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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2007)
Let me say this about that ...Family of unionists (From Page 2) the region before shipping out to fight the Germans in campaigns that included the Battle of the Bulge. Sometimes the Stammers travel farther. They’ve cruised by oceanliners to places like the Greek Isles, Croatia, Turkey and, closer to home, Alaska. They’ve trav- eled by car to Yellowstone National Park in summer and Arizona in winter. Anita said they also like to hike and “hang out at lakes.” She photographs their travels on a digital camera.and stores the pictures in their computer. At their Clackamas home, Anita and Roger enjoy growing flowers and vegetables. ★★★ ARTHA DARLENE ADAIR, a former second vice president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, died on June 29 in Salem at age 68. A friend, Lorene Lavertich, said Artha had recently undergone sinus surgery and reportedly became ill upon taking post-operation medication. A memorial service is scheduled at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 28, at Engelwood West, 1068 Park Ave. NE, in Salem. She was cremated and her ashes are to be in- terred July 21 at a cemetery where her mother is buried in Riddle, near Roseburg. Ms. Adair was born in Riddle on Sept. 7, 1938. In her 20s she took a job in the Portland area at a Pendleton Woolen Mills plant and joined Clothing Workers Lo- cal 291. Eventually, she was hired by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and assigned to handling con- sumer boycotts of nonunion clothing and textile products. The Clothing Workers later became part of UNITE HERE. AMONG POSTS she held were secretary- treasurer of Coast-Valley Labor Council covering Washington and Tillamook counties; board mem- ber of Labor’s Community Service Agency; vice president of Clackamas County Labor Council; charter member of Oregon Pioneer Chapter of Coalition of Labor Union Women; teacher at Pa- cific NW Labor College; business agent of Ameri- can Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ Portland Chapter. She also ran the Union Label ARTHA ADAIR Shows at five Oregon AFL-CIO conventions. AFTER SERVING as the elected second vice president of the state labor federation in the early 1980s, Adair moved to Salem and became office manager for the Oregon Democratic Party but left the job in the 1990s when the office was moved to Portland. Survivors include a sister, Robyn Hansen; and numerous nieces and nephews. ★★★ ERNA JANE SWEENEY, whose career included running the Portland office of Congressman Bob Duncan, died on June 17 at age 82. Her husband, Robert N. Sweeney, who died in 1992, was the port agent of the Marine Firemen’s Union. She was born as Erna Jane Lindsay on Aug. 20, 1924 in Portland and graduated from Commerce High School, which was later renamed Cleveland. She and her husband were married in 1944. A MEMORIAL SERVICE was conducted at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church in Gresham on June 23. Survivors include her sons, Richard and Michael; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Memorial contributions can be made to the church. Bateman Carroll Funeral Home handled arrangements. ★★★ FRANK T. JOHNS is another unionist whose story is told in the new book, “The Portland Red Guide: Sites & Stories of Our Radical Past,” written by histo- rian Michael Munk. Of Johns, whose story has appeared in the past in the Labor Press, Munk writes: “PORTLAND’S ONLY presidential candidate, Frank T. Johns, was the nom- inee of the Socialist Labor Party in 1924 and 1928. He was a member of the Car- penters Union Local 226, which merged into today’s Local 247... Johns received about 1,000 votes in Oregon and 36,000 nationwide in 1924. On May 20, 1928, only weeks after his nomination, he died in the middle of a campaign speech on the banks of the Deschutes River in Bend. As the private memorial erected in 1970 re- lates, Johns dove into the river in a vain attempt to save a drowning boy and drowned in the effort. His Carpenters Union declared that their brother ‘had devoted his life to the working class’ and died a hero, but noted that the majority of his union’s members did not agree with his political theories.’ ” Johns succeeded union leader Eugene Debs of Terrae Haute, Indiana, as the presidential nominee of the Socialist Labor Party. Debs had run five times. He was the leader of a railroad workers union and was one of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World. JULY 20, 2007 Labor planning ballot measure strategy to counter Sizemore By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor Several Oregon labor organizations are already planning ballot measure strategy for the November 2008 elec- tion. In part, that’s because they don’t have a choice: Frequent union foe Bill Sizemore, despite a 2002 jury finding of fraud and racketeering, is more ac- tive than he’s been for years. But unions will also consider a proactive strategy — what initiatives can organ- ized labor help get on the ballot to move the agenda forward for working people? On July 10, the Oregon AFL-CIO and several of the state’s larger, more politically active unions (including Change to Win’s Service Employees International Union) met with a hand- ful of big progressive groups to confer over ballot measure plans. Our Ore- gon, a group that’s tracking ballot measure activity, reported that Size- more has been busy circulating seven measures. His ballot initiative com- pany, Democracy Direct, is also circu- lating three crime-related ballot meas- ures sponsored by 2002 Republican gubernatorial nominee Kevin Mannix, plus two measures sponsored by Russ Walker, vice chairman of the Oregon Republican Party. On June 26, Sizemore turned in to the secretary of state’s office about 120,000 signatures each on two of his measures. One would create an unlim- ited state income tax deduction for federal personal income taxes paid; the other would prohibit teaching pub- lic school students in a language other than English for more than two years. Other actively circulating