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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 19, 2006)
Let me say this about that ...A man of integrity (From Page 2) Marr’s direction, worked hard for legislative reapportionment based on the one-person, one vote principle. JIM MARR strongly advocated progressive taxation based on ability to pay, and opposed efforts to institute a sales tax. He believed that a sales tax falls heaviest on working people because they must spend virtually all their in- come on the necessities of life for their families. The team of Marr, Brown and McDonald, ably assisted by Tom Scanlon, the appointed director of research and education, who also was a lobbyist and the federation’s publicist, made the AFL-CIO a major presence at the Legis- lature. They also worked to increase the affiliated membership in the federa- tion-which reached 100,000 while Marr was at the helm. This increase bol- stered labor’s influence in elections. A HIGH POINT in Oregon labor’s political activity history came in the 1950s, Marr recalled in an interview with the Labor Press. Those were the years that saw labor-supported Democrats elected to state and federal offices. Among them were Richard Neuberger, elected to the U.S. Senate; Al Ullman, Edith Green and Charles Porter elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; Robert Holmes as governor; Robert Thornton as attorney general; and Nor- man Nilsen as state labor commissioner. The decade of the ‘50s also was high- lighted by the re-election of U.S. Senator Wayne Morse as a Democrat — earlier he was a Republican and then an Independent. THE YEAR 1956 saw labor’s efforts bring about a Democratic majority in the Oregon House of Representatives. A Democratic majority in the Oregon State Senate came later Being a fighter for labor’s causes did not deter Marr from seeking harmony in labor-management relations, which resulted in national publicity in helping attract new companies to the Beaver State. A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT for Marr was the failure to get a fed- erally-financed high dam built in the Hells Canyon stretch of the Snake River. Marr had been persuaded to serve as president of the Hells Canyon Associa- tion by representatives of the Grange, the Farmers Union, public utility dis- tricts and rural electrification groups. In an interview with the Labor Press, Marr noted that instead of a high dam, three smaller structures were authorized by the federal government and built by the Idaho Power Co. A plain-spoken man with a straight-forward manner, Marr developed a reputation for honesty and integrity. In the early 1960s, William A. Callahan, a longtime member of the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Board and a for- mer leader of Portland Roofers Local 49, pulled me aside for a cup of coffee at a counter in a Salem hotel where we were both attending a meeting. Calla- han wanted me to know that Jim Marr was a man of great integrity. I had come to the same conclusion based on my brief contacts with Jim in my early days at the Labor Press. I also considered Callahan a man of great integrity. GEORGE MEANY, president of the national AFL-CIO, had this to say when Marr retired: “Jim Marr served the labor movement faithfully and well. As a result of his efforts, thousands and thousands of his fellow workers en- joy a better and more secure life.” Jim’s wife, Helen Marr, served as a business agent and president of Port- land Waitresses Local 305, which is now part of UNITE HERE Local 9. JAMES T. MARR died of a heart ailment in May 1985 at the age of 85. DEEP IN THOUGHT are James T. Marr (left), executive secretary-treas- urer of the Oregon AFL- CIO, and J.D. (Rosy) McDonald, labor federa- tion president, as they sit in the federation’s office in the old Portland Labor Temple on SW Fourth Ave. at Jefferson Street in down- town Portland. The photo was taken for the Labor Press in 1965 by Alex Jessen, a free-lance photographer who had worked for the Portland Daily Reporter. Marr was a founder of Municipal Employees Local 483 in 1928, and McDonald was an officer of Meat Cutters Local 143. MAY 19, 2006 Social Security report — The sky is not falling By MIKE HALL WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ohmi- gawd … Look out … Everybody Run … The Sky Is Falling! The media coverage of the latest Social Security trustees’ report wasn’t quite that hysterical. But you can be sure we’re going to hear loud and re- peated calls that Social Security is in a huge “CRISIS” from the Bush Ad- ministration and other groups with a big stake in privatizing the corner- stone of America’s retirement secu- rity. Most media outlets trumpeted how the report’s figures show Social Secu- rity will pay full benefits through 2040, a year less than last year’s re- port predicted. After that, without any changes whatsoever, it will be able to pay out 74 percent of scheduled bene- fits. Social Security trustees, three of whom are Bush cabinet members, an- nually update the status of Social Se- curity. (The report follows the Bush Ad- ministration’s move to eliminate tradi- tional pension plans for workers em- ployed by private contractors at the U.S. Department of Energy.) The loud cries of crisis and extrem- ist