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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2007)
Proposed by Portland City Council Labor Council opposes tax-funded day labor center The Northwest Oregon Labor Council took action Aug. 27 opposing a proposed day labor center that is be- ing subsidized by the City of Portland. The action came at the request of Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 and has backing from the Columbia-Pa- cific Building and Construction Trades Council. The labor organizations sent letters to Mayor Tom Potter stating their dis- pleasure. “It’s the facility we’re opposing, not the day workers,” emphasized Judy O’Connor, executive secretary-treas- urer of the Labor Council. John Endicott, business manager of Local 290, said a city-financed day la- bor facility provides encouragement for day laborers. “Currently, there is an incredibly well-honed system in place to coordi- nate workers, provide them with job opportunities, negotiate health care, and ensure a family wage. It’s called organized labor,” Endicott said. Washington BCTC supports single-payer health care legislation The Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council en- dorsed a bill in Congress that would create a single-payer health care sys- tem in the United States. House Resolution 676, introduced by U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), has 77 co-sponsors in Congress and has been endorsed by 312 union or- ganizations in 44 states, including 22 state labor federations (including the Washington State Labor Council) and 86 central labor councils. Delegates representing 81 con- struction union locals passed a resolu- tion at the 51st annual convention of the Washington Building Trades Council stating that HR 676 is “…the best means to provide national health care for all by expanding and improv- ing the current Medicare system.” The Washington State Building Trades Council is the third state build- Q ing trades council to endorse HR 676. Previously, state councils in Maine and Texas endorsed the legislation. HR 676 would institute a single- payer health care system in the U.S. by expanding a greatly improved Medicare system to every resident. HR 676 would cover every person in the U.S. for all necessary medical care, including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emer- gency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, reha- bilitation, vision care, chiropractic and long-term care. Passage of HR 676 would end de- ductibles and co-payments and, ac- cording to Conyers, would save bil- lions of dollars annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs. John Mohlis, executive secretary- treasurer of the Columbia-Pacific Building Trades Council, said having a day labor facility likely would do noth- ing to alleviate the real problem, which is employers exploiting workers for cheap labor. “If the city wants to do something, maybe it should look at the people hiring day laborers,” he said. Union officials also are miffed at their exclusion from a committee com- prised of self-identified stakeholders such as day laborers, Hispanic organi- zations, businesses, churches and neighborhood groups. “It was an oversight not to reach out to labor,” said Kevin Easton of the mayor’s office. Potter and the City Council set aside a $200,000 grant as part of the Safe Access For Everyone (SAFE) public safety initiative. The money will be used as “seed money” to help find and secure a location for a day labor center and to contract with a non-profit organization to operate it. Easton said the city hopes the creation of a hiring center will spur more investment from the private and public sectors. Potter has hired a consultant for $20,000 to act as project manager. A request for proposal to operate the cen- ter will be release Oct. 9. Proposals are due back Oct. 26. The goal is to have a new day labor center operational by January 2008. A location has yet to be secured, but Easton said the committee is ac- tively looking at available sites in the city that are currently up for lease or purchase, and possibly space that would be donated. The mayor and City Council main- tain that a day worker hiring site will offer a number of solutions to those af- fected: • Small businesses benefit from no longer having workers congregate on streets or impede business traffic. • Law enforcement officials believe a monitored day worker site separates criminals who prey on day workers from those who are earnestly seeking work. • A safe and sanitary day worker site will ease traffic congestion in the areas where workers congregate. • The wages paid to day workers di- minish their need to tap social services networks. Currently, day laborers search for work on street corners along SE 6th Avenue near East Burnside and SE Ankeny Street. Employers and home- owners looking for workers drive through and pick up whomever they need. The city, Easton said, estimates the day worker population to be 80 to 120 people, depending on the season, Since the upheaval, the mayor’s of- fice has reached out to union officials and several meetings have been held with other stakeholders to try to reach some common ground. “At least we have a seat at the table,” said John Kirkpatrick, a busi- ness representative of Painters District Council 5, who attended a meeting on Sept. 5. “We can at least keep an eye on what’s happening.” The last general meeting of stake- holders was Sept. 19, after this issue of the NW Labor Press went to press. Firefighters use new card-check law to secure union NEWPORT — In August, a group of eight employees at Newport Fire & Rescue became the first in Oregon to make use of a new state law that re- quires public employers to recognize a union based on “card check.” Once the Oregon Employment Re- lations Board determines the appropri- ate definition of the bargaining unit, a new union, the Newport Professional Fire Fighters Association, will be rec- ognized. The group would be an affili- ate of the International Association of Fire Fighters and its Oregon affiliate, the Oregon State Fire Fighters Council. The new law, passed by the Oregon Legislature earlier this year, makes it easier for public employees to union- ize; when a majority of workers in a given workplace sign that they want to belong to a union, that union gets auto- matic recognition. 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