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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2007)
Down to the wire at the Oregon Legislature Labor lobbyists scramble to push through priority bills SALEM — With just four weeks left in the 2007 session of the Oregon Leg- islature, unions are scrambling to push priority bills through. Some union- backed bills have already made it to the finish line and have been signed into law by the governor. Others are for all intents and purposes dead. The topmost priority of the Oregon AFL-CIO is a package of bills to make it easier for workers to unionize. Two of the bills may be headed for passage — a bill prohibiting use of tax dollars to oppose union drives, and a bill allowing public employees to unionize by sign- ing cards. Both passed the House in April and are now before the Senate. Two other “right to organize” bills ran into trouble, however. A non-binding resolution urging Congress to pass the union-backed Employee Free Choice Act appears to have stalled. And a bill aimed at banning mandatory-atten- dance anti-union meetings in the work- place passed the House in April but un- raveled in the Senate over provisions that extended the ban to religious pros- elytizing in the workplace. Meanwhile, a package of reforms of the initiative process is on track to be- come law. The bill is aimed at modern- izing and improving the citizen initia- tive, and ending the kinds of abuses committed by the ballot measure opera- tion of union foe Bill Sizemore. It passed the House and was scheduled to have its first hearing May 30 in the Sen- ate Rules Committee. Building trades unions have been pushing a bill to settle a dispute over whether construction projects that mix public and private money have to pay workers the prevailing wage. The bill, which would mandate prevailing wage on any project that has over $750,000 of public money, passed the House and is pending in the Senate. Several bills on health care reform have made progress. The governor’s proposal to insure all Oregon children failed to attain the needed three-fifths majority in an April 26 House vote, but a Senate version of the proposal now looks like it may end up being referred to voters as an amendment to the state Constitution. And a bill called the “Responsible Employer Act” passed the House May 16 and is now pending in the Senate. It would reveal to the public how many of a company’s employees are receiving state-subsidized health benefits. The law is aimed at companies like Wal- Mart that don’t provide adequate health insurance. Lawmakers failed to reach consen- sus on a comprehensive universal health care proposal, but several versions of a bill may yet pass that would continue to develop such a proposal for the Legisla- ture to consider as early as its scheduled special session in January 2008. A bill to give workers paid family leave in case of birth, death or serious illness cleared a House committee May 3 and is now in the Joint Ways and Means Committee. Basically, employ- ees who are eligible for unpaid leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act would be eligible for a weekly stipend of $250 for up to six weeks, funded by a 1-cent-per-hour in- surance contribution paid by all work- ers. The governor has said he will sign it if it reaches his desk. Another bill would make workers who are locked out in a multi-employer labor dispute eligible to collect unem- ployment insurance. Currently, when a single employer locks out workers (the employer-side equivalent of a strike), the workers can collect unemployment, but multi-employer bargaining units are excluded. That’s of particular concern to grocery workers and longshore work- ers. The bill passed the House May 16 and is pending in the Senate. Public employee unions remain hopeful about the chances of a bill un- doing the “break in service” provisions of the 2003 PERS reforms. Because of the provision, more than 3,000 workers who returned to public sector jobs after an absence of six months or more have been placed in PERS “Tier 2” with re- duced pension and later retirement age. The bill passed a House Committee April 30 and as of press time, was be- fore the Joint Ways and Means Com- mittee. One bill, hailed by labor as a job-cre- ator, will require major utilities to get 25 percent of their electricity from new renewable energy sources by 2025. It passed the House April 10 and the Sen- ate May 23. The governor has said he will sign it. The 2007 legislative session will end June 29. Roger G. Worthington, P.C. leads the fight to find a cure for Mesothelioma cancer caused by asbestos exposure Since 1989, we have been dedicated to helping asbestos cancer patients get justice in the courtrooms and help in the hospitals. 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