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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2009)
Sept.21, 2009:NWLP 9/15/09 10:34 AM Page 3 Lafer goes to Washington LERC professor will be adviser to U.S. House labor panel Gordon Lafer, assistant professor at the Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) at the University of Oregon, is moving to Washington, D.C., to work as senior labor policy adviser for the U.S. House of Repre- sentatives’ Committee on Education and Labor. The job starts Sept. 21; Lafer will take a one-year leave of ab- sence from the UO. The committee is responsible for laws on labor, health care, job train- ing, and retirement security for work- ers. Lafer will provide the committee with analysis and advice on labor law legislation, including the Employee Free Choice Act, labor’s top priority bill in Congress. Besides the Employee Free Choice Act, Lafer said he will be working on a bill called the RESPECT Act (Re- Empowerment of Skilled and Profes- sional Employees and Construction Trades Workers), which would undo a Bush-era National Labor Relations Board decision that took away union Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call 503-288-5537 1638 NE Broadway, Portland rights from charge nurses, construction foremen and other workers who do some limited amount of supervising. He’ll work on the guestworker pro- visions of the upcoming immigration reform bill — spelling out what rights guest workers should have, and under what conditions companies should be allowed to bring in guest workers. He’ll be working on federal legisla- tion aimed at extending union rights to police and firefighters in states where they don’t have those rights. He will also work on proposals to attach labor conditions to federal green jobs initiatives and a second round of stim- ulus spending. “I feel like if there’s ever a time when it should be possible to move legislation that helps workers, this should be it,” Lafer told the Labor Press. Lafer, 49, joined LERC faculty in 1997, two years after earning a PhD in political science from Yale University. He soon became known in the lo- cal and national labor movement as LERC’s go-to person for research. He has done work for unions around the country on strategic planning and con- tract campaigns, including Las Vegas building trades unions, longshore unions in Hawaii and on the East G ORDON L AFER Coast and Gulf Coast, and Bay Area locals of the United Food and Com- mercial Workers. He helped Oregon building trades unions with technical questions about prevailing wage cal- culations, researched nursing short- ages for Oregon Nurses Association, conducted a salary survey for an engi- neering employee association, and co- authored two studies on contracting out school support services — which helped Oregon School Employees As- sociation resist privatization. In 2002, he published “Job Train- ing Charade,” a book criticizing politi- cians’ promotion of job training as the answer to unemployment and job- killing trade treaties like NAFTA. In recent years, Lafer researched Commissioners in Clatsop County face recall effort for supporting LNG plant ASTORIA — Three Clatsop County commissioners who support a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, proposed for a site 20 miles east of As- toria on the Columbia River, are facing a recall effort by opponents of LNG. The recall targets are commission- ers Jeff Hazen, Ann Samuelson, and Patricia Roberts. All three support building the $650 million LNG termi- nal, in line with the Oregon AFL-CIO and the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council, which already has a project labor agreement in place with the developer, NorthernStar. “This terminal will not only provide hundreds and hundreds of construction jobs for our members and their fami- lies, it’s also going to ensure a safe, re- liable supply of energy for our area, which will result in good jobs in the Pa- cific Northwest,” said John Mohlis, ex- ecutive secretary-treasurer of the Co- lumbia Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council. After it is built, the terminal — which will import, store and process liquefied natural gas — will have an operating budget of $30 million a year. Tom Chamberlain, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, said stabilizing en- ergy costs is crucial for the region’s fu- ture. “And while we should vigorously pursue renewable energy, natural gas can serve as a bridge to the cleaner en- ergy future we all want,” he said. Some residents are angry because SEPTEMBER 18, 2009 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS and wrote several influential studies of the failings of U.S. labor law for the union-backed group American Rights at Work. That led to invitations to train congressional staffers and tes- tify about the Employee Free Choice Act at hearings in the U.S. House and Senate, including the House Educa- tion and Labor Committee, whose general counsel recruited him to the new job. Joining Lafer in the move to DC are his partner Rachel Kirtner and their three-year-old daughter Merav. Kirtner is a labor attorney and union organizer who was working with the American Federation of Teachers to help UO fac- ulty unionize. Lafer said they’ve leased a place 12 blocks from the Capitol, and are renting out their home in Eugene with an eye to returning. “Obviously we will miss Gordon’s skills and talents for the year he’s gone,” said LERC director Bob Bus- sel. “But this is an opportunity for him to do really good work on major pieces of legislation that will benefit the union movement and working people.” the three commissioners voted to ap- prove land-use zone changes to allow construction of the terminal at Brad- wood Landing, site of a shuttered lum- ber mill. Last month, some of those LNG opponents filed paperwork with Clatsop County to start collecting sig- natures to force an election to recall them. The number of signatures to trigger a recall election is determined by tak- ing 15 percent of the voters who voted for governor in the 2006 election. A recall petition for Hazen would need 445 valid signatures from voters in District 1. For Samuelson, the num- ber is 447. The deadline to get signa- tures is Oct. 19. The election would be held Dec. 8. A petition to oust Roberts was ap- proved Aug. 26. Petitioners need 441 signatures by Nov. 23. That election can be held no later than Jan. 12. District 2 covers the area south of Warrenton to the center of Seaside and includes the city of Gearhart. Hazen is county commissioner for District 1, which takes in Warrenton and Hammond and a portion of Asto- ria. Samuelson is county commissioner for District 5, which covers portions of Seaside east of U.S. 101, and Cannon Beach, Arch Cape south to the Tillam- ook County line, east to the Columbia and Washington county lines, includ- ing Hamlet and Jewell. PAGE 3
