June 18, 2010 :NWLP
6/15/10
10:10 AM
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Oregon AFL-CIO makes endorsements for November election
The Oregon AFL-CIO’s Committee
on Political Education (COPE) on June
4 set its political agenda for Novem-
ber’s general election.
Not surprisingly, jobs — creating
them, protecting them, and making
sure they pay a living wage — domi-
nated the discussion.
Jobs that have been lost as a result
of U.S. free trade agreements were the
focus of debate during endorsement
votes for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-3rd
District).
COPE delegates from the Steel-
workers and Oregon Machinists Coun-
cil, which includes a division of the
Woodworkers, expressed disappoint-
ment in the politicians’ continued sup-
port of free-trade deals and their refusal
to get behind a bill to renegotiate the
North American Free Trade Agree-
ment.
“We’ve lost a lot of jobs because
Wyden is a free trader,” said Bob
Petroff, directing business representa-
tive of Machinists District Lodge 24.
“The Oregon Machinists Council did
not endorse him.”
Wyden and Blumenauer were not
endorsed at the AFL-CIO’s primary
election COPE meeting in March be-
cause neither had turned in a question-
naire. Questionnaires are mandatory to
be considered for endorsement.
So, with questionnaires in hand this
time around, the COPE Executive
Committee first recommended endors-
ing Wyden, whose Republican oppo-
nent in November is Lewis & Clark
Law School professor Jim Huffman.
Elected to the Senate in 1996,
Wyden has compiled an 89 percent
COPE voting record on bills tracked by
the national AFL-CIO. During the first
year of this 111th Congress, he has an
interim scorecard of 78 percent on 23
votes cast.
Delegates were reminded that, de-
spite his position on trade, Wyden is a
co-sponsor of labor’s top priority legis-
lation, the Employee Free Choice Act.
Regardless, on a standing vote,
Wyden failed to get the required two-
thirds majority for endorsement.
After Blumenauer was recom-
mended for endorsement, a motion for
a roll-call vote passed, and the seven-
term congressman, who has a 93 per-
cent COPE voting record, was sup-
ported by a wide margin.
Delegates referred an endorsement
recommendation on first-term Con-
gressman Kurt Schrader (D-5th Dis-
trict) to the Executive Committee, after
which they approved a motion to re-
consider Wyden’s race. Another roll-
call vote was called, and this time he
easily attained the two-thirds majority.
Still, many delegates while casting
their votes made known their displeas-
ure with his position on trade.
In other action, COPE endorsed Ted
Wheeler for state treasurer. The trea-
surer’s post opened earlier this year fol-
lowing the death of Ben Westlund.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski appointed
Wheeler interim treasurer prior to the
May primary.
The Oregon AFL-CIO didn’t take a
position in the Democratic primary, in
which Wheeler defeated labor-friendly
State Sen. Rick Metsger of Mt. Hood.
Both candidates ran with endorsements
from various local unions or building
trades councils. Wheeler will face Sen.
Chris Telfer (R-Bend) in November.
COPE has already endorsed John
Kitzhaber for governor, and Congress-
men David Wu (D-1st District) and Pe-
ter DeFazio (D-4th District).
For all legislative endorsements, go
to the Oregon AFL-CIO’s web site at
http://oraflcio.org/.
Trumka seeks to channel worker anger in a positive direction
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Calling workers “frustrated, anxious
and angry” about “an economy that
doesn’t work for them,” AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka says labor’s
mission this election year is to channel
the anger in a positive direction.
And, he warned, that mission may
not always be in the direction of sup-
porting Democratic Party congres-
sional candidates. “We’ll partner with
the Democratic Party when they work
for working people — and won’t when
they won’t,” Trumka stated.
Trumka and other panelists, includ-
ing Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.,
Working America Executive Director
Karen Nussbaum, and journalists Chris
Hayes of The Nation and Peter Wilson
of The Wall Street Journal, discussed
the popular anger, its causes and its
electoral consequences June 3 at a
packed house at the AFL-CIO head-
quarters.
Those consequences appeared in
both parties, the panelists noted: Sen.
Arlen Specter, (D-Pa.), lost his primary
and Sen. Robert Bennett, (R-Utah) lost
his nominating convention to a “Tea
Party” candidate. Sen. Blanche Lin-
coln, (D-Ark.), who antagonized
unions by opposing the Employee Free
Choice Act, barely won her runoff over
labor-backed Lieut. Gov. Bill Halter.
Those and other electoral upsets are
manifestations of a deeper problem, the
panelists said: an economy that does
not work for workers, who are frus-
trated and confused about how to re-
spond — and who are also vulnerable
to the extremism of the Tea Party and
right-wing talkers, notably Glenn Beck.
Labor has to fill a vacuum of informa-
tion, not yield it to Beck, Nussbaum
said.
“We’ve been preaching about this
economy since at least 1995, when we
first started saying corporations are not
acting in our best interest,” Trumka
stated. The message apparently didn’t
get through — though now it is doing
so with a vengeance, panelists said.
They differed on how to respond to and
use voter anger.
Edwards said the Democrats “have
to stop saying, ‘It was the other guy’s
fault,’ ” blaming the economic disaster
on Republican policies in general and
those of former GOP President George
W. Bush in particular. “We have to have
an idea ourselves about what we want
to do,” she said.
But the party’s message is handi-
capped because “we have a raucous
caucus,” unlike the monolithic anti-
everything GOP, Edwards said. “Un-
less we get back to talking about jobs,
jobs, jobs, we’ll lose this fall — and
we’ll deserve to lose.”
Hayes said workers soured not just
on the Obama Administration, Con-
gress or on specific policies but on all
institutions — labor, business and gov-
ernment — and the policies they pro-
mote.
He called the sour grapes “a reaction
to a terrible, terrible disaster” that hit
workers as a result of “a massive cas-
cade of institutional failure, covering
everyone from the Catholic Church to
major league baseball to the govern-
ment to GM.”
Hayes’ solution: Restore accounta-
bility, getting everything out in the
open. Right now, “people see Washing-
ton and Wall Street in cahoots – and
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JUNE 18, 2010