Smith feeling pressure to
support Free-Choice Act
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cal organizer Elana Guiney to work on
the issue. Guiney also collected about
4,000 post cards signed by union mem-
bers supporting passage of the bill, and
planned to deliver them to Smith and
Wyden this week.
To argue for the bill, Chamberlain
visited Smith in Washington, DC, May
16. Smith told Chamberlain he agrees
the system is broken, but doesn’t think
the Employee Free Choice Act is the
best way to fix it; he’s opposed to the
bill’s requirement that employers rec-
ognize unions on the basis of majority
signup (card-check) and the require-
ment that the first contract be estab-
lished by binding arbitration if workers
and employers can’t reach agreement.
“I’m discouraged by what he
[Smith] said, but I don’t think working
people in Oregon should let him off the
hook,” Chamberlain said. “The worst
thing that could happen right now is for
him to say ‘I’m not voting for it’ and
then not get phone calls from people
about it. He needs to hear from work-
ing people.”
Leave a message for Sen. Smith by
calling 1-800-774-8941. His Portland
office phone number is 503-326-3386 .
His Portland address is One World
Trade Center 121 SW Salmon Street,
Suite 1250 Portland, OR 97204.
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Electricians, Carpenters, Laborers, Glaziers, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofer, Asbestos Workers, Family, Mill Wrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers
Union members are putting pressure
on Oregon’s Republican U.S. Senator
Gordon Smith to support the Employee
Free Choice Act, which would make it
easier for workers to unionize and get
their first union contract.
“This is the issue for the labor
movement,” said Oregon AFL-CIO
President Tom Chamberlain. “It’s
about workers’ ability to join a union
and collectively bargain, and it’s how
we save the middle class in America.”
The House passed the bill 241-185
on March 1. National AFL-CIO offi-
cials think the Senate will vote on it as
early as mid-June.
So far, 47 Democratic U.S. senators
have signed on as sponsors of the bill,
including Oregon’s other senator, Ron
Wyden. No Republican senator has yet
signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill,
but with Smith facing re-election in
2008 in a state that is trending Democ-
ratic, the national AFL-CIO hasn’t
written him off.
In mid-April, the federation set up a
toll-free hotline — 1-800-774-8941 —
for union supporters anywhere in
America to call their senators about the
bill. Callers hear a short message, en-
ter their zip code, and are connected to
the office of one of their senators. In
Oregon, that’s Smith, because Wyden
is already on board. Oregonians have
made about 900 calls to the hotline,
more than residents of any other state.
That may be in part because the
Oregon AFL-CIO has assigned politi-
Glaziers, Carpenters, Laborers, Electricians, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofers, Asbestos Workers, Family, Mill Wrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers
JUNE 1, 2007
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 3