...SEIU boss embarks
on national book tour
(From Page 3)
Do you think that if the Democrats
win the House this year, that the Em-
ployee Free Choice Act could pass the
House?
It’s going to put them to a very in-
teresting test, because it was easy to
sign on when it wasn’t going to pass.
In the book you write that you feel
treated like an ATM machine by the
Democratic Party, and don’t neces-
sarily feel respected for it. You write,
“Our members rightly saw us as too
wedded to the Democratic establish-
ment, a political party with no united
agenda on workers’ issues.”
I became president in ‘96, and in
my acceptance speech, I promised the
delegates we were going to build a new
independent political program based
on one simple and profound principle,
which was ‘What is in the best interest
of our members and all working fami-
lies.”
And SEIU hadn’t done that before?
No, I would say we were an ad-
junct, a very Democratic organization.
It takes a lot of work to get the union
aligned independently. We just had a
conference two weeks ago in Washing-
ton of 100 leading Republican mem-
bers of SEIU for the first time, includ-
ing some presidents of locals. They
were pro-SEIU and pro-Republican.
We have to see what role they want to
play in the Republican Party. We want
to rate candidates on the issues, not on
the parties. So it’s good to have people
call you when they think you’re chang-
ing the questionnaire in a way that
looks at certain votes and not others.
The good thing about members is
they’re smart. If you involve them in
the process, they can see when some-
thing doesn’t meet the smell test.
When you were on the Colbert Re-
port, the line that got the most ap-
plause was a call for universal health
care. Is SEIU or Change to Win go-
ing to spearhead a campaign for na-
tional health care of some kind.
We’re working on a number of
fronts. I wrote a letter in the Wall Street
Think Again •
Journal about our horse-and-buggy
health care system, and sent a letter to
the Fortune 500 CEOs. And some of
them actually called and wrote back.
Steve Byrd (head of Safeway) said in a
Chamber of Commerce meeting a
month ago: ‘I could have written the
editorial Andy Stern did.’ Lee Scott, the
head of Wal-Mart, said on Charlie
Rose that business and labor should
work together to solve the health care
crisis. So there’s a moment coming.
You can see the increasing cost, the
lack of coverage, the problems it’s cre-
ating in our economy by putting the
cost of health care in the price of a
product. I think CEOs are sick of it, be-
cause they can’t manage it and it’s not
part of their business. The legacy costs
are killing some of our biggest employ-
ers, and the only way they can solve
the problem is through bankruptcy,
which is disgraceful for what happens
to the workers. So I think we’re head-
ing toward a moment. The question is,
‘Is the perfect going to the be the en-
emy of the good?’ Is there going to be
enough sense as Americans that this is
not about Democrats or Republicans or
the insurance industry or unions’ trust
funds, it’s about whether our kids and
grandkids are going to live in a country
where we have access to the greatest
medical technology in the history of
the world.
In the late ‘90s, your ex-wife Jane
Perkins was instrumental in a failed
attempt to get the AFL-CIO to en-
dorse U.S. passage of the Kyoto Pro-
tocols on global warming. Do you
think unions are going to come
around on that issue, and join with
environmentalists to work on global
warming?
I hope so. I think Al Gore has done
a phenomenal job raising popular
awareness of what many people have
known. Now it’s just very clear what
are the disastrous consequences of con-
tinuing to ignore this.
Is it a union issue?
Yeah, I think it is. I think the air we
breathe and the water we drink and
whether the world we live in is going
to sustain itself is a big union issue.
My ‘six pick’ predictions
for Oregon’s next Legislature
U
nlike tomorrow’s Breeder’s
Cup races, the contests for gov-
ernor and the State Legislature in
Oregon this year are relatively easy
to handicap. The real races start after
the election, when the stakes will be
higher and the outcomes tougher to
predict. But I’m a gambler, so I’m
going to offer my “Pick Six” predic-
tions for our next legislative session.
