L&I had suggestions
for modifying the work. For exam-
ple, ice cream parlors were advised to
sharpen scoops monthly or store ice
cream at no colder than 14 degrees
below zero Celsius to reduce “hand
force.”
L&I advised those “harvesting rad-
ishes” to alternate between kneel-
ing and sitting in a chair. The depart-
ment suggested meatpackers replace
“manual deboning” with “machine
deboning.”
L&I had more tips for several
industries, such as construction work-
ers (use lighter nail guns) and clerical
workers (smaller paper files to reduce
“grip forces”), but did single out agri-
culture in its explanatory statement.
In 2003, before the rule went fully
into effect, voters took away L&I’s
authority to make it. The initiative
passed by a 7-point margin.
But that was nearly 19 years ago,
and the will of the people can never
be allowed to stand in the way of
the expansion of the administrative
state. The state wants to impose its
will to protect you, even if you’ve
voted overwhelmingly to reject that
protection.
The bill’s Democratic sponsors
argue that ergonomic rules would
reduce injuries and compensation
claims related to repetitive motions or
awkward postures.
While everyone agrees that many
jobs can result in injuries, the answer
is not to give L&I unlimited author-
ity to dictate how those jobs must be
done.
Employers have a vested interest
in keeping workers safe and healthy,
and though there are bad actors, most
do what they can to reduce injuries.
Insurance companies and trade organi-
zations provide help with safety audits
and training programs.
Even L&I offers ergonomic advice
to employers. And, according to a
2006 state Supreme Court ruling, the
department still has the power to reg-
ulate repetitive motions as part of its
duty to enforce employers’ obligations
to keep workspaces safe.
Nonetheless, nothing short of L&I
bureaucrats examining each job in the
collective workspace and transform-
ing their expansive experience in per-
forming such tasks into mandates will
do.
Washington voters have rejected
this once. If the legislature passes this
measure and it’s signed into law, we
hope they will again.
Democrats vote down
direct payments
to farm workers
Our View
O
USDA
A coyote kills a lamb. An Oregon legislative committee failed to pass a bill continuing districts in which landowners were
assessed to pay for controlling predators.
Predator damage control
districts should be saved
A
lowlight of the current
Oregon legislative session
is the demise of the pred-
ator damage control district that
landowners in Coos and Douglas
counties had set up.
By all lights, the district was a
success. Five years ago, the leg-
islature had approved it as a way
to keep predators under control as
the counties’ budgets got tighter.
The landowners, including timber
firms, paid a fee of up to $1 an acre
for USDA Wildlife Services to dis-
patch coyotes, cougars, bears and
other predators that damage prop-
erty and kill livestock.
Last year, landowners in the two
counties voluntarily paid $120,000
to control predators.
During this legislative session,
however, success has taken a back
seat to those who don’t like the way
wildlife are managed. What should
have been a slam-dunk decision
to continue and increase the num-
ber of predator damage control dis-
tricts in House Bill 4080 died in the
House Environment and Natural
Resources Committee.
Opponents had complained that
Wildlife Services was “ineffective”
and “cruel.”
What is ineffective and cruel is a
legislature that allows a good pro-
gram voluntarily funded by citizens
to die.
Those same citizens will now
pay the price of the legislature’s
ineffectiveness in the form of dead
lambs and calves and damaged
trees.
The predator control specialist
who recently retired from Wildlife
Services estimated he had to track
and kill about 100 coyotes and
10 cougars a year. Each kill was
reported to the state Fish and Wild-
life Department so managers there
knew what was going on.
There has never been a short-
age of predators in Coos and Doug-
las counties, but without a predator
control specialist on duty that pop-
ulation will likely mushroom. The
result will be more dead livestock.
Now that livestock owners will
be forced to take on that chore, the
state will also lose the reports from
the Wildlife Services specialists.
The information was used in stud-
ies and to make wildlife manage-
ment decisions.
Any way you look at it, the land-
owners, ranchers — and even the
wildlife — are short-changed by
allowing the bill authorizing pred-
ator damage control districts to die
in committee.
But all may not be lost. Leg-
islators can resurrect this bill by
including it as an amendment to a
related bill. While some folks may
look askance at such tactics, there
are times when they make sense.
