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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 2006)
Unions working cooperatively on most Oregon legislative races While structurally more divided than in previous election years, Ore- gon unions are still working coopera- tively on most state electoral contests. In the last few years, seven unions — Carpenters, Service Employees, Teamsters, United Food and Commer- cial Workers, Laborers, UNITE HERE and the United Farm Workers — have left the national AFL-CIO and joined in a new federation, Change to Win. Just two Change to Win unions remain affiliated with the Oregon AFL-CIO under temporary “solidarity charters” — UNITE HERE and several Laborers locals. Still, the Oregon AFL-CIO contin- ues to serve as coordinating body for its affiliates’ political efforts. Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamber- lain said that after getting off to a slow start, a campaign of mailings, phone banks and work site leaflet distribu- tion is under way, supporting labor- endorsed candidates and ballot meas- ures. As for the state Change To Win federation, it has issued no endorse- ments in Oregon races, but is coordi- nating joint political efforts like joint canvasses, for candidates all affiliates agree on. SEIU Local 503 official Rich Peppers said the endorsements overlap 95 percent. Each of the two state federations represents about 90,000 members in affiliated unions. While virtually every union sees politics as a legitimate part of repre- senting members’ interests, some unions are more focused on politics than others. The largest unions main- tain full-time lobbyists and political directors and devote substantial re- sources to politics. Chamberlain can quickly cite the Oregon labor organizations with the biggest political efforts: the American Federation of State, County and Mu- nicipal Employees, American Federa- tion of Teachers-Oregon, the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council (OSBCTC), Fire Fighters, the Oregon Education Asso- ciation, the Oregon Nurses Associa- tion and SEIU. In other words, the largest public employee unions, the biggest nurses union, and the influen- tial bloc of unions in the construction industry. All the state’s unions favor incum- bent Governor Ted Kulongoski over Republican challenger Ron Saxton. Saxton didn’t seek union endorse- ments, and is expected to be actively hostile to unions if elected. In state legislative races, however, there are some differences among unions. The Oregon AFL-CIO keeps the most detailed tracking of votes, and tends to evaluate politicians on issues of broad importance to working peo- ple. It uses those records, known as OCTOBER 20, 2006 COPE ratings (Committee on Political Education), as part of its decision- making on who to endorse. It also uses a candidate questionnaire, though not all endorsed candidates filled one out; Chamberlain said those who did- n’t fill it out at least gave oral commit- ments to supporting expanded rights to organize. Endorsement decisions are made by COPE. The COPE board is comprised of members of the Gen- eral Board. The General Board con- sists of AFL-CIO Executive Board members, delegates from the 12 re- gional central labor councils, and one representative of each affiliated inter- national union (including Change to Win locals with Solidarity Charters) which does not have a representative on the Executive Board. COPE ac- tions require a two-thirds majority of the votes cast. The Oregon AFL-CIO made en- dorsements in 13 of 15 Senate races and 37 of 60 house races. See www.oraflcio.org for the complete list. Basically, the state labor federation endorsed all incumbent Democrats in the House and Senate, plus a handful of Democratic candidates running for open seats or against Republican in- cumbents, plus four incumbent Re- publicans: Albany Senator Frank Morse, and in the House, Vicki Berger of Monmouth, Scott Bruun of West Linn, and Bob Jenson of Pendleton. While the Republicans all had much lower COPE ratings than any Democ- rat, Chamberlain said they were can- didates with whom affiliates such as OSBCTC, AFSCME, or ONA had de- veloped a working relationship with, potentially valuable connections given past Republican majorities in the Ore- gon House. And while most of the AFL-CIO efforts are focused on the governor’s race and ballot measure campaigns, in legislative races it has paid closest at- tention to three Democrats in close races. They include Larry Galizio for House District 3 in Tigard; Chuck Ri- ley for House District 29 in Forest Grove; and David Edwards for House District 30 in Hillsboro. Within the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, ONA, and the Building Trades (OS- BCTC) maintain independent ap- proaches to politics. Oregon AFSCME invites members to take part in candidate interviews and then make recommendations to its Political Action Committee, members of which are appointed by AFSCME’s elected president. The PAC in turn, makes recommendations to the Ore- (Turn to Page 6) Local Motion September 2006 Union election activity in Oregon and SW Washington, according to the National Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board Elections held Company Date Union Results: Union Location South Coast Hospice (decertification) 8/30 ILWU Local 5 Coos Bay Pacific Specialty & Rehabilitation Center 9/19 SEIU Local 775 Vancouver 12 33 No Union 14 9 Elections requested Company Union Location # of employees Pacific Specialty & Rehabilitation Center Service Employees International Union Local 775 Vancouver 62 Canteen Vending Teamsters Local 223 Portland 59 Kaiser Permanente (billing) Service Employees International Union Local 49 Portland 65 Glacier Northwest (decertification) International Association of Machinists District Lodge 24 Your Mileage Is Showing... It’s Time For New Wheels! 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