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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2008)
...Group questions signature-gathering methods (From Page 1) and Sizemore $250 each. Fines of $250 are a slap on the wrist, said Our Oregon Executive Director Kevin Looper, and are little deterrent. “I’m immensely frustrated that we’re facing as many ballot measures as we are, with really very little evidence that signatures have been collected within the intent of the law,” Looper said. Staff at Our Oregon say the secretary of state’s 15-person Elections Division follows statutes, rules, and procedures to the letter, but seems to work on the Q presumption that signatures are valid. Here’s how the process works. This year, 92,769 valid signatures are re- quired to qualify a statutory measure, and 110,358 for a constitutional meas- ure.When the initiatives’ chief petition- ers think they have enough signatures to get on the ballot, they deliver boxes con- taining signed petition sheets to the Sec- retary of State’s office in Salem. Elec- tions Division staff move quickly through the petition sheets, counting the signatures and looking to see if basic rules have been complied with, like whether someone signed the sheet Quest Investment Management, Inc. • Serving Multi-Employer Multi-Employer Serving Trusts Twenty Years Trusts for for Over Twenty Years } Cam Johnson Cam Johnson Adrian Hamilton Adrian Hamilton Doug Goebel Goebel Doug Garth Nisbet Greg Sherwood Greg Sherwood Monte Johnson Monte Johnson Bill Zenk Zenk Bill Pat Worley One SW SW Columbia St., Suite 1100, Portland, OR 97258 One 1100 Portland, 503-221-0158 503-221-0158 www.QuestInvestment.com www.QuestInvestment.com Zachary Zabinsky • Social Security • SSI - Disability Claims Personal Attention To Every Case Working For Disability Rights Since 1983 NO FEE WITHOUT RECOVERY 621 SW Morrison, Portland K ramers/metro mailing service 3201 N.W. YEON PORTLAND, OREGON 97210 (503) 274-1638 FAX (503) 227-1245 THE ONLY UNION MAILER IN OREGON Visit our Web site at www.kramersmailing.com MEMBERS OF TEAMSTERS LOCAL 223 — Eric Brending, Owner — PAGE 8 “When the process is abused like it swearing they witnessed all the signa- tures. Then staff randomly select 1,000 has been in the past, especially with Bill signatures, and send copies of the sheets Sizemore, the voters of Oregon begin to to the 36 county elections offices. For question the process — and the job each signature, county elections clerks some of our state elected officials are see if there’s a voter registration card on doing,” said Oregon Education Associ- ation President file, and compare the Larry Wolf, who signature to the one on met with Bradbury. the card. Signatures “I would like to that don’t match don’t do more,” Bradbury count toward qualify- told the NW Labor ing the measure. If the Press. “I’m not go- measure fails to qual- ing to say we’ve ify based on that sam- done everything we ple, a second random could do.” sample is generated in Bradbury said which 5 percent of the the Legislature has- total signatures are n’t given his office checked. the resources to po- But what if signa- lice the initiative tures in the samples process. His office match the ones on file asked the Legisla- because they were ture to fund an in- forged? Maybe a reg- vestigator in 2003 istered voter signed and 2005, but not in one petition, and then 2007, when Democ- paid signature gather- BILL SIZEMORE rats controlled both ers copied the signa- chambers. ture onto other petition As of now, no part of the initiative sheets. Workers in Sizemore’s organizations certification process is designed to de- did just that on several 2000 ballot tect signature forgery. There are no measures, as revealed by a a civil law- plans to look for fraud or forgery in the suit filed by the Oregon Education As- current batch of 1.2 million initiative sociation and American Federation of signatures that are in boxes in the office Teachers-Oregon. A forensic signature basement. No government agency con- analyst demonstrated that Sizemore em- tacts voters to see if they signed peti- ployees forged signatures, and the jury tions. The secretary of state has one staff found Sizemore’s groups guilty of en- person assigned to investigate initiative gaging in a pattern of criminal activity. abuse, and he’s not looking for forgery. In 2002, the union-supported watch- He’s doing criminal background checks dog group Voter Education Project on paid circulators and asking paid peti- mailed copies of turned-in petitions to tioners to show a badge they’re required over 15,000 individuals whose signa- to carry. That requirement is one of several tures were selected for the random sam- ples, asking them if they had signed the reforms contained in the Initiative Re- enclosed petitions — 198 wrote back form and Modernization Act, a law the saying they had not. The project’s ef- Legislature