Northwest labor press., September 19, 2008, Page 7, Image 7

SEPT. 19, 2008:NWLP
9/16/08
10:46 AM
Page 7
...Over a dozen unions endorse Merkley’s Senate campaign
(From Page 1)
the Oregon Senate in 1992 and be-
came Senate president in 1995. Dur-
ing his two terms in the State Senate,
Smith voted with the Oregon AFL-
CIO 25 percent of the time.
In January 1996, Smith lost a close
race against Democrat Ron Wyden in
a bruising special election to fill the
U.S. Senate seat of Republican Bob
Packwood, who resigned following a
highly publicized sex scandal.
When Republican U.S. Sen. Mark
Hatfield retired later that year, Smith
ran again. This time he defeated polit-
ical newcomer Tom Bruggere.
Smith easily won re-election in
2002, defeating Oregon Secretary of
State Bill Bradbury.
As a U.S. senator, Smith has voted
in agreement with the national AFL-
CIO 24 percent of the time: In 11
years of tracked votes, Smith agreed
with the labor federation 31 times and
disagreed 100 times. About two-thirds
of the pro-labor votes were cast in an
election year or the year before,
whereas in the years immediately after
his two election wins he voted against
the AFL-CIO 100 percent of the time.
Occasions on which Smith agreed
with labor included a 2007 ‘no’ vote
on a bill that would have banned
“card check” as a method of union-
ization. He also voted for bills that
would have allowed Medicare to bar-
gain over drug prices, and would have
legalized importation of prescription
drugs. Several times, Smith has voted
to preserve the requirement that con-
struction workers on federal projects
be paid the prevailing wage.
Partly in gratitude for that, the
Oregon State Building and Construc-
tion Trades Council endorsed Smith’s
re-election bid in 2002. This year,
however, the council is staying out of
the race, and two building trades or-
ganizations have endorsed Merkley
— the Oregon State Association of
Electrical Workers, and Exterior and
Interior Specialists Local 2154 of the
Carpenters Union.
That may be because on so many
key issues — trade policy, workers’
rights, tax fairness — Smith is a labor
opponent.
When the union movement’s top
priority, the Employee Free Choice
Act, made it to the Senate floor in
2007 with majority support, Smith
joined a handful of Republican sena-
tors to block it. On a vote of 51-48,
the Senate voted for cloture — to shut
off debate. Sixty votes are needed to
invoke cloture and end the debate and
move to a vote on the bill. So even
though a majority of the Senate voted
for cloture (and supported the bill),
Smith and a few others wouldn’t let it
happen.
That vote is one of the things that
cost Smith the support of the Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Teamsters, said
Joint Council 37 Representative Lynn
Lehrbach. Smith’s company has had a
decent working relationship with
SEPTEMBER 19, 2008
Teamsters Local 839, Lehrbach said.
And Joint Council 37 backed Smith
for re-election in 2002. This year the
union has endorsed Merkley.
Merkley is a strong supporter of
the Employee Free Choice Act, and
has taken flak for it from voters be-
cause national anti-union groups are
running television ads criticizing him
for it, saying the bill would strip
workers of the “secret ballot” in union
When it comes to trade
policy, Smith has a
perfect record of
support for NAFTA-style
treaties, ‘fast track’ and
normalizing trade
relations with China
and Vietnam. Merkley is
a vocal critic of NAFTA.
elections.
“The Employee Free Choice Act
doesn’t take away any right to a bal-
lot,” Merkley told the Labor Press.
“Since about 1935 there’ve been two
ways for workers to form unions. One
is through a majority of folks signing
a card. And the other is through an
election. But it’s the employer who
has control of that choice. And I think
workers should have control of the
choice. It’s that simple.”
When the Oregon AFL-CIO began
pro-Merkley mailings to union mem-
bers, Smith campaign spokesperson
Lindsay Gilbride told the Oregonian
that “Jeff Merkley’s union bosses”
were distorting Gordon Smith’s re-
cord.
Despite multiple requests, the
Smith campaign did not agree to an
interview in which he could have de-
fended his record in the eyes of the
Labor Press’ 50,000-plus union mem-
ber readers. Nor did Gilbride respond,
as promised, to e-mailed questions
about trade, workers’ rights and retire-
ment security.
The record is left to speak for it-
self.
Smith voted against allowing air-
port screeners to unionize. He voted
against increasing the federal mini-
mum wage when that proposal had no
other provisions attached. He voted to
stop a requirement that employers try
to prevent ergonomic injuries (the
first time Congress had ever stepped
in to nullify an Occupational Safety
and Health Administration rule).
