Oregon senator helps scuttle wage bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Oregon
U.S. Senator Gordon Smith helped
sink a bill in the U.S. Senate Jan. 24
that would have raised the federal min-
imum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per
hour in three steps in slightly over two
years.
A majority of senators — 54 —
voted to raise the minimum wage
without any attachments, but oppo-
nents threatened to filibuster the bill. It
takes 60 votes to end debate (invoke
cloture).
“With their amendments and de-
lays, Republican senators tied up a
minimum wage increase in more knots
than you can find in a scouting hand-
book,” wrote national AFL-CIO blog-
ger Mike Hall. “For 10 years when
they controlled the agenda, Republi-
can leaders used all their power to
block a raise in the minimum wage.
Now, after the new Democratic-con-
trolled House passed — with biparti-
san support — a simple $2.10-an-hour
increase, out-of-power Republican
Senate leaders are running a guerrilla
war of delay with filibusters and
amendments to deny minimum wage
workers a raise. They even tried to re-
peal the federal minimum wage alto-
gether on Jan. 24.”
Smith told the Oregonian newspa-
per that he voted against the minimum
wage bill because it didn’t include an
education tax provision that he
wanted attached.
“I’ve learned in 10 years around
this place that if you want something
to move, you better hook it onto any
train that’s moving,” Smith said on the
Senate floor Jan. 24. “This is moving.
And yes, I want to vote to raise the
minimum wage. But I also want to put
on it such things that actually help
folks that we’re trying to help.”
U.S. senators — who make
$165,200 a year — almost annually
vote to give themselves a pay raise
without including any attachments.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), a
leading Senate proponent of a “clean”
minimum wage bill, said Republicans
have 70 more amendments to attach to
the bill.
There were indications senators
would attach $8 billion worth of new
tax breaks for small business, ap-
proved in mid-January by the Democ-
ratic-run Senate Finance Committee,
as a price to get the 60 votes needed to
shut off debate and pass the bill. But
attaching the tax breaks would kick
the bill back to the House, causing
more delay.
And attaching the tax breaks an-
gered both Change to Win Chair Anna
Burger and AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney.
“The fight for a ‘clean’ (minimum
wage) bill is over, but the fight to give
America a raise is not,” Burger said.
“The minimum wage increase is not
dead — it is simply open now to am-
endments. We will continue to work
hard to prevent any amendments from
being added to the bill that would hurt
workers.”
Sweeney says, in the past 10 years,
the Republican-controlled Congress
showered corporations with $276 bil-
lion in tax breaks, plus another $36
billion aimed exclusively at small
businesses.
“It's just plain wrong to ask these
working families to wait even longer
to receive a minimum wage increase
while many of our nation’s leaders
shower big business with additional
tax perks,” Sweeney said.
President Bush has signaled that he
would sign a bill providing for a wage
increase with related tax breaks.
In a statement on its Web site, the
Oregon AFL-CIO said, “Senator
Smith is the only one of Oregon’s con-
gressional delegates who is out of sync
with Oregon voters on this minimum
wage bill. We salute the others — in-
cluding Sen. Ron Wyden, and Repre-
sentatives Earl Blumenauer, Peter De-
Fazio, Darlene Hooley, David Wu, and
even Smith’s Republican colleague
Rep. Greg Walden — who supported
this long-overdue raise.”
The federal minimum wage has no
impact on Oregonians, as they have
twice voted in favor of raising the min-
imum wage at the state level. Oregon
has the second highest minimum wage
in the nation at $7.80 an hour.
NLRB to hear case on use of employer e-mail
EUGENE, Ore. (PAI) — Can
unions use company e-mail to com-
municate with workers? The Na-
tional Labor Relations Board will
take on this question in a case this
spring.
The case involves The Newspa-
per Guild’s Local 37194, which rep-
resents 150 staffers at the Eugene,
Ore., Register-Guard. The paper is
challenging the union’s rights,
across the board, to use e-mail in
communicating with its 150 mem-
bers there. The bargaining unit con-
sists of reporters, photographers,
copy editors, secretaries, clerks, ad-
vertising department employees,
and district managers in the circula-
tion department.
The paper’s management says its
policy bans using its e-mail “to so-
licit or proselytize for commercial
ventures, religious or political
causes, outside organizations or
other non-job-related solicitations.”
The paper says the ban covers the
union. The Guild, an affiliate of the
Communications Workers of Amer-
ica, says it doesn’t.
Among the issues the board will
tackle is whether union members
can use the e-mail system to discuss
“union or other concerted, protected
matters” — such as wages, hours
and working conditions — defined
by labor law.
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axes, old hard hats, blacksmith hammers,
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MOTORCYCLES, running or part, street,
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plus 14’ alum boat, Gregor, Klamath, etc.
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PAGE 10
If so, what restrictions may an
employer place on the e-mails and if
not, can the paper permit non-job-
related e-mails but not those related
to the union? Another question be-
fore the Board is whether e-mail ac-
cess is a mandatory subject for bar-
gaining, just like wages and hours.
A hearing is scheduled for March
27.
The union filed an unfair labor
practice charge against the newspa-
per while negotiating a successor
contract in 2000 after the union’s
president was reprimanded in writ-
ing for corresponding union busi-
ness with employees on their work
computers via e-mail.
E
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