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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2006)
Inside MEETING NO TICES See Page 6 V olume 107 Number 9 Ma y 5, 2006 P ortland Running for GOVERNOR By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor 2006 is a year Oregonians choose their next governor, and the state’s unions have tried to offer some guidance on which of the candidates is the best friend to working people and union members. Trouble is, they don’t agree. All three Democratic candidates — Ted Kulon- goski, Jim Hill and Peter Sorenson — have at least one union endorsement, as does GOP candidate Kevin Mannix. So the Northwest Labor Press has undertaken to look at the records and promises of each candidate to help union voters make a decision. Ballots have been mailed out and are due May 16. The deadline to register to vote or change party registration has passed for this primary. Only Democrats can vote to choose which Democrat will run in November, and only Republicans get to pick the Republican nominee. In their endorsement decisions, unions focused on economic issues. Briefly, here are some of the things that matter to labor politically: • Jobs, particularly family-wage, union jobs; • Workers’ rights to organize into unions; • The rapid rise of health care costs; • Ensuring that government has ade- quate resources to enforce the laws, pro- tect working Oregonians and provide a social safety net to catch workers and their families when they fall; • Retirement security, and honoring promises to workers; • Protecting workers from unfair competition with low-wage overseas workers. TED KULONGOSKI www.tedforgov.com Ted Kulongoski, the current gover- nor, has the most union endorsements of any candidate: Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council and its affiliates, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, the Oregon Ma- chinists Council, Teamsters Joint Coun- cil 37, Oregon State Police Officers As- sociation, Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, and the Colum- bia River District of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. But notably, the governor doesn’t have endorsements from any of the ma- jor public employees unions, nor of the Oregon AFL-CIO, despite the fact that his former labor liaison Tom Chamber- lain is the federation’s president. Above all, that’s because public em- ployees feel he broke a campaign prom- ise to protect their pensions from Re- publican-led proposals to cut them. In response to stock market losses that caused the Public Employees Retire- ment System (PERS) to be under- funded, Kulongoski supported and signed a law cutting pension benefits for new and existing public employees. The Oregon Supreme Court has since struck down part of that change, as the state’s lawyers said it would, on the grounds (Turn to Page 3) Thousands fill Portland streets on May Day Any plans to focus May Day celebrations on labor history were overtaken by history in the making, as immigrant workers made the day their own May 1. May Day is considered International Workers day, and celebrated as such in other countries. But American labor has tended to sit out May Day in favor of Labor Day. There’s a little irony in that, since it was an American labor movement that May Day commemorates: An 1886 Chicago march for the eight-hour day was disrupted by a police attack; some police were killed by a bomb, and in response a handful of labor leaders were hung for their ideas, not for any direct involvement in the bombing. In recent years, some in Portland have tried to resurrect May Day commemorations. This year, groups calling for legalizing illegal immigrants called a nationwide strike/boycott of immigrant workers, and turned out for rallies around the nation, including Portland, Salem, Eugene, Hood River and Vancouver, Wash., where thousands took part. In Portland, the talk was of workers’rights — all workers — and on hand were a smattering of union members donning union T-shirts and banners. Change to Win unions object to AFL-CIO’s rules on solidarity WASHINGTON, D.C. — Change to Win unions under Solidarity Charters with AFL-CIO state and local bodies suspended their per- capita tax payments May 1 in a dispute over eligibility rules for new charter applications. The action forced the Oregon AFL-CIO to call an emergency meeting May 1, where its General Executive Board voted to increase per-capita taxes by 20 cents a member per month starting in Septem- ber, when a 20-cent-per-member campaign assessment expires. “This action allows us to maintain funding for our 2006 political program and retain our field representative, political organizer and secretary,” said President Tom Chamberlain. More than 1,600 Solidarity Charters have been issued nationwide since the Change to Win labor federation was formed last September following the July departure of the Service Employees, United Food and Commercial Workers, Teamsters and UNITE HERE from the national AFL-CIO. In January, the United Farm Workers left the AFL-CIO to join Change to Win, and the Laborers Union says it’s only a matter of time before it splits from the AFL-CIO. The Laborers already belong to Change to Win, as does the Carpenters Union. [The Carpenters dis- affiliated from the AFL-CIO more than four years ago.] The breakup caused financial hardship for most AFL-CIO labor federations and central labor councils. [The Oregon AFL-CIO says 35 percent of its budget was derived from Change to Win locals.] With layoffs and closures looming, top union officials from both federations got together and devised Solidarity Charters — one-year pacts that would allow Change to Win locals to rejoin state federations and/or central labor councils, with full voting and election rights — but without having to belong to the national AFL-CIO. A conflict developed in January 2006 when national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney announced a May 1 deadline to apply for the charters because, he said, federal election rules require it for mo- bilizing members on the campaign trail this fall. Besides finances, political cooperation among AFL-CIO and CTW unions was another key reason for the creation of the Solidarity Charters. Sweeney also said the charter program applied to only five unions: UFCW, Teamsters, SEIU, Carpenters and UNITE HERE. “Eligibility for Solidarity Charters is limited to locals of these unions. Locals of the Farm Workers or of other unions not affiliated with the national AFL-CIO are not eligible,” he said. Change to Win cried foul, saying the AFL-CIO reneged on its (Turn to Page 12)
