May 15, 2009:NWLP
5/12/09
10:08 AM
Page 2
Oregon AFL-CIO’s top bill, the Worker
Freedom Act, gets shelved in committee
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SALEM — Last week, officials at
the Oregon AFL-CIO thought they
had enough support in the Oregon
Senate to pass one of its top priority
bills.
SB 519 —The Worker Freedom
Act — would have made “captive au-
dience” meetings by employers vol-
untary for certain topics — including
union organizing. In other words, em-
ployers could not require employees
to come to meetings and listen to their
propaganda against unions.
The bill was scheduled for a vote
in the Senate May 7.
Democrats control that chamber 18
to 12.
But when the time came to vote,
Sherwood Republican Sen. Larry
George rose and got a unanimous
voice vote to refer the bill to the Rules
Committee. That committee is
chaired by Democrat Ginny Burdick
of Southwest Portland, an open oppo-
nent of the bill who has refused even
to meet and discusss it with the Ore-
gon AFL-CIO.
Generally, a bill that is sent to
Rules at this point in the session is not
going to get a vote, the labor federa-
tion said.
Union officials were scratching
Obama nominates pair to the
National Labor Relations Board
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
President Barack Obama has nomi-
nated two people, including a veteran
union attorney, to vacant seats on the
National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB), leaving just one slot to be
filled on the five-member panel that
oversees most of the nation’s labor-
management relations.
Nominated last month were Craig
Becker, associate general counsel for
both the American Federation of Gov-
ernment Employees and the Service
Employees International Union, and
Mark Pearce, a labor-side lawyer from
Buffalo, N.Y.
Becker, like Obama, taught at the
University of Chicago law school, and
has practiced and taught labor law for
27 years.
Pearce practiced union-side labor
law before many New York state and
federal agencies, and recently served
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PAGE 2
their heads wondering how it got a
unanimous vote.
The Oregon AFL-CIO learned
from allies in the Senate that the Dem-
ocratic and Republican leadership
supported the referral. Apparently one
of the 16 Democrats who’d commit-
ted to vote for the bill changed their
mind, so the bill didn’t have enough
support to pass.
The Oregon AFL-CIO political
staff knew Burdick was against it, and
that Betsy Johnson, a Democrat from
Scappoose, had never committed to
vote for it. So they are looking to find
which of the other 16 Democrats
broke a promise to organized labor.
“We are disappointed in the Demo-
cratic leadership for not bringing it to
a vote,” said Oregon AFL-CIO
spokesperson Elana Guiney. “The
working people of Oregon deserve to
have a public on-the-record vote so
we know who stands with working
people and who doesn’t.”
Senate Majority leader Richard
Devlin (D-Tualatin) is also on the
Rules Committee, and it’s possible
that influence could be brought to
bear on Burdick to release the bill to
the floor for an up-or-down vote.
The Rules Committee stays open
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on a New York state board that judges
state labor department rulings.
Obama called both men “impressive
and distinguished individuals” who
will “serve with the highest ideals of
our nation in mind.”
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
said both are “extremely qualified” for
the posts.
“Becker and Pearce also understand
the importance of workers’ rights, col-
lective bargaining, and the need to re-
store balance to the National Labor Re-
lations Board,” Sweeney said.
If confirmed by the Senate, Becker
and Pearce would join holdover NLRB
members Wilma Liebman, a Democrat
whom Obama nominated to chair the
Board, and Peter Schaumber, a Repub-
lican.
With only two board members, the
NLRB has recently found itself in le-
gal limbo following two contradicting
court decisions issued May 1.
To prevent a major backlog of cases,
Liebman and Schaumber for the past
16 months have jointly issued 400 de-
cisions on uncontested cases where
both agreed on the outcome.
However, on May 1, the U.S. Court
of Appeals in Washington, D.C. held
that it was invalid for them to issue
two-member decisions, while at the
same time a federal appellate court in
Chicago upheld the validity of their de-
cisions.
It will likely take a Supreme Court
decision to clear up the legal matter.
until late in the 2009 legislative ses-
sion, which is headed for wrap-up in
late June.
(Editor’s Note: Sen. Burdick
helped block a similar bill in the 2007
Legislature. Because of that, she re-
ceived one of the lowest Oregon AFL-
CIO rankings of any Democrat in the
Senate, and she was not endorsed for
re-election by the state labor federa-
tion.)
...Washington
Legislature
(From Page 1)
was a push to eliminate the pro-worker
House amendments. Sen. Karen Keiser
(D-Kent) demanded a roll call vote on
each of the amendments. It takes nine
senators to require a roll-call vote. Only
three other senators joined Keiser. So
the amendments were eliminated by a
“standing vote,” with no record of who
voted to eliminate them. The bill went
back to House. There it got the roll-call
vote at least, but the amendments were
eliminated.
In the battle between the business
and labor sides of the Democratic cau-
cus, labor was routed, said WSLC
spokesperson Kathy Cummings. If
there was any “up” side to the debacle,
Cummings said, it was that the rebuff
has brought labor together more in a
shared sense of outrage. Cummings
said WSLC heard anger from elected
leaders and rank-and-file members in
nearly every affiliate, and that’s
prompting the labor federation to look
for a whole new way to evaluate the
Legislature.
While it’s too soon to say how the
state labor movement will change its
approach to politics, it’s hard to envi-
sion Gregoire’s already-announced
campaign for a third term getting labor
support.
Delegates will meet Aug. 6-8 in We-
natchee for WSLC’s next convention.
Oregon Bricklayers
Union to host regional
apprenticeship contest
Bricklayers and Allied Craft Work-
ers Local 1 of Oregon is hosting the
Western States Brick, Tile and Marble
Regional Apprenticeship Contest in
Portland, Saturday, May 30. The day-
long event will take place in the park-
ing lot of the Jantzen Beach Red Lion
Hotel. Forty-five apprentices represent-
ing 10 union locals from California,
Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Washing-
ton and Oregon will compete for the
chance to move on to the national fi-
nals later this year in Bowie, Md.
Winners in the respective categories
will receive cash and tools, plus an all-
expenses paid trip to the finals.
MAY 15, 2009