Sizemore measures include: • Banning political candidate con- tributions by public employee unions — such contributions would be prose- cuted as felony bribery; • Requiring that public school teacher pay raises and job security be based on performance, not seniority; • Prohibiting public employers from facilitating union dues payments to public employee unions that make political contributions; • Requiring that judges not be la- beled “incumbent” on the ballot if they were appointed; and • Allowing property owners to make up to $35,000 of improvements without having to obtain a building permit. A 2000 union lawsuit revealed that Sizemore’s ballot measures were mo- tivated in part by a desire to tie up union money. Many of the current crop of proposals seem aimed to do that as well. Voters have rejected sev- eral of them before, like the federal tax deduction measure, which went down 55-45 percent in 2000. But get- ting them back on the ballot will push unions to spend money again to defeat them. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS “Voters don’t like his ideas, as a rule,” said Patty Wentz, Our Oregon communications director (and former Oregon AFL-CIO communications di- rector.) “They reject his proposals. But it’s the only business at which he’s ever been successful.” In January, Sizemore told The Ore- gonian that 2008 will be the most in- teresting initiative year in 20 years. “Bill Sizemore is back in action, and that can only mean bad things for Oregonians,” said Arthur Towers, po- litical director of SEIU Local 503. “Working families have a lot to be concerned about with the ballot.” For its part, Local 503 is weighing whether to go forward with a ballot measure to prevent hospital price gouging of the uninsured. A bill to re- quire hospitals to charge uninsured pa- tients no more than their best rate to insurers failed to pass the Legislature this year. So SEIU filed it as an initia- tive the day before the Legislature ad- journed. It hasn’t yet been approved to circulate. The measure’s chief peti- tioner is Verna Porter, president of Oregon Alliance for Retired Ameri- cans, a union retirees group affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Another measure that might get union support was filed in April by Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner and State Rep. Diane Rosenbaum, a longtime union political leader. Their measure would require overtime pay after eight hours of work, except in workplaces that have an alternative regular 40-hour-a-week schedule, like four 10-hour days a week. Gardner said he planned to test the waters in the coming weeks to see if there is or- ganizational support for getting the measure on the ballot. And the Oregon AFL-CIO is con- sidering four ideas that could be filed as ballot initiatives: • A declaration that corporations are not people. That may sound like declaring that the moon isn’t made of green cheese, except that courts have ruled corporations are people in the sense of having rights like free speech and so forth. “It’d be really something to see the opposing campaign try to convince people to go against their gut instinct on that one,” said Oregon AFL-CIO Campaign/Political Direc- tor Duke Shepard. • Protecting the minimum wage. Oregon voters passed a 2002 initiative that increases the minimum wage an- nually for inflation, but since then, some business groups have tried to get the Legislature to create a sub-mini- mum wage for certain kinds of work- ers, like tipped employees. They’d be stopped in their tracks by a measure to require that any changes to the mini- mum wage law get a three-fifths vote in the Legislature. And that would give the right-wing a taste of their own “super-majority” medicine, Shepard said, referring to current super-major- ity requirements that hamstring any legislative proposals to raise revenue. • Defending the freedom to nego- tiate. From time to time, union oppo- nents like Sizemore get behind ballot measures to make Oregon a so-called “right-to-work” state, where it would be illegal for employers sign a union contract requiring employees to pay union dues to maintain employment. Of the 22 states that have such a law, none has a strong labor movement. To halt any future efforts to make Oregon a right-to-work state, the Oregon AFL-CIO is considering a constitu- tional amendment to say that the sub- jects of collective bargaining can’t be limited in that way. • Stopping unemployment insur- ance from being used for anything else. This would be a way to prevent the return of Jobs Plus. Jobs Plus, a project dear to the heart of Dick Wendt — Sizemore’s latest financial backer — was a pilot program that gave unemployment insurance funds to employers who hired unemployed people. Unions called it corporate welfare — and an outrageous misuse of funds intended for workers. The program died in June 2005 after the Legislature failed to reauthorize it. But Wendt would like to see it return. CWA promotes union discount for AT&T wireless Members of AFL-CIO unions can receive a 10 percent discount on AT&T wireless phone service, along with a $50 savings on new phones and accessories when they sign up for service through Oct. 31, 2007. AT&T (formerly Cingular) is the only wireless company that is 100 percent union, with 40,000 members of Communications Workers of America (CWA) under contract. “For union families, the choice in wireless is clear,” said CWA Presi- dent Larry Cohen. “And now mem- bers can take advantage of these spe- cial savings while supporting their fellow union members at AT&T.” The 10 percent discount is avail- able off the regular monthly rate for any AT&T individual or family plan. Current customers will need to re- new their contracts for two years to be eligible. The offer is only available at AT&T-owned retail stories, not by phone or online. When signing up or renewing service, give the store clerk the following AT&T Union Discount FAN number: 00113662. For information on AT&T store locations, and to download a coupon to take to the store with the FAN in- formation, go to www.unionplus.org and click on Union-Made Savings. PAGE 11