talk show banter about grandma and grandpa living in a refrigerator box unless we privatize Social Secu- rity and let Wall Street take care of the nation’s seniors are likely to grow fol- lowing the report. But the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities took the kind of deep breath we all should: “The new trustees’ report is consis- tent with previous reports. It shows that Social Security faces a significant but manageable challenge. While act- ing sooner rather than later will help reduce the size of the eventual adjust- ments, the trustees’ report indicates that Social Security does not face a deep structural crisis requiring drastic changes.” The panic mongers always point to the huge impact of the Social Security shortfall (estimated at $4.6 trillion over the next 75 years) on the deficit. Center Executive Director Robert Greenstein points out there is an even larger threat — President Bush’s tax cuts: “The trustees’ report places the size of the Social Security shortfall at $4.6 trillion over the next 75 years, a little more than one-third the cost of the tax cuts over the same period. The cost of the tax cuts just for the top 1 percent of Americans — people with annual incomes today of more than $400,000 —itself is about equal to the cost of closing the Social Security shortfall. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reminds us that when Bush took up residency in the White House, he inherited a $5.6 tril- lion budget surplus — and immedi- Open Forum ately squandered it: “Rather than using the Clinton sur- pluses to strengthen Social Security or Medicare, the President and the Re- publican Rubber Stamp Congress chose to go into debt by recklessly giving massive tax cuts to the wealthy.” She also says the report’s findings that Social Security can pay full bene- fits through 2040 and 74 percent after that: “…flatly contradicts Republican efforts to manufacture a ‘crisis’ in So- cial Security to justify a privatization plan that is unaffordable, unnecessary, and unwise.” Of course, a manufactured “Social Security crisis” was the battle cry of Bush’s failed attempt to privatize So- cial Security. His so-called solution would have eliminated guaranteed benefits, reduced benefit levels and boosted the retirement age. The AFL-CIO, the Alliance for Re- tired Americans and other groups long have pointed out how Social Security is the cornerstone of retirement secu- rity and should be strengthened — but not through risky privatization schemes. (Editor’s Note: Mike Hall writes for AFL-CIO Now. He is a former staff writer for the United Mine Work- ers Journal and managing editor of the Seafarers Log.) Unionist says it was easier to come to U.S. in earlier years, urges amnesty for illegals To The Editor: In response to “Labor movement wants path to citizenship for illegal workers” April 21, 2006. It was a lot easier to migrate to the U.S. and be- come a citizen when my great grand- mother fled Germany in the 1890s. Today it is much more difficult to ob- tain a visa and obtain citizenship via so-called “legal” channels. Yet, many individuals are fleeing countries that have been devastated by the ravages of “free trade” and U.S. military im- perialism to come here. I disagree with Bob Shiprack that undocumented workers are the crimi- nals. And, I disagree with Don McIn- tosh downplaying the extreme poverty in Mexico that is driving immigrants to the U.S. by saying Mexico ranks 53 in on the United Nations Index of Hu- man Development. The real criminals are not the desperate young people, workers and families that make the hazardous border crossing at great risk to their lives. The real criminals are the mega-corporations that line the borders with their maquiladoras that NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS pay poverty wages. In Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a city flooded with maquiladoras, there is an epidemic of brutal murders of young women. The wanton violence the female popula- tion is experiencing in the streets di- rectly relates to lack of value these women have in their workplace under free-trade agreements. The solution is not to close the bor- ders or bring back the racist guest worker programs that amount to in- dentured servitude. Nor should the government look to instituting quota systems that exclude individuals be- cause their skin is too dark or their eyes are too slanted for the likes of a whiter America. We need to eliminate the free-trade agreements that are devastating the economies of other countries, forcing their populations to migrate. We must give all undocumented immigrants full amnesty and we must open the borders. Only in this way, can the bosses not use the threat of deporta- tion to exploit undocumented labor. Labor needs to play a stronger solidar- ity in organizing undocumented work- ers into unions. Instead of blaming immigrants for the lack of jobs, we need to bring the troops home from Iraq and use the money saved to cre- ate jobs that pay living wages for all. Glenn Kirkendall UFCW Local 555 Portland IRS PROBLEMS? • Haven’t filed for...years? • Lost records? • Liens-Levie-Garnishments? • Negotiate settlements. • Retiring? Have Questions? Call Nancy D. Anderson Enrolled Agent/Tax Practitioner 503-697-7757 PAGE 11
