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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 19, 2006)
Cancer claims Cornelia Murphy, 40, Oregon’s workplace fatalities former Oregon AFSCME political staffer report misses half the story Cornelia Murphy, former political campaign director for Oregon Council 75 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AF- SCME), died May 13 in San Jose, Calif., of ovarian cancer. She was 40 years old. Friends and colleagues remember Murphy as an incredibly hard worker who lived life with gusto and was in- tensely proud to be part of the labor movement. Funny, irreverent and head- strong, Murphy had a talent for inspir- ing volunteers to get involved, and mak- ing them feel rewarded. Murphy was born June 29, 1965. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and Rhode Island. She is the daughter of Mariel Valentine and Cornelius Murphy. After earning a bachelors degree in political science and public law from California State University Northridge in 1992, she went on to work in Wash- ington, D.C., for several Democratic members of Congress — Jack Brooks, Ron Coleman and Max Sandlin from Texas, and Leonard Boswell from Iowa. Later, working at the Iowa Depart- ment of Agriculture in 1999, she be- came active in AFSCME, and as a vol- unteer coordinator helped defeat two state constitutional amendments that would have required legislative super- majorities to raise any tax. In 2000 she went to work for AF- SCME’s national office, mobilizing union members to support Al Gore for president in Iowa, New Hampshire, Wi s c o n s i n , California and Oregon. With the victor un- certain, Mur- phy was one of a crew of AFSCME staffers sent to Florida to CORNELIA watch the re- MURPHY count. After the election, she was assigned to help statewide AFSCME Council 75 in Oregon. She helped elect Randy Leonard to the Portland City Council and Ted Ku- longoski as Oregon governor. She also worked to defeat several measures that would have restricted unions’ ability to take part in politics. She helped pass Multnomah County’s temporary in- come tax surcharge for schools and a property tax levy to support libraries. Pollster Lisa Grove said Murphy’s efforts probably made the difference in close races, like Kulongoski’s or the Multnomah County I-tax. “She was an unstoppable force of nature,” Grove recalled, “Cornelia stood out quickly to me because she was a doer. She wanted to win.” “She never focused on what she’d done, but was always talking about other people’s commitments even though you knew she’d done twice as much,” said AFSCME organizer Debra Kidney. Her impact is clear, however: Over the last several months, as word spread of her illness, hundreds of people wrote in from around the country on a Web page her brother Paul set up for her at carepages.com. Murphy had left AFSCME in Feb- ruary 2006 and moved to San Jose to be closer to her brother after the death of their mother. There she took a position with Kenyon Black, a public relations and political consulting firm, but dis- covered her illness before that job got under way. She is survived by her father; two brothers, Jeremiah of Rhode Island, and Paul of San Jose, Calif.; and nephews Harry and Gus. Services will be held in San Jose on May 25 and in Portland June 2 at 11a.m. at the International Longshore and Ware- house Union, 2401 NW 23rd Ave. A tax-deductible fund to defray medical and funeral expenses was set up, to which many AFSCME members and others gave generously. “There probably isn’t a labor person in this state who hasn’t benefited tremendously from Cornelia’s work,” said AFSCME staff rep James Hester. “She was totally committed to AF- SCME and the movement. I think she’d want us to keep on fighting.” PROTECTING UNION MEMBERS’ SMILES AND WALLETS. 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Milwaukie 17186 SE McLoughlin Blvd. Milwaukie, OR 97267 503-659-2525 Northwest Dental Associates, P.C. The Newspaper Guild hits newspapers’ sale WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — The sale of four newspapers — three in the San Francisco Bay area and the St. Paul Pioneer Press — to media mogul Dean Singleton should be scrutinized by those newspapers’ cities and possi- bly overturned on anti-trust grounds, says Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley. Foley commented after the Mc- Clatchy newspaper chain, which is buy- ing 32 papers from Knight-Ridder and putting 12 — including the aforemen- tioned, all of which are represented by The Newspaper Guild, an affiliate of Communications Workers of America — up for sale, said it would sell them to Singleton’s MediaNews Corp. for $1 billion. Singleton, a right-winger, has a reputation for slashing news, workers and pay. The Newspaper Guild and a pro- worker investment firm, Yucaipa, are bidding for all 12, with an employee stock ownership plan to be established if they are successful. Eight of the newspapers are unionized, including the four Singleton wants. “The apparent complexity of the proposed purchase of three Northern California newspapers shouldn’t ob- scure a simple fact: The industry is dominated by a small circle of owner- ship groups,” Foley said. The late-April sale of the four papers “drew that circle even smaller.” If Singleton buys the four papers, he would have a virtual monopoly east and south of San Francisco, because he also is buying the San Jose Mercury News and two papers south of the city. He now owns the Oakland Tribune. (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon as a voice of the labor movement. 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Ore. 97213 Telephone: (503) 288-3311 Fax Number: (503) 288-3320 Editor: Michael Gutwig Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non- profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore- gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union members. Group rates available to trade union organizations. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS, P.O. BOX 13150-0150, PORTLAND, OR 97213 Member Press Associates Inc. WESTERN LABOR PRESS ASSOCIATION Chau Ngo, D.D.S., M.S. Phong Bui, D.M.D. Charles Stirewalt, D.D.S. Stirewalt, P.C. Gradine Storms Fisher’s Landing 3250 SE 164th Ave. Vancouver, WA 98683 360-891-1999 Real Estate Broker Peter Vu, D.M.D. Chau Ngo, D.D.S. Charles Stirewalt, D.D.S. Stirewalt, P.C. 1-888-BRIGHT NOW www.brightnow.com Serving unions for over 25 years MAY 19, 2006 The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OR-OSHA) issued a press release earlier this month announcing a record-low 31 job-re- lated deaths in Oregon in 2005. While the number reported is the lowest since the state started keeping track in 1943, it includes only those workers covered as compensable claims under the state’s workers’ compensation system. While this fact is included in the press release, many news reports don’t mention it in their stories. “The real number of workers killed on the job in Oregon is, unfortunately, about twice what was reported,” said Tom Chamberlain, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO. “The state’s number – 31 – does not include deaths of workers who were self-employed, working in Oregon for out-of-state em- ployers, City of Portland police and fire employees, federal employees and others. And we must remember and honor the soldiers who have died in the Middle East – they died on the job as well.” The Northwest Labor Press reported in April that in 2005, according to records by OR-OSHA and the federal Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 53 workers were killed on the job in Oregon. The names and occupations of these 53 workers were listed in the April 21 issue — and the names were read at a Workers Memorial Day event on April 28. This number does not in- clude soldiers with ties to Oregon. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS E-Mail: gstorms@equitygroup.com www.equitygroup.com/gstorms 7886 SE 13th Ave. Portland, Oregon 97202 Branch: 503-233-8883 Direct: 503-495-4932 Each Office Independently Owned and Operated PAGE 3
