Oregon Better Health Act
Demand is high, so Carpenters
Food Bank will open 1 hour earlier
AFL-CIO backs Kitzhaber plan
The Oregon AFL-CIO Executive
Board has endorsed former Gov. John
Kitzhaber’s Oregon Better Health Act,
a plan to overhaul the health care sys-
tem in Oregon.
The proposed legislation seeks au-
thority from Congress to allow Oregon
to reallocate public resources currently
being spent on health care by creating
a system in which everyone has access
to a defined set of essential health
services. This “core benefit” would be
portable and not tied to employment.
Supporters say the “core benefit”
would relieve employers and employ-
ees of the cost of paying for health in-
surance, but would allow employers
to offer and purchase secondary insur-
ance for additional services.
In addition, the legislation includes
a provision whereby the general pub-
lic, employers, employees, senior citi-
zens, and health-care providers will
have an opportunity to compare the
new system with the current system
before moving forward with imple-
mentation.
The Oregon Better Health Act is
the product of the Archimedes Move-
ment, an effort to create a a new health
UNITE HERE Local 9 placed
under international reins
Jim Grogan was named trustee of
UNITE HERE Local 9, which repre-
sents hotel and laundry workers in the
Portland metro area. The local was
placed under trusteeship by its national
office in October. Grogan will be in
charge of the local through the end of
2007.
A long-time organizing director for
UNITE, Grogan said he hopes to get
the Portland local more in line with lo-
cals in San Francisco and Seattle,
which have focused much attention on
organizing hotels. The local is also
bracing for what could be difficult
contract negotiations this year with the
Hilton Hotel chain. Local 9 represents
the Hilton Portland and Executive
Tower in downtown Portland.
The union also represents employ-
ees at the Benson and Paramount Ho-
tels in downtown Portland. Employees
at the new Hilton Vancouver and Con-
vention Center in Washington signed
recognition cards to join Local 9, but
have yet to ratify a first contract.
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Local 9 secured a neutrality agree-
ment before the taxpayer-financed
convention center and hotel complex
was built in 2005. The Hilton operates
the hotel under a contract with the City
of Vancouver. The hotel and conven-
tion center employs 120 workers.
UNITE HERE was formed in 2004
with the merger nationally of UNITE
(Union of Needletrades, Industrial and
Textile Employees) and HERE (Hotel
Employees and Restaurant Employees
International Union). The merged
Portland local has 1,200 members in
industrial laundry and 1,000 in hotel
and food service.
Grogan replaces financial secretary
Jeff Richardson, who resigned Oct. 13
following a routine internal audit by
the national union. Richardson was re-
elected by acclamation to a third term
in 2005.
Local 9 President Gloria Gonzalez,
who also was re-elected by acclama-
tion in 2005, will remain on staff dur-
ing the trusteeship.
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care system by challenging the under-
lying structure of the current system
and offering an alternative to replace
it.
“Our current system is based on
structures and assumptions that are
now 40 to 50 years old and reflect the
realities of the last century, not the re-
alities of today,” said Kitzhaber, who
practiced emergency medicine for al-
most 20 years before becoming gover-
nor. “Without finding the courage to
rethink these assumptions in light of
today’s realities, we will be unable to
meet the health-care challenges facing
our state and the nation.”
There was little debate at the quar-
terly Board meeting held in Northeast
Portland. Board members said the
Oregon Better Health Act will cer-
tainly be modified to consider labor’s
interests before it is ever enacted.
“The more we can raise this issue
now, the better off we will be,”said
Ken Allen , executive director of Ore-
gon Council 75 of the American Fed-
eration of State, County and Municipal
Employees, and maker of the motion
to endorse the Act.
The motion passed on a unanimous
voice vote.
The Carpenters Food Bank will start distributing food one hour earlier
each month because of long lines waiting to receive food boxes.
The all-volunteer Food Bank, now in its 24th year, is housed in the base-
ment of the union hall at 2205 N. Lombard, Portland. The Food Bank feeds
450 to 500 families the third Friday each month.
Mike Fahey, a former executive secretary-treasurer of the Portland Metal
Trades Council and member of Pile Drivers, Divers and Shipwrights Local
2416, who along with his wife Sandy, coordinates the program, said resi-
dents oftentimes start lining up at 6 a.m.
“I hate to see people standing out there, so we let ‘em in,” Fahey said.
The new distribution hours will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The next distri-
bution is Friday, March 16.
The Food Bank is also seeking cash donations to help purchase food
items — including meat and turkeys — at bulk rate prices.
Contributions can be sent to: Food Bank, P.O. Box 17358, Portland OR
97217.
Gradine Storms
Real Estate Broker
Member of CWA
Local 7901
E-Mail: gstorms@equitygroup.com
www.equitygroup.com/gstorms
7886 SE 13th Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97202
Direct: 503-495-4932
Branch: 503-233-8883
Each Office Independently Owned and Operated
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