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. The national labor
movement has been pushing Congress
to pass a similar law to cover private-
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SEPTEMBER 21, 2007
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 9