Jan. 1, 2010:NWLP
12/28/09
11:37 AM
Page 7
AFL-CIO urges ‘yes’ vote on Measures 66 & 67
By TOM CHAMBERLAIN
The economy is bad. States are
going broke. Need is up. We’ve all
heard the bad news.
But this January, in Oregon, we
have the opportunity to create some
good news.
For the first time in decades, legis-
lators passed moderate tax increases
that will help secure funding for
things like education and public safety
without hurting middle class Oregoni-
ans. In fact, their small increases will
only affect 2.5 percent of Oregonians.
But without your help these needed
measures will be overturned by big
corporations who are used to getting
special treatment.
Oregon’s corporate minimum tax
is $10. In fact, about two-thirds of
businesses only pay $10 a year in
taxes — while they depend on the
rest of us to fund education so they
have a qualified workforce to draw on,
roads so they can ship their products,
and other services they depend on
every day.
Some wealthy Oregonians and
large corporations are still raking in
the cash while too many of our friends
and neighbors struggle to make ends
meet. Meanwhile, the Legislature
made $2 billion in cuts last year, dras-
tically limiting many vital services
and asking public employees to take a
series of furlough days, and they are
facing another $733 million shortfall.
The solution is the tax package the
Legislature passed last spring. But
those taxes have been referred to the
ballot, and now it’s up to you, your
friends, neighbors and family mem-
bers, to vote yes on Measures 66 and
67 this month. Measures 66 and 67
raise the corporate minimum from
$10 to $150. They ask profitable cor-
porations, corporations with high Ore-
gon sales, and families making over
$250,000 a year to pay a little bit
more. If your family makes less than
$250,000 a year (or if you file as an
individual and make less than
$125,000) your taxes won’t change at
all.
These measures are fair. They will
preserve jobs, preserve funding for
projects that create jobs, and preserve
vital services like education, health
care, and public safety that we all de-
pend on.
It’s time corporations and the very
rich pay their fair share.
That’s why the Oregon AFL-CIO
endorsed Measures 66 and 67. That’s
why I’m joining labor leaders from
across the state in voting “yes” on
Measures 66 and 67.
But I can’t do it alone. We need
you to look for your ballot later this
month and make sure to return it by
Tuesday, Jan. 26. And we need you to
spread the word. Talk to your friends
and family. Talk to your co-workers.
Make sure they know why you’re vot-
ing “yes” for Oregon this month.
If you need more information
about the ballot measures, you can
check the Oregon AFL-CIO Web site
at www.oraflcio.org, read more about
it in the Oregon AFL-CIO Weekly
Update, or go to the campaign Web
site at www.voteyesfororegon.org.
Thanks for joining me in protect-
ing the things that make Oregon spe-
cial!
(Editor’s Note: Tom Chamberlain is
president of the Oregon AFL-CIO.)
Oregon deserves better than a jobless recovery
To The Editor:
Since the 1980s, a lack of a national
forest plan is a major reason Oregon
has had 200 timber mills close, causing
50,000 people to lose their jobs.
Rural Oregon has been economi-
cally ruined. Almost every rural town
had a lumber mill. Now, most are gone.
Rural counties have been providing
services for their citizens by using fed-
eral timber monies that in 2012 will
cease. Oregon will have to keep these
counties afloat.
We have lost thousands of alu-
minum jobs as plants closed. Over half
of our paper and pulp mills have
closed, costing thousands of jobs. Our
major steel plants have closed, costing
thousands of jobs. Heavy construction
has lost thousands of jobs. Machine
manufacturing plants have closed, cost-
ing thousands of jobs. Computer high-
tech has lost thousands of jobs. Trans-
portation manufacturing has lost
thousands of jobs. Oregon has lost
thousands of food processing jobs.
The sad part is: we are STILL LOS-
ING JOBS. Roughly 120,000 since
November 2007.
These lost jobs were the backbone
of Oregon’s industrial work sector.
These workers were the primary state,
county, and city taxpayers. Oregon has
created over 70,000 public-sector jobs
during this time period, further putting
a strain on state budgets.
During the 1980 recession, almost
all these industrial facilities and jobs
were still in place, and when these
workers returned from layoffs or cur-
tailed hours and went back to work,
Oregon had no problem pulling out of
the recession.
Oregon’s unemployed now number
over 200,000 when you count the ones
that have quit looking for work or who
are working part time earning lower
wages.
One out of six Oregonians is receiv-
ing food stamps. Oregon needs to put
150,000 people back to work earning
decent wages now. We can’t wait three
to four years, as some experts project
for this jobless recovery.
None of these so-called experts have
missed a paycheck yet. We have lost a
large majority of these jobs to other
states and trade agreements with for-
eign nations. This has to stop.
If we had a national forest plan we
could put thousands back to work do-
ing forest restoration, thinning and log-
ging and perhaps even put a few small
mills back on line in our rural areas,
helping our rural counties become self-
sufficient once again.
We need bridges. Let’s build them.
We need dependable high-speed
train service instead of pouring billions
of dollars into Amtrak.
We need to ensure that we have
highways to handle our traffic needs.