passed last year to help forts led to the convictions of several crack down on lawlessness in the initia- tive industry. signature gatherers. The new law gives the secretary of Our Oregon, the political successor to the Voter Education Project, keeps state the right to demand payroll records tabs on signature gathering efforts, and to prove initiative campaigns aren’t pay- tries to observe election workers when ing by the signature. Bradbury was au- they validate petitions. This year Our thorized to request payroll records when Oregon staff say they’re seeing some the law took effect in July, but didn’t ask disturbing things. Whole sheets of sig- for the records until Jan. 2. “The goal was to give them enough natures have all the address information filled out in the same handwriting. In time to have records to turn in,” said some cases the filled-out information Scott Moore, spokesperson for the sec- doesn’t appear to be same handwriting retary of state. A number of initiative campaigns as the person who swears on the bottom of the sheet they are the circulator. On failed to produce the requested records, quite a few petition sheets, voter infor- so on Jan. 22 and 23, the Secretary of mation appears to have been written us- State’s office applied the one sanction it ing sheets of carbon paper. On one oc- has under the law: It prohibited the cam- casion, an Our Oregon observer pointed paigns from gathering more signatures out sheets on which the signatures of until they comply. The prohibition may one prolific circulator were obvious for- be meaningless for some initiative cam- geries. These particular sheets were paigns, because they’ve already turned pulled by elections workers, but there in enough signatures to qualify. For sev- eral others, failure to comply may keep was no investigation. Mindful of the level of initiative them off the ballot. Come this fall, a lot of union re- fraud and abuse exposed in the past, union leaders have met with Secretary sources will ride on which ones make it of State Bill Bradbury several times in to the ballot and which ones don’t. The Secretary of State’s office has the last year to plead for more vigorous until Aug. 2 to certify measures for this enforcement. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS Steelworkers’ deal at plant may unravel McMINNVILLE — Members of the bargaining team for United Steel- workers Local 8378 thought they had a deal April 30 with Schnitzer Steel Industries, owner of Cascade Steel Rolling Mills. But as this issue went to press, it appeared to have unrav- eled. The previous contract, which had been extended day by day, expired April 28. Cascade announced it would stop collecting union dues as of May 4 and start advertising for re- placement workers — a move the union interpreted as a provocation. But then the two sides reached a ten- tative agreement after an all-night session with a federal mediator. In the tentative agreement, man- agement backed off from its demand for a wage freeze, and union bargain- ers agreed to accept annual increases of 3.5 percent over the four-year con- tract as part of a package deal in which both sides made concessions on other issues. Local 8378 President Joe Munger- said the 3.5 percent wage offer was the best the union had seen in 30- some years, but added that some members weren’t happy with it. Cas- cade Steel Rolling Mills is highly profitable right now, and the stock of its parent company, Schnitzer Steel Industries, is up to $95 a share, dou- ble what it was a year ago. Besides the annual wage hike, the deal increased starting pay, sick pay, and life insurance; committed the company to use all existing employ- ees before contracting out for mainte- nance, and promised to bring contrac- tors in-house if they continue for an extended time; improved safety train- ing and the functioning of the joint la- bor management safety committee; extended the company’s production bonus to workers on light-duty or who work less than full time because of military obligations; and gave the option of automatic payroll deduction to members who want to contribute to the union’s political action fund. The union didn’t get the increase in the boot allowance it had sought, and gave up its proposal that the con- tract continue if the mill is sold. The union announced April 30 it would recommend the deal to the lo- cal’s 400-plus members and set a rati- fication vote for May 9. But shortly before the vote, management said it hadn’t agreed on one item the union thought it had agreed to. The vote was canceled, and the two sides scheduled a meeting May 12 to see if they could resolve the disagreement. At the meeting, management stuck to its ver- sion of the offer. A new date of May 15 was set for members to vote on management’s last offer; this time, the union would be recommending a “no” vote. The results of the vote weren’t known as of press time. MAY 16, 2008