When the Republican candidate
for governor runs a TV ad in which
he proclaims, “I’m a Republican,
but…,” you can count on this being
a year when Democrats will cash a
lot of winning tickets.
Their gains will be most telling in
the State House, which Republicans
have controlled since 1991. Now
outnumbered 33 to 27, Democrats
were optimistic of getting to 29 this
year, with a plan to reach majority
status in 2008. Now they’re likely to
get to a 30-30 tie, with an outside
possibility of reaching 31.
So the most likely trifecta has
Governor Ted Kulongoski on top,
the Senate Ds holding on to their
majority in second, and the House
Ds and Rs in a dead heat for third.
A 30-30 tie in the House will trig-
ger a runoff of sorts, as the Democ-
rats and Republicans wheel and deal
to determine who becomes the next
speaker. We could end up with a
compromise candidate from either
party or co-speakers from both. Ei-
ther way, reserve a good seat in the
gallery and expect to see a lot of
photo finishes on the House floor.
But what are we rooting for?
Keep in mind the many promises we
heard from candidates in both par-
ties on the big “Pick Six” issues.
1) Better Schools. Neither the
House nor Senate is likely to get out
in front of the governor on educa-
tion. His Education Enterprise will
set a high bar for K-12 funding, and
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he’ll get extra traction with a budget
that provides $6 billion from exist-
ing resources. That money will buy
smaller class sizes, a full school
year, better training for new teach-
ers, up-to-date textbooks and a full
curriculum, with the restoration of
music, art and PE in most schools.
K-12 should be the big winner in the
2007 session.
2) Affordable Health Care. Gov.
Kulongoski will try to run with
Washington State by aligning our to-
bacco tax with theirs and using the
proceeds to provide affordable
health care for all children. Senators
Ben Westlund and Alan Bates will
go for a bigger purse with a more
ambitious plan for health care for all
children and most adults. Former
Gov. John Kitzhaber will attempt to
go the distance with a plan to reor-
ganize health care for everyone with
a prioritized list of cost-effective
services. This is a crowded field,
where the long shots will be seduc-
tive. I’ll provide a more complete as-
sessment in a future column.
3) Tax Fairness. This issue plays
out on a biased track. Revenue-rais-
ing measures must originate in the
House and pass both chambers with
a three-fifths vote. Very few good
ideas make it to the finish line under
those rules. Still, Gov. Kulongoski
will bring new vigor and well-
earned credibility to this effort. He
had the guts to campaign on a tax
fairness package that includes rais-
ing the corporate minimum tax —
which has been stuck at $10 since
Seabiscuit was a yearling. Raising
this tax is long overdue. And, dedi-
cating its proceeds to Head Start and
college aid for middle-class families,
as Kulongoski proposes, makes it
the early favorite in a tough race.
4) Open elections. Advocates of
the so-called open primary and fu-
sion voting will ride proposals to
change the dynamics of the major-
party “match races” in future elec-
tions. My sympathies are with fu-
sion voting, which can force the
major parties to the middle of the
track on winning issues like health
care reform.
5) Good Government. Who
asked our legislators to run free in
Hawaii? We need them to get back
on the track here in Oregon. The
real contests in this category will in-
volve campaign finance reform and
restrictions on lobbying practices,
like those unreported trips to Maui.
There will be a lot of official win-
ners in this field, but none will make
a big impression.
6) Renewable Energy. When
city dwellers can start filling their
gas tanks with fuel grown by farm-
ers in Eastern Oregon, we may fi-
nally start bridging the urban-rural
divide — and start winning big for
working families. This is the “super
horse” that could finally live up to its
potential to combine a good jobs
agenda with environmental payoffs
(slowing global warming) and na-
tional security credentials (weaning
us from the Middle East). Whoever
learns how to ride this horse could
be a Triple Crown winner in future
elections.
(Full disclosure: Not only do I
play the horses, but I have financial
ties, in the form of consulting con-
tracts, with the Kulongoski for Gov-
ernor campaign and the Working
Families Party.)
Tim Nesbitt is a former president of
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
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