Inside
MEETING NOTICES
See
Page 4
Volume 109
Number 14
July 18, 2008
Portland, Oregon
A member of Office and Professional Employees #11
Vancouver cop reinstated after two years off the job
VANCOUVER, Wash. — Lt.
Doug Luse sees himself the “poster
boy” for organized labor.
A 20-year veteran of the Vancou-
ver Police Department, Lt. Luse was
suspended July 9, 2006, and fired
March 28, 2007, for alleged insubor-
dination in the field and for making
false statements during an internal af-
fairs investigation.
He and his union — Office and
Professional Employees Local 11—
fought the discharge, and last month
arbitrator Michael H. Beck of Seattle
reinstated Luse with full back pay and
benefits. The union’s collective bar-
gaining agreement with the employer
stipulates that the losing party pays
for all arbitrator fees and expenses. In
this case, it was almost $25,000.
Luse returned to work July 7.
“It was a hugely expensive fight,
but it clearly was the right thing to
do,” said Mike Richards, executive
secretary of Local 11. “We prevailed
because we were right.”
Luse, 44, has lived in Vancouver
most of his life. Married with three
daughters, he holds a bachelor’s de-
gree in law and justice from Central
Washington College. He joined the
Vancouver Police Department as a
street cop in 1987 and has worked his
way up the chain of command —
from corporal to sergeant and finally
to lieutenant.
He has served as president of the
Vancouver Police Officers Guild and
is active at Local 11.
During his career he has received
numerous letters of recognition and
praise. He was reprimanded once —
for taking part in the investigation in
the theft of his own checkbook when
he was told not to.
Luse didn’t want to point any fin-
gers in his firing, but arbitrator Beck
in his findings released June 21, 2008,
noted that “the investigation (of Luse)
suffered from bias, particularly that of
Over 1,500 pages of transcripts and exhibits from an arbitration case rests
between Vancouver police officer and grievant Lt. Doug Luse (right) and
Mike Richards, executive secretary of OPEIU Local 11. Luse was fired in
March 2007, but last month an arbitrator reinstated him with full back pay.
Assistant Chief (Mitch) Barker.”
Barker was appointed acting chief
in August 2006 following the resigna-
tion of Police Chief Brian Martinek.
Luse was fired while Barker was in
command.
In exonerating Luse of all charges,
Beck stated in his 53-page opinion
that the Vancouver Police Department
did not conduct a timely investigation
(from start to finish it took nine
months) and that the Department did
not meet the standard of “clear and
convincing evidence” to fire him.
Beck also noted that the investiga-
tion “was neither full nor fair, as wit-
nesses with relevant information were
not interviewed, police reports with
relevant information were not re-
viewed, and bias permeated the inves-
tigation.”
A portion of the case revolves
around an incident April 12, 2006, at
which Lt. Luse was in command of a
(Turn to Page 7)
Labor helps resuscitate debate on health care reform
If Democrat Barack Obama wins election this
year, the stage would be set for a major debate
on health care in 2009 and 2010. Democrats
would control the House, Senate and White
House, breaking the partisan deadlock that has
prevented serious reform.
On July 8, a coalition of 119 labor and civic
groups announced a campaign to make sure ma-
jor health reform is on the agenda. The group,
Health Care for America NOW, will spend $40
million on TV, print and online ads between now
and November, and deploy 100 organizers to 45
congressional swing districts. The group’s major
backers include the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the
National Education Association, Service Em-
ployees International Union, and United Food
and Commercial Workers, as well as
MoveOn.org.
Health Care for America NOW proposes that
Americans be given a choice: “A private insur-
ance plan, including keeping the insurance you
have if you like it, or a public insurance plan
without a private insurer middleman that guaran-
tees affordable coverage.”
Thus far, the ads target insurance companies.
The group doesn’t commit to any specific
proposal, but calls on the government to guaran-
tee quality affordable health care for everyone in
America.
Several existing health care reform proposals
could compete next year for support, including
one that Obama has outlined, and one being pro-
posed by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, (D-Oregon).
Both of those would move piecemeal toward
universal coverage, preserving the role of private
insurance companies in the health care system.
Wyden’s proposal would require individuals to
purchase private insurance. Obama’s proposal
would include a public insurance alternative that
individuals could buy into.
The proposal that may have the broadest sup-
port would do away with the insurance middle-
man altogether. Backed broadly by organized la-
bor, House Resolution 676 would improve
Medicare and expand it to cover all Americans,
thereby creating a “single payer” health care sys-
tem like those most other countries have.
HR 676 would set up the U.S. National
Health Insurance Program, which would provide
all individuals in United States free access to all
medically necessary care — including primary
care and prevention, prescription drugs, emer-
gency care, and mental health services. Patients
could choose their doctor. Only non-profit
providers could participate. It would be paid for
by a 3.3 percent payroll tax, plus an increase in
the personal income taxes of the top 5 percent of
income earners, plus a small tax on stock and
bond transactions, and by using existing sources
of government revenues for health care, such as
the 1.45 percent Medicare payroll tax. HR 676
contains many measures to contain health care
costs and, above all, would be expected to reduce
the cost of health care by eliminating the enor-
mous expense associated with billing and insur-
ance company profits and administrative costs.
But the bill also provides that the estimated
470,000 workers whose jobs could be eliminated
— clerical, administrative, and billing personnel
in insurance companies, doctors offices, hospi-
tals, nursing facilities — would be eligible to re-
ceive two years of unemployment benefits and
would have first priority for retraining and job
placement in the new system.
HR 676 is sponsored by Congressman John
Conyers, (D-Michigan), and it has 91 co-spon-
sors in the 435-member House. [From Oregon
and Washington, only Seattle Congressman Jim
McDermott is a co-sponsor.] Conyers, now in his
21st term, is one of Congress’ most senior mem-
bers, and chairs the House Judiciary Committee.
He has begun speaking about the bill on the
House floor outside of formal sessions, and plans
to campaign heavily for it next year.
Over 400 labor organizations in 48 states have
endorsed HR 676. Among them are 34 state la-
bor federations (including Oregon and Washing-
ton), 110 central labor councils, and nine interna-
tional unions — including the Machinists,
Plumbers and Fitters, Letter Carriers, and Long-
shore Workers.
Thus far, labor support has been mostly sym-
bolic, but the California Nurses Association,
which has been making a bid to become a na-
tional nurses organization, has made passing sin-
gle payer universal health care a top priority.
Filmmaker Michael Moore, whose film Sicko
documents the flaws of the U.S. health care sys-
tem, is also a big supporter of the bill.
Like Senator Wyden’s proposal, HR 676
would also relieve employers of the burden of
providing employee health coverage. That re-
sponsibility sometimes puts American compa-
nies at a disadvantage with foreign competitors,
which have government-funded universal health
care systems. HR 676 would mean an end to the
jointly-managed union-management health plans
(so-called Taft-Hartley trusts) that are the hall-
mark of many union contracts. But it could also
put unions in a position to bargain back some of
that employer contribution in the form of raises.
In a nationwide poll in April, 59 percent of
U.S. doctors said they support a “single payer”
plan that would effectively eliminate the role of
private insurers. That’s up from 49 percent in
2003.