JULY 17, 2009:NWLP
7/14/09
10:27 AM
Page 7
At Oregon Legislature
For some union-backed bills — better luck next time
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
SALEM —The Democratic-con-
trolled Oregon Legislature’s 2009 ses-
sion was successful overall for organ-
ized labor. Lawmakers increased the
share of taxes paid by the wealthiest, in-
creased aid to the unemployed, and
made it harder for employers to brow-
beat workers during union campaigns.
But other union-backed proposals failed
to win passage. Some of those may rise
to the top of labor’s priority list next
time around.
Reform of the state’s Business En-
ergy Tax Credit (BETC) was one high
priority, said Oregon AFL-CIO
spokesperson Elana Guiney. BETC
gives businesses back 50 cents for every
dollar they put into wind or solar en-
ergy, and the price tag of that incentive
has swelled to over $100 million a year.
The Oregon AFL-CIO wanted some ac-
countability added — like wage and
benefit standards for the jobs that result
from the projects, or even just a report
on the number and quality of the jobs.
Lawmakers voted to extend the BETC
to electric vehicle manufacturing, and
curtail it for wind farms. But union pro-
posals for accountability and job stan-
dards just didn’t gain traction.
Meanwhile, HB 2831, a collection
of union-backed reforms to Oregon’s
Public Employee Collective Bargaining
Act, passed the House 35 to 21, but
failed on a 14-16 vote in the Senate. The
bill was intended to undo parts of SB
750, which was passed by a Republican
House and Senate in 1995 to weaken la-
bor law for public employees. But this
year’s Democratic lawmakers heard
from city and county leaders that the re-
forms would increase costs and make
management harder. All 12 Republi-
cans and four Senate Democrats voted
Local Motion
June 2009
Union certifications and decertifications in Oregon and Southwest
Washington, as reported by the National Labor Relations Board and
the Oregon Employment Relations Board
Recognition elections
Name of employer
Date
Name of union
Results:
Union Union
Yes No
Location
UPS Ground Freight (decertification)
6/4
Machinists
Portland
8
2
Alstom APComPower
6/10
Laborers Local 320
3
0
Lincoln County Road Department
6/16
Lincoln Cty EA vs. CWA
Troutdale
14 0
Newport
ability” under a state program that lets
government agencies contract out to
non-profits that employ the disabled.
[Oregon School Employees Association
has argued that some “qualified rehabil-
itation facilities” are abusing the law by
employing people with little or no real
disability.]
The Legislature will meet in a lim-
ited special session in February 2010,
and then face election in November
2010 before the next regular session be-
gins again in January 2011.
Guiney said the Oregon AFL-CIO’s
individual ratings of lawmakers will be
released in late summer.
Governor signs Oregon AFL-CIO’s
top priorty bill with little fanfare
SALEM — Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski was scheduled to travel to Bend July
15 to sign a law that renames U.S. 97 “World War II Veterans Historic Highway.”
There were signing ceremonies scheduled for laws mandating school coaches be
trained to recognize concussions, making roads safer for farm equipment, and re-
quiring that insurance companies pay for phenylketonuria treatment. Press releases
gave public notice when he signed bills clarifying sex offender reporting proce-
dures, and eliminating minor requirements for appointment to the Governor’s Vet-
erans Affairs Advisory Committee.
But on June 30, when the governor signed the Oregon AFL-CIO’s top priority
bill of the session, there was no fanfare, no signing ceremony, no announcement of
any kind. SB 519, the Worker Freedom Act, will give workers the right to skip
management-led anti-union meetings. The Oregon AFL-CIO requested a signing
ceremony, but only learned the bill was signed after the fact.
“Our members who testified on the bill would have loved to be there” said Ore-
gon AFL-CIO spokesperson Elana Guiney.
Still, Guiney said, the bill was signed into law, and the labor federation is ap-
preciative of that fact. Oregon is the first to pass this particular advance for work-
ers, and the national AFL-CIO hopes to get other states to do the same. Plans were
afoot as of press time for national AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka
to call Kulongoski and express thanks.
Former Oregon AFL-CIO president Tim Nesbitt, now the governor’s deputy
chief of staff, said Kulongoski was busy with the budget when SB 519 was signed.
Rem Nivens, the governor’s spokesperson, said there are too many bills to sign
for the governor to have a ceremony for each one, but added that plans will be
made for a private ceremony in which the governor will sign a parchment copy of
the bill in the presence of representatives of organized labor.
0
Lincoln County Transportation Service District
6/23
Lincoln Cty EA
Newport
14
0
City of Ontario
6/23
Ontario Police Assn
21
0
Ontario
against it; the Democrats were Betsy
Johnson, Rick Metsger, Martha
Schrader, and Joanne Verger.
Building trades unions were unable
to win passage of a bill requiring pay-
ment of the prevailing wage to con-
struction workers employed by large
projects that receive enterprise zone
property tax abatements.
And a bill making it easier to get per-
mits to construct pipelines, such as sev-
eral proposed for liquid natural gas,
failed to win approval.
“A lot of pro-worker legislation had
a hard time in the Senate,” Guiney said.
The Oregon House has at least half a
dozen “labor legislators” who have had
direct membership in or involvement
with unions, but the Senate has only one
— former Communications Workers of
America leader Diane Rosenbaum.
Rosenbaum pushed hard for a
union-backed bill providing a modest
benefit for workers who take family
leave. Workers would get the benefit af-
ter the birth or adoption of a child or to
care for a family member with a serious
health condition. But that too went
nowhere. Business associations op-
posed it and said, incredibly, that it
would hurt working people.
And some perennial proposals
backed by some unions never got off
the ground, such as:
• Setting minimum nurse-to-patient
staffing ratios at hospitals;
• Reining in the overuse of part-time
no-benefit faculty at community col-
leges; and
• Narrowing the definition of “dis-
Recognition by card check
Name of employer
Date Name of union
Location
Number of employees
Veneta
5
Lane County Fire District #1
6/15 Fire Fighters Local 3242
Requests for recognition election
Name of employer
Name of union
Location
Number of employees
Tricont Trucking Company
Machinists District Lodge 24
Portland
6
YRC Inc. (unit of clerical workers at a trucking company)
Teamsters Local 81
Portland
11
JULY 17, 2009
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 7