We start these projects and the federal
government will step in to help finance.
We need to build the ocean cargo
container facility at Coos Bay, putting
2,000 people to work.
We need to follow the lead of Idaho
The labor of our hands and the case for unions
To The Editor:
The history of organized labor is a
story of the human spirit against the
greedy nature of man. A nature that
wants to oppress the weak and to en-
rich itself at the expense of another.
The extreme of this is slavery. Since
the dawn of recorded history, slavery
tells the dark side of human nature, and
it still exists in parts of the world, but
even with slavery outlawed in our
country, people are building vast for-
tunes on the backs of hard working
people. (There is nothing wrong with
being in business.)
These craftsmen built the dreams of
our nation and industry without always
JANUARY 1, 2010
sharing in the fruits of their labors. This
must stop. The Bible warns that those
greedy souls who withhold wages from
whom wages are due are wrong. They
will have to give an account for their
greedy actions.
Over the years, the labor movement
has grown and with that growth has
been the wise development of training
schools, thus bringing up a new gener-
ation of highly skilled workers, apply-
ing new technology, making them the
most productive workforce in the
world. This is the place where the la-
borer/craftsman needs labor-manage-
ment, the union workers’ representa-
tion. One person alone is powerless, but
together we can share in the prosperity
of our industry and our nation.
Thank you, labor organizers and
representatives, for all you do for us,
your members. Please remember the
ones that stand with you! May we not
be guilty of greed like the ones we have
fought against, but be a workforce and
a management team that is ready to do
the job of quality and quantity in pro-
duction at a living wage.
Thanks for listening to just one
worker.
Earl R. Carlton Jr.
Sheet Metal Workers 16
Madras
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
and Washington and insure we have ad-
ditional irrigation water to create tens
of thousands of additional farm acres
in central and eastern Oregon growing
food products for America and the
world.
This would create thousands of jobs.
The first step to accomplish these
goals is to take the ideas of the Oregon
Business Council to put people back to
work, form a task force of business and
labor folks to put these and other ideas
to work, and make sure our elected of-
ficials understand this needs to be done,
and done now.
Again, Oregonians deserve better
than a jobless recovery plan. The only
recovery plan that will work is to put
Oregonians back to work now.
Bill J. Kluting
Carpenters Industrial Council
Monmouth
U.S. Congress
should require
‘Sunshine Vote’
To The Editor:
Recently, Sen. Max Baucus, D-
Mont., stated: “I can’t count 60 votes in
the Senate for a public option, so I’m
going to vote ‘no.’ “
If we had a rule that required a
“Sunshine Vote,” he would have said: “I
have to acknowledge the thousands of
dollars I have received from the insur-
ance, pharmaceutical, and drug compa-
nies and, therefore, I am voting ‘no’ on
this public option.”
I sure hope you all still believe in
“government of the people, by the peo-
ple, for the people.”
John Theodore
AFSCME
Retired
Salem
Open
Forum
...Top labor
stories of ‘09
(From Page 1)
court date is in January. In December,
Fred Meyer was declared the local
private sector “Grinch of the Year,” by
Portland Jobs With Justice. Look for
the dispute to continue into 2010 as
Local 555 continues to bargain suc-
cessor agreements to the ones that ex-
pired in July 2008 for 5,300 workers,
and as building trades-affiliated health
trusts close down deals with Kroger
pharmacy.
Politically, the high point for labor
was the inauguration of Democratic
President Barack Obama in January.
Top labor leaders were suddenly fre-
quent White House guests after eight
years of near-total isolation from the
nation’s chief executive. Also sworn
in was labor ally Jeff Merkley, who
replaced Republican Gordon Smith as
Oregon’s junior U.S. Senator. In Feb-
ruary, the Democratic-majority Con-
gress passed economic stimulus legis-
lation that carried a $787 billion price
tag. But Congress was still wrangling
over health care reform as the year
ended, and had yet to deliver on la-
bor’s top priority — the Employee
Free Choice Act — or complete work
on other pressing issues like climate
change and reform of the financial
system.
In the State of Washington, top De-
mocrats elected with labor’s help
caved to business pressure and re-
fused to allow a vote on a workers’
rights bill. Washington Governor
Chris Gregoire, House Speaker Frank
Chopp, and Senate President Lisa
Brown even called state police to sug-
gest that a leaked internal memo from
the Washington State Labor Council
crossed a legal line. The betrayal
prompted changes in the way the
state’s labor movement will approach
politics in years to come.
The Oregon Legislature met from
January to June, and passed a bill that
gives workers the right to refuse to at-
tend workplace anti-union meetings.
But on Dec. 22, the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and Associated Oregon In-
dustries filed suit to stop the new law
from taking effect Jan. 1.
Throughout 2009, construction
unions were busy lobbying for a new
Interstate 5 bridge between Portland
and Vancouver that would include six
through lanes and six merging lanes,
light rail extensions, bike and pedes-
trian lanes, and interchange improve-
ments. However, several politicians
from both Portland and Vancouver
have wavered on their support, so lob-
bying will continue in 2010.
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