...Oregon Legislature fails
to pass EFCA resolution
(From Page 12)
ity.
To pass, EFCA will need 60 sup-
porters in the Senate — nine more than
it had this year.
The vote split very strongly along
party lines — Democrats voted for the
bill, Republicans against. In the House,
out of 201 Republicans, just 13 voted
in favor of the bill, and out of 233 De-
mocrats, just two voted against it. In
the Senate, just one member voted out-
side party lines — Pennsylvania Re-
publican Arlen Specter. Oregon’s Gor-
don Smith was a “no” vote, while Ron
Wyden and Washington’s Maria
Cantwell and Patty Murray were “yes”
votes.
Smith said it would be very tough to
get nine more Senate Democrats
elected next year, but it’s possible they
could pick up five or six seats, and the
AFL-CIO would continue to work on
Republican senators to support the bill.
At least 18 state governors have
signed a letter in support of EFCA, in-
cluding Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski
and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire.
So have over 1,350 state and local
elected officials. And 55 cities, coun-
ties and state legislatures have voted
resolutions of support.
Oregon’s Legislature isn’t yet one
of them. Democrats control the Oregon
House 31 to 29, and House leaders
were able to pass three “right to organ-
ize” bills. But a non-binding resolution
in support of EFCA couldn’t find ma-
jority support. After it became clear in
behind-the-scenes negotiations that at
least two Democrats would vote
against it, backers withdrew the bill
from consideration on the House floor.
Portland Democrat Diane Rosenbaum
said she intends to bring it up again in a
future legislative session.
Finally, for EFCA to become law, it
will need a president to sign it. All
seven Democratic presidential candi-
dates say they would sign EFCA. None
of the Republican candidates have
pledged to sign the bill.
But union support won’t come just
because a candidate checked a box on
a questionnaire, says the AFL-CIO’s
Smith. “We’re looking to see which
candidate is really going to push this
bill.”
“All of them talk about how the
middle class is waning and we need to
strengthen the middle class. In our
view, unions are how you do that.”
Swanson, Thomas &Coon
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Organized Labor fought to give us...
La b or D a y
...a national holiday honoring the labors of Americans.
From the Officers & Members of UA Local 290
Plumbers - Steamfitters - Marinefitters
Serving all phases of the piping industry
John Endicott — B US . M GR ./F INANCIAL S EC -T REAS .
Mike Anderson — A SST . B USINESS M ANAGER
Dan Bailey — A GENT /O RGANIZER /A SST . C OORD .
Sid Berg — A GENT /O RGANIZER
Lou Christian — A GENT
Donald Kool — O RGANIZER
Mike Mehrens — D ISPATCHER
Alan Mills — A GENT /O RGANIZER /A SST . C OORD .
Jerry Moss — A GENT
Ron Murray — A GENT
Mike O’Rourke — A GENT /O RGANIZER
Mark Stenberg — A GENT /O RGANIZER
Al Shropshire — A GENT /O RGANIZER
Herman Stonebraker — A GENT
AUGUST 17, 2007
Bob Kimes — T RAINING C OORDINATOR
Mike Jurkiewicz — W ELDING C OORDINATOR
Mike Pollock — A SST . T RAINING C OORDINATOR
Mike Wynne — A SST . T RAINING C OORDINATOR
Bill Hargrave — P RESIDENT
Robert Porter — V ICE P RESIDENT
Bill Kelly — R ECORDING S ECRETARY
Ryan McShannon — I NSIDE G UARD
E xe c ut i ve Bo ar d
Gary Barnes
Dennis Mask
Marty Mehrens
Lyman Warnock
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Fi na n ce Co m m it t e e
Dave Hauth, Rick Hindman, Chris McNicholas
E x am in i ng Bo a r d
Pete Bakker, Frank Boyle
Jeff Byram, Harlan Eastman
Joe Holcomb, Jeff McGillivray
James Manzella Jr., Steven Nitsch,
Mike Pollock, Barry Sather
PAGE 13