JAN. 2 2009:NWLP
12/29/08
10:02 AM
Inside
Page 1
MEETING NOTICES
See
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Volume 110
Number 1
January 2, 2009
Portland
Labor maps out goals
for 2009 Legislature
Foster kids’ holiday party gets boost from UA Local 290
A $1,000 donation by Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 to the Child
Welfare Division in East Multnomah County helped foster kids enjoy a
holiday party Dec. 16. “We could not make this happen without the
donation from Local 290,” said Deborah Bruun, (pictured above left with
Local 290 Business Manager John Endicott). Bruun is a social service
specialist who, along with co-worker Stacey Mahler, help to organize the
annual event. The Oregon Department of Human Services used to fund
the party for more than 250 kids, parents and foster parents, but budget
cuts in the late 1990s put an end to it. Social service workers thought the
event was so vital for the children that they began raising money on their
own time. “This is an East County tradition. Kids look forward to this
every year,” Bruun said. In addition to the fundraising, some 40 to 50
state workers volunteer to decorate and help run the party, which
includes craftmaking and cookie decorating rooms (pictured above
right), cartoon drawings, pizza, gifts, and a visit from Santa Claus. “The
kids really enjoy this,” said Endicott, who toured the DHS facility in
Southeast Portland on Dec. 16. “It really makes you feel good to give
back to the community. This is very special.”
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Oregon lawmakers face a daunting
challenge when the 2009 legislative ses-
sion begins Jan. 12.
Because the state budget depends
heavily on personal and corporate in-
come taxes, job losses and business fail-
ures are taking a bite. The state general
fund budget of about $7 billion a year
could take a hit of $340 million. That
will make it harder for government to
deliver education, criminal justice and
social services.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski and state legis-
lators will be looking for new sources of
revenue and making budget cuts, all
while trying to reboot the economy.
Union leaders will be in Salem for
those debates. They’ll be testifying
when the Legislature discusses health
care reform and measures to combat
global warming. And they’ll be calling
on the expanded Democratic majority to
deliver on a pro-labor agenda.
Unlike the federal government,
which can borrow to fund spending,
states mostly have to pay as they go. A
sales tax, regressive and unpopular, is al-
most certainly off the table this year, but
lawmakers are expecting to consider
raising tobacco, alcohol, and gas taxes.
Solis’ father was a shop steward in
the Teamsters union and her mother be-
longed to the United Rubber Workers.
Solis has credited unions with securing
the wages and benefits that allowed her
parents to move their family into the
middle class, send their children to col-
lege and raise a daughter who was
elected to Congress.
“Solis does not just vote on behalf of
workers, she is their unwavering and
tireless voice,” Burger added. “She has
one of the strongest pro-worker voting
records in Congress and is a sponsor of
the Employee Free Choice Act.”
At a press conference, Solis said she
will “work to strengthen our unions and
support every American in our nation’s
diverse workforce.”
Tom Chamberlain, president of the
And they may look at higher taxes on
the well-off and on businesses, two
groups that have seen their overall tax
burden shrink in recent years. One pro-
posal would create a new top bracket on
Oregonians earning more than $250,000
a year. Another would raise Oregon’s
corporate minimum income tax, which
is currently $10 a year and hasn’t been
increased since 1929.
“The budget is going to be the back-
drop against which everything is played
out this session,” said State Sen. Diane
Rosenbaum, a longtime union activist
and state legislator. “But it also gives us
the opportunity to make significant
changes.”
Gov. Kulongoski is proposing to
raise the corporate minimum to $25 for
the smallest companies, an amount
which would rise to $5,000 a year for
companies that have annual sales of over
$25 million. That would raise about $42
million a year, which he wants to use to
increase need-based scholarships for
students at Oregon universities and com-
munity colleges.
Kulongoski also wants a 2-cent in-
crease in the gas tax, and increased reg-
istration and title fees — enough to raise
$500 million a year, which he proposes
to use to modernize Oregon’s trans-
portation system, thereby creating 6,700
jobs. Most if not all of the public works
projects are subject to state prevailing
wage requirements.
Lawmakers may also decide to end
the practice — which exists in no other
state — of mailing refunds to taxpayers
when revenues exceed projections. In-
stead, the so-called “kicker” would go
toward a rainy-day fund to fund schools
and other priorities in times of recession.
A plan to provide comprehensive
health coverage to all Oregonians is still
years away from enactment, but this
year, health reform advocates will push
to expand coverage to about one-third of
Oregon’s 600,000 uninsured. That could
take some pressure off union negotia-
tors, who have trouble winning raises
when employer-paid health care costs
keep going up.
As outlined in a proposal from the
governor, close to 200,000 children and
low-income adults would be added to
the Oregon Health Plan, which spreads
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Labor welcomes Solis choice as U.S. labor secretary
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Union
leaders welcomed the choice of five-
term congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-
Calif.) as labor secretary in the incom-
ing Obama Administration.
If confirmed, Solis, 51, would man-
age a federal department with more
than 17,000 employees and an annual
budget exceeding $59 billion that over-
sees workplace safety, wage and hour
laws, job training and unemployment
benefits.
Solis, a veteran legislator from Los
Angeles and a resident of El Monte,
would also be the third Hispanic in
Obama’s Cabinet, with New Mexico
Gov. Bill Richardson named Com-
merce Secretary, and Colorado Sen.
Ken Salazar as Interior Secretary.
One labor source said Solis’ name
was put forward by Service Employees
International Union President Andy
Stern, whose union — along with the
Change To Win coalition — endorsed
Obama’s presidential candidacy long
before the AFL-CIO did. SEIU is the
largest union in Change to Win, and
Stern at one point was on Obama’s
short list for labor secretary.
But leaders ranging from Change to
Win Chair Anna Burger to AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney welcomed the
Solis appointment. So did former
House Minority Whip David Bonior
(D-Mich.), now chair of the pro-labor
American Rights At Work organization.
Bonior, citing his work with Solis
since she entered Congress in 2001,
called her “a terrific leader who I know
first hand will work tirelessly on behalf
of America’s working families.”
Solis sits on the board of directors of
American Rights At Work.
Sweeney said the AFL-CIO is
“thrilled at the prospect of having Solis
as our nation’s next labor secretary.
We’re confident that she will return the
department to one of its core missions
— to defend workers’basic rights in our
nation’s workplaces. She’s proven to be
a passionate leader and advocate for all
working families.”
The national AFL-CIO pointed out
that as a congresswoman, Solis has
voted with labor 97 percent of the time
on issues it deems important to work-
ers.
Burger said Solis — the daughter of
Mexican and Nicaraguan immigrants
who were blue-collar, union workers —
“has never forgotten where she came
from, and how she got to where she is
today.”