April 3, 2009:NWLP
3/31/09
9:46 AM
Page 8
Oregon Legislature passes halfway mark:
April 17 is a critical date for bills
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
The Oregon Legislature is more than
halfway through its 2009 lawmaking
session, and leaders and lobbyists from
Oregon labor unions are on the scene in
Salem — supporting, opposing and
monitoring a bewildering number of
bills that affect union members and
working people.
The biggest-stakes topic this year is
the budget. All interested parties are
waiting for the May 15 revenue forecast,
the last one legislators will receive be-
fore they adjourn for the year on June
30. Every budget forecast since last fall
has predicted deeper shortfalls. The un-
employed and money-losing businesses
don’t pay income taxes, and that’s cut-
ting into the state’s ability to pay for ed-
ucation, public safety, and social serv-
ices. All agencies have been ordered to
prepare 2009-11 biennium budgets that
include 30 percent cuts.
Unions, particularly public employee
unions, have allied with human services
advocates likeAARP and the PTA to ad-
vocate targeted revenue increases in or-
der to avoid severe budget cuts.
“There’s a real opportunity to make a
case with the public this year,” said Rob
Wagner, director of political and legisla-
tive affairs for American Federation of
Teachers (AFT)-Oregon. Wagner pre-
dicts public support for “Obama-style”
tax increases on the wealthy and on cor-
porations.
The union-backed group Our Ore-
gon, which helped defeat a phalanx of
ballot measures last fall, has stepped in
to help the coalition, which is planning a
community forum on the human impact
of the budget crisis. That’s at 11 a.m.,
April 11, at Gordon Russell Middle
School in Gresham. “This doesn’t have
to be doom and gloom,” said Our Ore-
gon spokesperson Scott Moore. “If we
come together and find a balanced solu-
tion that protects the vulnerable and
doesn’t shift the burden to the middle
class, we’ll get through this.”
The co-chairs of the Joint Ways and
Means Committee, State Sen. Margaret
Carter (D-Portland) and State Rep. Peter
Buckley (D-Ashland), are mulling a late
April “road show” in which they’d hold
town hall meetings throughout Oregon
to give citizens a chance to comment on
the budget and the potential cuts.
Budget crisis aside, union leaders are
still counting on the expanded Demo-
cratic majority — 36-24 in the House
and 18-12 in the Senate — to deliver on
a pro-labor agenda.
The Oregon AFL-CIO is keeping
track of over 300 bills.
W ORKERS ’ R IGHTS
The Oregon AFL-CIO’s top priority
is the Worker Freedom Act, SB 519,
which would make it illegal for an em-
ployer to discipline an employee for re-
fusing to attend a workplace anti-union
meeting. Such meetings are a standard
tactic by employers trying to prevent a
union from getting majority support.
Another priority for the AFL-CIO,
and for public employee unions, is HB
2831, a bill making numerous changes
to Oregon’s Public Employee Collective
Bargaining Law. In 1995, a Republican-
led Legislature delivered a blow to pub-
lic employee unionization by passing
Senate Bill 750. HB 2831 reverses some
of those changes, and in general makes
it easier for public employees to union-
ize if they want to.
HB 2931 would establish foster par-
ents in Oregon as “public employees”
for the purposes of allowing them to join
a labor organization.
SB 463 would allow laid-off part-
time workers to get unemployment in-
surance benefits even if they’re not avail-
able to work full-time.
HB 3160 would create up to six
weeks of paid family leave at $300 per
week, paid for by a new payroll tax of
two cents per hour for all employees in
Oregon. The program, which would
start in 2012, would make it easier for
workers to take family leave for the birth
or adoption of a child, or to care for a
family member with a serious health
condition.
S TOPPING B ALLOT I NITIATIVE
A BUSES
Every two years, longtime union foe
Bill Sizemore plagues organized labor
with objectionable ballot measures, all
while skirting election laws intended to
shed light on campaign contributions
and rein in paid petitioner abuses. But
Secretary of State Kate Brown is work-
ing with labor to push a bill that could
force him and other ballot initiative ac-
tivists to run cleaner campaigns.
HB 2005 makes a number of
changes: Signatures from petitioners
convicted of forgery or fraud wouldn’t
be counted; elections officials would be
able to access police databases to see if
paid petitioners have a criminal history;
chief petitioners would bear increased
responsibility for lawbreaking by signa-
ture gatherers; and campaigns would
have to turn in their signatures monthly
instead of all at once (to prevent elec-
tions officials from having to verify 2
million signatures in a matter of weeks.)
H EALTH C ARE R EFORM
The high cost of health insurance has
become a drain on wages and a source
of serious conflict in contract bargaining.
If elected leaders could find a way to rein
in health care costs and cover the unin-
sured, they’d be doing an enormous serv-
ice to working people. But hospitals, in-
surers, and pharmaceutical companies
tend to oppose health care reform pro-
posals and have had more sway in Salem
than the rest. Can they be overcome?
Here are some of this year’s ideas:
HB 2009 would tax hospitals and in-
surance companies and use the proceeds
to expand the number of children and
low-income Oregonians who can get
into the Oregon Health Plan — the pub-
lic health insurance program which uses
state money and federal matching funds.
The tax is part of a package of health
system reform proposals generated last
year by the citizen-run Oregon Health
Fund Board. (Labor’s representative on
that board was Oregon AFL-CIO Presi-
dent Tom Chamberlain.) The bill would
tax hospitals 4 percent and insurers 1.5
percent, which would generate $600
million that would then be matched by
$1 billion in federal funds.
“Oregon can’t afford to leave that
money on the table,” said Oregon AF-
SCME Executive Director Ken Allen at
a Feb. 20 hearing on HB 2009.
HB 2117 would increase the ciga-
rette tax 60 cents per pack to pay for ex-
panded health coverage for children.
HB 3145 would tighten rate review
for health insurance providers. Currently,
insurers have to get approval from a re-
view board before they can raise rates,
but the way it’s set up, the board never
says “no.” This bill would set more crite-
ria for the board to consider before they
could approve new rates.
S ETTING L IMITS ON P RIVATIZATION
Right now, one in six Oregon school
districts contracts out food service, and
more than one in 75 school kids attends
a “charter” school that gets public
money but isn’t run by a public body.
Lots of public business is done by pri-
vate contractors; is the public getting its
money’s worth? When the public does
save money, is it only because con-
tracted-out workers get lower wages and
benefits?
A pair of bills backed by a union-
supported group, the Coalition on Gov-
ernment Transparency andAccountabil-
ity, would answer those questions.
Those concepts are also expressed in ini-
tiatives the ObamaAdministration is un-
dertaking at the federal level. As Presi-
dent Barack Obama put it last month:
“The days of giving government con-
tractors a blank check are over.”
HB 2037 would ensure that all gov-
ernment contracts be made available on-
line in databases accessible by the public.
HB 2867 would require state or local
governments (including school districts)
to do a cost-benefit analysis before con-
tracting out things like janitorial or cafe-
teria services. And they wouldn’t be al-
lowed to contract out for reasons of cost
savings if those savings are only achiev-
able because of lower wages and bene-
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
APRIL 3, 2009