Labor bills fight for attention as Oregon Legislature winds down
SALEM — With much of labor’s
agenda still waiting approval in the fi-
nal weeks of the 2007 Oregon Legis-
lature, union lobbyists in the state
Capitol were in something like a 24-
hour-a-day vigil.
“We’ve hit our political stride,” said
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom
Chamberlain. “We’ve made real
progress this session, and it’s not over
yet. We’re going to move the ball as
far for working Oregonians as we
can.”
The state labor federation’s number
one goal looked like a done deal as of
press time — a bill requiring union
recognition when a majority of public
employees sign authorization cards.
The bill passed the Oregon House
April 18 and the Senate June 11. Be-
cause the House bill was altered by
some friendly amendments in the Sen-
ate, it must go back to the House for a
second vote.
On the other hand, as of press time,
a companion “right to unionize” bill,
which would ban the use of tax dollars
to fight union drives, had stalled in the
Senate Rules Committee, headed by
Portland Democrat Kate Brown. But
Chamberlain said he was hopeful the
bill would make it out of committee.
Also awaiting action in the Senate
Rules Committee were a House-
passed bill reforming Bill Sizemore-
style abuses in the ballot initiative sys-
tem, and a bill requiring payment of
the prevailing wage on all construction
projects that spend more than
$750,000 of public money.
Dozens of other union-supported
bills were also fighting for attention in
one legislative body or another. Most
of them were bills that passed the
House months ago and have taken
their time in the Senate.
One bill that did make it through
recently was a top priority for the
AFL-CIO’s largest affiliate, the Amer-
ican Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees (AFSCME) —
a bill strengthening and making per-
manent a governor’s executive order
that made AFSCME and the Service
Employees International Union Local
503 the exclusive bargaining agents
for two groups of state-licensed child
care providers. The bill passed the
Senate May 11 by a vote of 19-8 and
the House June 11 by a margin of 52-
7.
Workers who are locked-out by
management in multi-employer labor
disputes got help from the 2007 Ore-
gon Legislature. On June 7, by a 21-8
vote, the Senate passed a bill allowing
the locked-out workers to collect un-
employment insurance benefits. Cur-
rently, employees locked out by em-
ployers in a single-employer bargain-
ing unit are allowed to receive unem-
ployment benefits during a lockout.
In 2002, Longshore workers along
the entire West Coast were locked out
when the multi-employer group repre-
senting approximately 70 employer
groups locked out 25,000 Longshore
workers in Oregon, Washington and
California. Locked out workers in
Washington and California received
unemployment benefits, but Oregon
workers did not. At least 30 states do
not preclude locked out workers from
receiving unemployment benefits.
The lockout bill, which passed the
House May 16, was a personal
achievement for State Rep. Brad Witt
(D-Clatskanie), former secretary-
treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO and
a business representative of United
Food and Commercial Workers Local
555. Witt was the bill’s chief sponsor,
and shepherded it through the two leg-
islative chambers.
Witt said he expects Oregon Gov-
ernor Ted Kulongoski will sign it.
Several labor-backed bills have
been signed into law by in recent
weeks. On May 31, the governor
signed legislation requiring all farm
labor contractors to provide workers’
compensation insurance in order to re-
ceive a farm labor contractor’s license.
And on June 6 he signed a bill into
law that requires the state’s largest
utilities to meet 25 percent of their
electric load with new renewable en-
ergy sources by 2025.
As the session races to a close June
30, the big mystery is what the ground
rules will be for the 2008 special ses-
sion that will begin next January. Re-
sponding to a task force suggestion for
improving the Legislature, House and
Senate leaders of Oregon’s biennial
Legislature are experimenting with the
idea of an annual session by holding a
special session in what is normally the
biennial Legislature’s off-year.
Will it be a policy-only session or
will lawmakers remake the budget?
Will they accept new legislation or
only bills that were introduced this
year? Will bills that passed one cham-
ber this year have to pass again, or can
they be taken up in the other?
“We haven’t heard a clear answer,”
Chamberlain said.
Sylwia Buchalski
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