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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2008)
OCT. 17, 2008:NWLP 10/14/08 9:55 AM Page 4 Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008 Oregon Convention Center 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Portland ...Wall Street bailout has DeFazio fuming (From Page 1) Oregon Chapter Invites You to A Conference: Ethics in Collective Bargaining: Building Trust in the Workplace A Party to Present: The 2008 LERA Awards 7:45 - 8: 45 a.m. — Registration, Continental Breakfast 8:45 - 9:00 a.m. — Welcome and Preview of the Day 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. — Conference 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. — Awards: Reception and Presentation Registration includes all materials, continental breakfast, lunch, break refreshments, and Awards Reception Send completed registration form and payment to: Oregon LERA, Attention: Ed Clay P.O. Box 231239, Tigard, OR 97218 • IRS ID#: 39-0828504. • Fax: 503 524-0997 • Email: oregonlera@aol.com The Conference: This year we return to the very popular format of participatory conferences we held in the 90s. The conference is designed: ◆ to maximize participation by all who attend ◆ to tap into their experience and expertise ◆ to provide an opportunity for dialogue among practioners and neutrals. The Opening Keynote Session “On Making Ethical Decisions”: ◆ Our keynote speaker, Ethicist Doug Wallace , will describe two approaches to ethics: One begins with absolute principles and the other weighs the consequences of actions. ◆ Through small group discussion of actual cases, he will help participants draw out their ethical orientation. He will also discuss gender and cultural differences in approaching ethical issues and will introduce a 10-step decision-making process to work through ethical issues in organizational settings. The Breakout Sessions: ◆ Small group discussions focusing on ethical problems that can occur in organizing, negotiating, contract administration, discipline and other aspects of collective bargaining. ◆ Each discussion group — 9 persons and a facilitator — will be a cross-section of those attending the conference: Labor and management from the public and private sectors, as well as academics and neutrals. PAGE 4 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS woman, and child in the country. It’s equivalent to half the regular federal budget (not counting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid). It’s more than the year’s spending on the Iraq War. It’s almost one-and-a-half times as much as the budget for the De- partment of De- fense. It’s more than 12 times what the federal government spends on education in a year. So the new law gives Paulson the $700 billion to pur- chase “troubled as- sets” of nearly any kind from financial institutions of any kind, in accordance with whatever terms, conditions, pro- cedures and policies he determines, at whatever price he determines, except that he’s not supposed to pay more for an asset than the seller paid to acquire it. He’s also supposed to develop a pro- gram to insure assets, including mort- gage-backed securities, that were cre- ated before March 14, 2008. And he’s required to report back to Congress pe- riodically about how it’s going. Because the money to buy these se- curities will most likely be borrowed, it’s a little like the Wall Street practice of “buying on margin.” The securities Paulson buys will have to earn back their value, plus the interest on the pur- chase price, for the taxpayer not to lose money in the long run. “I believe this is one of the greatest financial mistakes in the history of this country,” said Oregon Congressman DeFazio, a fierce critic of Wall Street who was the first to speak against the bill on the House floor. The AFL-CIO and Change to Win labor federations also opposed the bailout plan. There were alternatives, DeFazio said — including several that he pro- posed. DeFazio wanted the govern- ment to handle this crisis like it had handled the savings & loan crisis in the 1980s: having federal bank examiners care- fully look over the books and make judg- ments about which in- stitutions could be saved with the least amount of federal in- vestment. And DeFazio proposed a way to make Wall Street pay for it too, with a small tax on sales of securi- ties. But the Democrats were panicked, and stampeded, DeFazio said. In the House, 172 Democrats voted for the bill, while 63 voted against it. Republi- cans voted 91 for and 108 against. A week after the vote, DeFazio was still fuming. “Henry Paulson is a Wall Street speculator,” DeFazio said. “He made an unbelievable fortune, left with three quarters of a billion dollars for running Goldman Sachs, gave himself a $39 million bonus the last year he was there, and he created these financial weapons of mass destruction that are destroying our economy. And we’re going to turn to this guy for advice? And we’re going to put our trust in him, and give him $700 billion of our money and let him buy anything he wants at any price? That’s the bill that passed.” But the Paulson plan is not a give- away to Wall Street, says Monte John- “...and he created these financial weapons of mass destruction that are destroying our economy.” (Turn to Page 5) ...Carrying the vote (From Page 1) for a special reason, but as yet only Oregon conducts all elections by mail in every county. In Oregon’s system, ballots must arrive by 8 p.m. Election Day to be counted, and postmarks don’t count. But Hansen said elections officials are overly cautious when they say ballots have to be mailed several days before Election Day. Because ballot envelopes are dis- tinctive, and USPS employees go to extra efforts, even ballots mailed on the day of the election are likely to ar- rive in time, Hansen said — provided they are collected by 4 p.m. and mailed in the local area. Hansen her- self goes to Portland’s main post of- fice a few hours before the polls close and scours the system to make sure all ballots make their way to elections of- fices. Finally, when it comes to oversee- ing the count, the workers at most county elections departments are union-represented. Multnomah County Elections Division, for exam- ple, has a permanent staff of 14 that’s assisted at election time by a tempo- rary work force that swells to about 250. Twelve of the permanents are represented by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Em- ployees Local 88. [AFSCME repre- sents county workers in 16 of Ore- gon’s 36 counties. Several other counties are represented by the Serv- ice Employees International Union or by independent employee associa- tions.] OCTOBER 17, 2008