Smith voted for the 2001 and 2003
Bush tax cuts, in which most of the
tax savings went to the wealthiest tax-
payers. Thanks to the 2001 cut, in-
come from capital gains and divi-
dends is now taxed at a lower rate
than income earned from wages. And
the Bush tax cuts sent the federal
budget from surplus to deficit.
[Merkley says he would vote to elimi-
nate the Bush tax cuts for citizens
earning more than 250,000 a year.]
Smith told Northwest Oregon La-
bor Council delegates at an August
2007 breakfast that he would work
with labor to reform national labor
law so that it’s not so stacked against
workers. Nothing appears to have
come of that pledge.
When Bush tried to privatize So-
cial Security in 2005, Smith, who was
then the chair of the Senate Special
Committee on Aging, took no public
position, but echoed Bush Adminis-
tration talking points about Social Se-
curity being in dire need of a fix.
Merkley says he would never sup-
port Social Security privatization. He
downplays the urgency of Social Se-
curity insolvency, and says he would
not vote to raise the cap on Social Se-
curity taxes — currently individuals
pay no Social Security tax on income
over $102,000.
Merkley’s Senate campaign is en-
dorsed by over a dozen labor organi-
zations, including the state’s largest
public and private sector unions. They
include Oregon AFSCME Council
75, United Food and Commercial
Workers Local 555, the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union,
the Oregon Machinists Council, and
the Oregon State Police Officers As-
sociation.
Just one union is endorsing Smith
— the Oregon State Fire Fighters
Council.
“Gordon Smith has a great track
record on our issues,” said Bob Liv-
ingston, IAFF’s Oregon state council
legislative director. Livingston said
Smith co-sponsored IAFF’s top prior-
ity, a bill that would require all states
to give collective bargaining rights to
public safety workers. Smith also sup-
ported increased federal funding for
local fire departments, favorable tax
treatment for retired public safety of-
ficers, and making it easier for surviv-
ing spouses to get public safety pen-
sions.
Of course, Merkley, too, is “a great
friend and supporter of working fami-
lies,” Livingston said. Last year,
Merkley led passage of a state law
that restored the right of public safety
unions to bargain over safety condi-
tions. That right had been stripped
from police and fire unions in 1995
— by a law Smith helped pass when
he was Oregon Senate president.
But Smith is the incumbent, and he
backed IAFF in the Senate, Liv-
ingston said: “Our mantra is that we
support those that support us.”
Health care is a big issue for union
voters. Smith is a co-sponsor of a bill
authored by Sen. Wyden, which would
replace employer-sponsored health
coverage with a requirement that indi-
viduals buy insurance. Merkley says
he also supports Wyden’s plan, but
with some reservations: It should not
end existing health care plans that
workers have negotiated with their
employers, and individuals would
need to have a public insurance op-
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
tion to choose from and not be forced
to choose among profit-making insur-
ance companies.
When it comes to trade policy,
Smith has a perfect record of support
for NAFTA-style treaties, “fast track”
and normalizing trade relations with
China and Vietnam. Even in the Ore-
gon Senate in 1993, Smith voted
against a symbolic resolution asking
Congress not to ratify NAFTA (North
American Free Trade Agreement).
Merkley, on the other hand, is a
vocal critic of NAFTA, and not just in
front of union audiences.
“They call it free trade,” Merkley
says in a television ad. “Problem is
there’s nothing free about it, and Ore-
gon has paid a very heavy price, with
nearly 70,000 jobs shipped overseas.”
“Imagine that in Oregon there was
one city that had no environmental
rules and no labor rules,” Merkley told
the Labor Press. “Where would all the
manufacturing go? They’d be sucked
out of every other city in the state.”
“Workers have been getting the
short end of the stick,” Merkley said.
“For the last 30 years, the standard of
living has been flat or declining for 80
percent of Americans. We need two
senators representing Oregon work-
ing together to fight for our workers
and our families rather than doing fa-
vors and giving away funds to power-
ful special interests.”
(Editor’s Note: U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden has endorsed Merkley’s cam-
paign. In a press statement, Wyden
pointed to the Democratic Party’s slim
51-49 margin in the Senate. “We have
seen more successful filibusters from
the Republicans in the Senate than we
have ever seen in the history of our
country,” Wyden said. “You’ve got to
have 60 votes to move ahead — to
break a filibuster to move on ... .”
Two debates are scheduled between
Smith and Merkley: One in Portland
Oct. 10 will be aired on KGW-TV Port-
land, and one in Medford Oct. 13 will
air on KOBI-TV Medford, KOTI-TV
Klamath Falls, KLSR-TV Eugene and
KEVU-TV Eugene.)
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