Portland City Council takes baby steps toward health
care mandate for construction workers on city jobs
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
In a surprise culmination to a year
and a half of on-again, off-again meet-
ings with several union leaders, Port-
land City Commissioner Sam Adams
introduced a council resolution Aug.
22 that was almost nothing like what
had been discussed.
Operating Engineers Local 701
Stationary Coordinator Cherry Harris
and Laborers organizer Ben Nelson
had been pushing Adams and his aides
to introduce a “pay or play” ordinance
that would require construction con-
tractors that do business with the city
to pay into a city fund for uninsured
construction workers if they didn’t
provide family health insurance to
their employees.
But the resolution Adams intro-
duced Aug. 22 at a packed special
evening council session was an open-
ended commitment to an affordable
Health Care Strategy, “so that employ-
ers have more options and can better
offer health care to their employees
and their families.” In other words, the
city would do something to provide
low-cost insurance to its contractors,
on a voluntary basis.
As a result, the packed, two-hour
hearing had an air of unreality as over
a dozen people seemingly testified
about an ordinance that wasn’t the one
being introduced.
Operating Engineers Local 701 Stationary Coordinator Cherry Harris
testifies at Portland City Council as Father Chuck Leinert of St. Andrews
Catholic Church looks on.
The “pay or play” idea, which
backers referred to as the “Community
Health and Best Value Ordinance,” had
the support of Operating Engineers,
Laborers, Carpenters, and Service Em-
ployees, and the community coalition
they belong to — the Metropolitan Al-
liance for Common Good (MACG).
At MACG’s request, City Council
scheduled the hearing in the evening
so working people could attend, and
...Building Trades convention
(From Page 2)
state; and Ben Westlund, who likely will
leave the Senate to run for state treas-
urer. Walker was actively campaigning,
while Westlund said he would make an
official announcement in mid-Septem-
ber.
“I’m made of pure grit,” Walker said,
noting that if elected secretary of state
she would focus more attention on the
Audits Division. “I love getting the bad
guys. Audits are right up my alley,” she
said.
In general business, Clif Davis, the
newly-elected business manager of
Electrical Workers Local 48. was elected
to the Executive Board of the Oregon
State Building Trades Council.
The Council gave a $500 scholarship
to Aurora VanGarde of Gresham. Au-
rora, the daughter of Richard VanGarde
of Plumbers and Fitters Local 290, will
attend Oregon State University.
A $750 scholarship funded by Fer-
guson Wellman Capital Management
was presented to Brain Ratliff, the son
of IBEW Local 48 member Chris Ratliff
of Hood River. Brian is a sophomore at
Oregon State.
Winners are selected by the governor
based on an application and short essay.
HEMORRHOIDS
The Non-Surgical Treatment
We specialize in the non-surgical treatment of hemorrhoids. For over 40
years people throughout the region have turned to the Sandy Blvd. Clinic for
fast and effective relief. For more information, FREE consultation and/or a
FREE informative booklet call:
Write or call for
a FREE
information
booklet and/or a
FREE
consultation.
PAGE 8
(503) 232-7609
THE SANDY BLVD. RECTAL
CLINIC PORTLAND
Steven G. Cranford, DC, ND
FORMERLY THE BEAL-OLIVER CLINIC
CHIROPRACTIC/NATUROPATHIC PHYSICIANS
2026 NE SANDY BLVD., PORTLAND, OR 97232
Insurance
accepted/pre
authorization
required.
council chambers filled up to the sec-
ond floor gallery with supporters.
Opponents also testified at the hear-
ing, however, including a representa-
tive of Associated General Contractors
and several members of the National
Association of Minority Contractors
(NAMCO).
Adams introduced the issue, hold-
ing up a copy of that day’s Oregonian
newspaper, with a front page headline
reporting that the number of uninsured
Oregonians was way up. Adams said
the plight of the uninsured hit home
with him personally; uninsured as a
young man, he had an appendicitis
that led to personal bankruptcy.
“We’ve been working on this ever
since Cherry Harris and I sat down to
breakfast two years ago,” Adams re-
counted at the hearing. “Cherry said,
‘Why the heck don’t you do some-
thing about health care?’ I said, ‘Well,
I’ll try.’”
