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