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
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