Senate votes to restore safety bargaining
SALEM — The Oregon Senate
voted March 7 to restore public safety
officers’ ability to negotiate on safety
and staffing issues in their union con-
tracts.
Senate Bill 400 passed by a vote of
16-13. Two Democrats — Joanne
Verger and Betsy Johnson — and one
independent — Avel Gordly — joined
all the Senate Republicans in opposing
the bill.
SB 400 restores the ability of fire-
fighters, police and corrections officers
to negotiate on safety, equipment and
staffing issues when bargaining con-
tracts. That right was stripped from them
in 1995 by a Republican-controlled
Legislature.
The Oregon AFL-CIO hailed the
vote as a major victory this session.
“This is a top priority for us and several
Oregon unions,” said Tom Chamberlain,
president of the state labor federation.
“Nobody has earned the right to talk
about safety issues more than the Ore-
gonians who put their lives on the line
to keep the rest of us safe,” said State
Sen. Kate Brown (D-Portland), who co-
sponsored the bill with State Sen. Floyd
Prozanski (D-Eugene). “This legislation
allows our firefighters and police to dis-
cuss their own safety at the bargaining
table.”
The issue is important, Chamberlain
said, because safety employees are pro-
hibited by Oregon law from striking.
Previous to a change in the law in 1995,
employees were allowed to negotiate on
safety issues.
The bill now moves on to the Oregon
House of Representatives. The AFL-
CIO is asking union members to call
their lawmakers and urge them to sup-
port SB 400. The phone number to
reach lawmakers is 503-986-1000.
JOBS Plus on the radar of GOP lawmaker
SALEM — Some Republican law-
makers are trying to resurrect Oregon’s
JOBS Plus program, which died a quiet
death June 30, 2005.
JOBS Plus, the brainchild of Kla-
math Falls conservative Dick Wendt,
used unemployment insurance funds to
pay employers to hire the unemployed.
Unions opposed the program, saying
unemployment insurance was meant as
a support for workers, not as a subsidy
to employers.
JOBS Plus was the result of a six-
county welfare-to-work pilot project
approved by Oregon voters in 1990.
But it required federal approval to di-
vert funds from other programs. As
worked out by the Legislature, the
JOBS Plus program had 10 years to
prove itself. Its backers tried to reautho-
rize it in the 2005 legislative session,
but opposition from the governor, and
the fact that it couldn’t get a hearing in
Democrat-run Senate, doomed the bill.
Still, Klamath Falls State Sen. Doug
Whitsett pledged to give it another go
this year, and the Oregon AFL-CIO is
tracking the bill to make sure it doesn’t
go anywhere.
In a letter to House Speaker Jeff
Merkley, Oregon AFL-CIO President
Tom Chamberlain explained why labor
opposes the bill: “JOBS Plus is sup-
posed to limit its subsidies to newly-
created jobs, but appears to subsidize
jobs that would otherwise be created by
market forces.”
That ends up displacing other work-
ers, Chamberlain argued, as when
JOBS Plus placements filled temporary
jobs when Cirque de Soleil came to
Portland in 2004.
‘Union Yes’ race car driver
looking for more sponsors
“Union Yes” drag
racer Greg Hindman
of Boring, Oregon,
is looking for spon-
sors for the 2007 sea-
son. A member of
Plumbers and Fitters Local
290, Hindman has been racing his
1992 Grand Prix in the National Hot Rod
Association Top Comp division for the past
three years.
Union locals, building trades councils and state and regional labor federa-
tions have been some of Hindman’s sponsors.
His goal is to go national, but he needs more sponsors to do it. He has been
invited to bring his race car to the National AFL-CIO Building and Construc-
tion Trades Department Legislative Conference March 25-28 in Washington,
D.C. There, he will be able to show off the car and his Union Yes program to
leaders of national unions.
The invite was short notice, and the cost to transport the vehicle is steep —
about $12,000. Hindman is looking for financial assistance to help pay for the
trip. He must leave Portland on March 19 or 20, so time is of the essence.
Union locals, union vendors, money managers and other union supporters are
encouraged to donate, and to possibly sponsor Hindman for the ‘07 season.
Last year, Hindman held “Union Solidarity” days at race tracks in Arizona
and Idaho. He’s planning a similar event in July at the Woodburn Drag Strip in
Oregon.
“The car creates a lot of buzz at the track, especially in the right-to-work
states like Idaho,” Hindman said. “With all these locals, councils and vendors
working together towards one message, ‘Union Yes,’ this program is a power-
ful advertising tool. We are able to reach many more people than any one of us
could do alone.” Contact Hindman at 503-260-5593 or 503-740-8806.
Karl Bik, Co-Chairman
Cement Masons Trust Funds for Northern California
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MARCH 16, 2007
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
©2007 Union Bank of California, N.A. Member FDIC
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