This is one of those times.
READERS’ VIEW
China joins race
for cultivated meat
With China including cultivated
meat in its latest five-year agricul-
tural plan, the United States should
make sure it isn’t left behind by invest-
ing heavily into cellular-agriculture
development.
For those who don’t know, cultivated
meat is grown from animal cells, with-
out slaughter. It’s better for animals, the
environment and our health.
“This nationwide strategic initiative
could accelerate the country’s regula-
tory timeline for cultivated meat, drive
more research and investment into the
alternative protein industry and fuel
broader consumer acceptance of these
products,” said Josh Tetrick, the CEO of
food-technology company Eat Just. “In
short, this is one of — if not the most
— important policy actions in the his-
tory of alternative proteins.”
Our legislators should support
increased federal funding for cultivat-
ed-meat research. This will help bring
these revolutionary products to mar-
ket faster at a competitive price with
slaughtered meat. In order to reduce
the suffering we inflict on animals, our
greenhouse-gas emissions, and our pan-
demic risk, we have to keep pace with
China.
Jon Hochschartner
Granby, Conn.
n Thursday evening, Democrats on
the Joint Committee on Farm Worker
Overtime voted to move HB 4002,
the controversial proposal to require employ-
ers to pay overtime to agricultural workers,
on a party-line vote that will single Oregon
out as only a handful
of states to impose
GUEST
high labor costs on
VIEW
cash-strapped family
Dave Dillon, Tami Kerr,
farms.
“We were deeply Jeff Stone, Colleen Nihen,
Mike Doke, Tammy
disappointed to
Dennee, Richard Kosesan
see Democrats in
and Roger Beyer
the joint commit-
tee ignore the con-
cerns of growers and move this version of
the bill. HB 4002 has the potential to dev-
astate and cause the closure of many fam-
ily farms,” said Dave Dillon, executive vice
president of the Oregon Farm Bureau. “By
voting to adopt a completely unworkable
40-hour threshold, legislators have guaran-
teed that farm workers will ultimately see
reduced wages and reduced hours.”
The committee failed to consider an
amendment proposed by Rep. Shelly Boshart
Davis, R-Albany, that would have created
a $50 million worker relief fund to provide
direct overtime payments to farm work-
ers, while creating thresholds for overtime
that both guarantee workers overtime and
account for the unique seasonal needs of
Oregon agriculture.
Instead, the committee adopted an amend-
ment that will require farms to pay overtime
at 40 hours by 2027 with a vanishing tax
credit to make up for some of those costs.
Tax credits are subject to the whim of legis-
lators and the availability of tax dollars.
Passage of HB 4002 means that Oregon
farms will have to compete against states
without any overtime requirements for farm
workers. As evidenced in California, the only
state that has a 40-hour threshold currently,
these requirements often mean worker hours
and total compensation are decreased due to
farmers being forced to cut worker hours at
the arbitrary cap of 40.
“Tonight’s decision highlighted that Dem-
ocrats were unwilling to engage in meaning-
ful conversations about how this legislation
will impact family farms and, ultimately, the
workers they employ,” said Kyle Fessler, a
greenhouse grower and past president of the
Oregon Association of Nurseries. “Farm-
ers have been clear throughout this process
that we were not asking for a tax credit since
it will be unworkable for many operations,
yet Democrats continued to push forward an
unworkable tax credit.”
The amended bill has moved to the House
and Senate floors, where it was expected to
pass on a party-line vote due to Democrat
supermajorities.
This was co-signed by Dave Dillon, Ore-
gon Farm Bureau; Tami Kerr, Oregon Dairy
Farmers Association; Jeff Stone, Oregon
Association of Nurseries; Colleen Nihen,
Oregon Hazelnut Industry; Mike Doke,
Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers Association;
Tammy Dennee, Oregon Cattlemen’s Asso-
ciation; Richard Kosesan, Oregon Sheep
Growers Association; and Roger Beyer, Ore-
gon Grass Seed Council. Oregon’s Coali-
tion of Agricultural Organizations represents
a diverse array of farming operations and
agricultural commodities and was formed
in response to the legislature’s proposal to
require farmers to pay workers 1.5 times reg-
ular pay for all hours worked over 40.