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Volume 109
Number 16
August 15, 2008
Portland, Oregon
State of the unions
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Labor Day may be the one occasion in the course of a
year when the commercial media remember the union
movement. For union-owned media like the Labor Press,
it’s an annual opening to take a step back and ask how
workers — and the labor movement — are doing.
University of Oregon professor Bob Bussel, director of
the Labor Education & Research Center (LERC), thinks
evidence has continued to mount for the existence of what
presidential candidate John Edwards called “two Ameri-
cas.” In other words, the gap between rich and poor seems
to be accelerating.
That’s borne out by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI),
a Washington, D.C.,-based think-tank. Once every two
years, EPI puts out a thick report entitled “The State of
Working America.” The next one is due to be released La-
bor Day.
N UMBERS TELL PART OF THE STORY
EPI reports that the business cycle that began in 2001
and ended in 2007 looks to be the first ever recorded in
which America’s middle-class families ended the cycle
with less real (that is, inflation-adjusted) income than they
had at the beginning. Productivity rose 18 percent during
that time, but the gains weren’t evenly shared. Incomes
rose for the top 10 percent, but stagnated for the rest.
This year, with a new recession beginning, economic
stats looked bleaker. Unemployment rose, reaching 6.0 per-
cent of the workforce in July. And as of June, nearly a fifth
of the unemployed had been out of work for at least half a
year.
In the last 12 months, 383,000 manufacturing jobs have
been lost. The retail trade has lost 211,000 jobs since peak-
ing in March 2007. And the construction sector has shed
557,000 jobs since its September 2006 employment peak,
with nearly three-quarters of that in the last eight months.
[One bright spot is health care, which has added 368,000
jobs over the past 12 months.]
Joblessness is a problem for the 9.4 million unemployed
workers, but also for 145.8 million workers who remain
employed. As EPI points out, when jobs are scarce, em-
ployees have little leverage to bargain for better wages and
(Turn to Page 10)
Emergency rule change in workers’ comp
medical fees could harm injured workers
SALEM — Union officials and
some health care groups believe that a
temporary emergency rule issued last
month by the Oregon Workers’ Com-
pensation Division creates “sweeping
changes” to the system that could
drive out some medical providers.
WCD Administrator John Shilts
ruled July 7 that workers’ comp insur-
ance companies can reimburse doc-
tors, physical therapists, hospitals and
others who are treating injured work-
ers at fees those medical providers
have discounted in order to be part of a
preferred provider organization (PPO)
network. PPOs are popular in the pri-
vate sector because in exchange for the
discounted fees, the network will di-
rect patients to their practices.
Prior to the emergency order, a
workers’ comp insurer paid medical
bills in one of three ways: at the
provider’s normal fee; at the amount
set by law under the Oregon medical
fee schedule (if it is less than the nor-
mal fee); or at the rate contracted with
a provider enrolled in a state-certified
managed care organization (MCO).
MCO rates typically are lower than
both the medical fee schedule and the
provider’s normal rate. MCOs were al-
lowed into Oregon’s workers’ comp
system as part of a controversial major
overhaul in 1990. The state regulates
MCOs to ensure that injured workers
are getting good care. PPOs are not
regulated.
“PPOs exist solely to reduce fees
paid to providers,” said Diana Godwin,
an attorney representing physical ther-
apists.
Only four MCOs are certified to
serve injured workers. They are Provi-
dence MCO, Kaiser Foundation, Ore-
gon Health Systems Inc., and Care-
Mark Comp, which is owned by
Legacy Health and Adventist Medical
Center.
Workers whose employers are en-
rolled in one of these MCOs are not
impacted by the new rule. Still, union
officials believe that if the emergency
rule is made permanent it will entice
employers to leave MCO insurers in
search of cheaper premiums through
PPO networks, thus forcing medical
providers out of the workers’ comp
system.
“Injured workers already have a
tough enough time finding doctors
who will treat them,” said Bob Ship-
rack, executive secretary of the Oregon
State Building and Construction
Trades Council, and one of the
longest-serving members on the Ore-
gon Workers’ Compensation Divi-
sion’s Management-Labor Advisory
Council. MLAC is comprised of five
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Even play looks like work
Josh Rinard, a journeyman lineman for Portland General Electric
and a member of IBEW Local 125, tests his skills in the “hurt man
rescue” at the 15th annual Pacific Northwest Lineman’s Rodeo July
26 at PGE Linneman Station in Gresham. Competition pits
journey-level and apprentice utility linemen and women from
Oregon, Washington, Idaho and other western states in events such
as the “hurt man rescue” and pole climb (with a raw egg).
Contestants are timed and judged for safety, work practice, and
equipment handling. IBEW Locals 125 of Portland and 659 of
Medford, PGE, Pacific Power and Light, and Clark Public Utilities
sponsor the event. (Photo by Nancy Harper)
Have a Great Labor Day!