Adams assigned several staff mem-
bers to meet with Harris and Nelson
and their MACG allies. They worked
for months on several versions of the
“pay or play” concept, which is in-
tended both to make sure contracted
workers are insured and to prevent
“low-road” employers from outcompet-
ing employers that provide insurance.
But the week before the scheduled
hearing, Adams got pressure from
contractors, and in behind-the-scenes
meetings, presented Harris and Nelson
with an entirely different proposal,
crafted by André Baugh, a consultant
to minority contractors. That proposal
focused on how the city could help
contractors afford insurance, rather
than requiring them to do so. The reso-
lution that was introduced was a re-
worked version of that proposal.
Still, witnesses at the hearing were
talking about the “best value ordi-
nance” that had been scuttled. Several
testified about how union health bene-
fits had saved their lives and homes.
“I am a cancer survivor,” said Stuart
Fishman, a member of United Food
and Commercial Workers Local 555,
“and I know that without union health
coverage, I would have lost my house
and everything else.”
James Posey, president of the Ore-
gon chapter of NAMCO, spoke
against the “best value” proposal.
“This is not about health care,” Posey
said. “This about empowering unions.”
Mayor Tom Potter and Commis-
sioner Dan Saltzman were away on
vacation. Adams’ resolution passed
that night, 3-0, with support from
Commissioners Randy Leonard, and
Erik Sten.
It chiefly sets up further meetings
on the subject. Under the resolution,
the City will hire a health care consult-
ant to gather information on uninsured
contractors and workers. The consult-
ant will present alternatives by Feb. 1,
2008 to an 11-person committee
stacked heavily against the unions that
originated the “pay or play” proposal
that got the discussion going to begin
with. That committee will have only
one representative from labor, and one
from MACG, plus others, including
AGC, NAMCO, the Small Business
Advisory Council, the Oregon Associ-
ation of Hospitals and Health Systems,
Portland Development Commission,
Portland Bureau of Purchasing, the
City attorney, and the Multnomah
County Health Department
The committee is tasked with mak-
ing a recommendation to City Council
by March 1, 2008, followed by a series
of town hall meetings.
Panel will measure use of academic part-timers
American Federation of Teachers-Oregon counted a
small victory Aug. 28 in its years-long campaign against
overuse of part-time college faculty.
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed an executive
order creating a “Postsecondary Quality Education Com-
mission” that will try to answer the question: “What level of
funding would be needed for Oregon to have a high-qual-
ity state college and university system?”
In the last decade, higher education has been the State of
Oregon’s ugly stepchild, last in line for dinner. Tuition has
risen to the point that many young Oregonians can’t afford
to attend public colleges.
On the new commission’s task list is something AFT
has sought in Salem since at least 1999 — a study of just
how much universities and community colleges use part-
time faculty. Anecdotally, AFT has seen a steady shift away
from permanent full-time tenure-track faculty and toward
term-to-term and part-time low-wage and low-benefit in-
structors.
And that harms students, not just AFT members, says
Rob Wagner, AFT-Oregon Director of Political and Leg-
islative Affairs. The union pushed a bill this year in the Ore-
gon Legislature that would have phased in a 25 percent cap
on the use of part-timers and required that part-timers get
pro-rated pay and benefits and first crack at full-time posi-
tions. But the bill didn’t go anywhere.
Among other things, the new commission will study the
impact of the use of part-time faculty and graduate student
employees on program quality and student success. If it
completes its study in time for the Legislature’s 2009 ses-
sion, AFT might have hard numbers to back up its argu-
ments to lawmakers.
Members of the commission hadn’t been named as of
press time.
Southgate Mobile & RV Park
7911 SE 82nd Ave.
Portland, Oregon
Spaces Available up to 35’
Gradine Storms
503-771-5262
Broadway Floral
Real Estate Broker
Member of CWA
Local 7901
for the BEST flowers call
503-288-5537
1638 NE Broadway, Portland
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
E-Mail: gstorms@equitygroup.com
www.equitygroup.com/gstorms
7886 SE 13th Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97202
Direct: 503-495-4932
Branch: 503-233-8883
Each Office Independently Owned and Operated
SEPTEMBER 7, 2007