JAN, 21, 2011:NWLP
1/18/11
10:35 AM
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Working Families Party to host forum
on proposed Oregon State Bank
2011 Legislature will
consider legislation to
create publicly-owned
bank
The Working Families Party of Ore-
gon, in partnership with the Oregonians
for a State Bank coalition, will hold a
forum on Feb. 1, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at
New Song Community Church, 2511
NE Martin Luther King Blvd., Portland.
Two years ago over 800 people gath-
ered in Portland to strategize a unified,
local response to the unfolding eco-
nomic crisis. One idea to emerge from
that gathering was to work for the cre-
ation of a state bank modeled after the
highly successful, 91-year-old Bank of
North Dakota.
Currently the State of Oregon de-
posits billions of its tax receipts into the
very same “too big to fail banks” that
crashed the global economy. The Work-
ing Families Party proposal to create the
Oregon State Bank would instead move
that money into a publicly owned bank
accountable to the citizens of Oregon,
and which would partner with local
community banks to get credit flowing
to small businesses and family farmers
once again.
“This state bank proposal is generat-
‘Solution to Resolution’ topic of LERA breakfast
“The Solution to Resolution” will be
the topic of discussion at the Jan. 25
breakfast program sponsored by the
Oregon Labor Employment Relations
Association. Labor attorney Mike
Tedesco and management attorney
Todd Lyon will answer questions and
offer advice on how to prepare each
side for a final settlement.
The breakfast begins at 7:30 a.m. at
Clackamas Community College in
Wilsonville, 29353 Town Center Loop
East. Cost is $35 — $25 if you pay for
a membership to LERA.
Questions and registrations can be
directed by e-mail to info@oregon
lera.org, or call Jim Bailey at 503-819-
4071.
LERA is an organization that brings
labor, management, neutrals and aca-
demics together to improve labor-man-
agement relations.
ing widespread, bi-partisan support,”
said Barbara Dudley, co-chair of the
Oregon Working Families Party. “We
can’t afford to let our economy be held
hostage to the whims of distant finan-
cial markets, and the Oregon State Bank
is a huge step toward creating a local
economy that serves working people,
not Wall Street.”
The forum will focus on the history
and outline of the state bank proposal,
discussing the need for a state bank, and
looking at the path to creating such an
institution in the 2011 legislative ses-
sion. The event will feature speakers
from the Working Families Party, Ore-
gon Action/Main Street Alliance, and
others.
Others forums are slated throughout
the state over the next couple of months.
The first is in Medford, Tuesday, Jan.
25, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Medford
Public Library, 205 S. Central Ave.
On Saturday, Feb. 26, a forum will
be held starting at 2 p.m at the Salem
Senior Center, 2615 Portland Rd. NE.
Another forum will be held in Eu-
gene on Thursday, March 3, at Harris
Hall, 125 E. 8th Ave., starting at 6 p.m.
Additional information about the
campaign can be found online at:
http://oregoniansforastatebank.org/.
Porter appointed
to Commission
on Senior Services
Verna Porter of the Oregon Alliance
for Retired Americans, a partner organ-
ization of the AFL-CIO, has been ap-
pointed to the Governor’s Commission
on Senior Services.
The commis-
sion is charged
with finding ways
to enhance and
protect the quality
of life for older
Oregonians, work-
ing to ensure that
they have access to
services that pro- V ERNA P ORTER
vide choice, inde-
pendence and dignity.
Porter is a retired nurse and member
of the Oregon Nurses Association
who specialized in geriatric nursing
the last few years of her career. She
has served as secretary-treasurer of
the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union’s Columbia River
Pensioners and is a lobbyist for the
Oregon State Council for Retired Cit-
izens and United Seniors of Oregon.
Porter said her primary focus on
the commission will be home health
care. “The Service Employees organ-
ized home health care workers, and the
state has put into place regulations so
that now home health care providers
must have some training and be li-
censed,” Porter said. “Home health care
is such a vital service and now seniors
know who is giving that care.”
JANUARY 21, 2011
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Rallying for jobs
Toby Green of Laborers Local 483 joined a dozen unemployed Oregonians
and several community leaders at a rally Jan. 10 in downtown Portland to
call on the new Congress to enact a federal jobs programs and to extend
unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless. Dubbed “the 99ers”
because they have been unemployment for more than 99 weeks and have lost
their insurance benefits, Green said workers cannot sit idly by and wait for
help. He said it was the strength of unemployed workers in the 1930s that led
to creation of public works programs that created hundreds of thousands of
jobs building bridges and roads and restoring and developing natural
resources. “This did not happen from some act of God or benevolence on the
part of President Franklin Roosevelt,” Green said. “These workers organized
themselves to demand these programs.” Loren Spencer of Portland said she
has reached the 99-week limit on benefits and is now without an income. “I
desperately want to work, but there just aren’t enough jobs,” she said. “I’m
concerned that I won’t be able to put a roof over my head, and Congress is
talking about taking away safety net benefits from those who most
desperately need them. We need a federal jobs program, since big business
is no longer interested in investing in our economy.” Rallygoers called on
labor to organize massive demonstrations at cities across the country to
demand that government create a jobs program, paid for by taxes on Wall
Street and the super-rich, who now pay taxes at a far lower rate than average
workers. “We must never forget that it was Wall Street that caused this
crisis,” Green said. The rally was sponsored by Portland Jobs with Justice
and the Sunnyside Self-Help Employment Group.
Take precautions when booking
meetings at Northwest hotels
UNITE HERE, the union that repre-
sents hotel workers, is trying to get the
word out about the possibility of labor
disputes when contracts expire this
summer at Portland and Seattle hotels.
Unions and pro-union groups tradi-
tionally support union workers by
scheduling meetings and conferences at
unionized facilities. But that can get
tricky if the workers end up on strike or
boycotting their employer, as they have
in several recent contract disputes with
the Hilton hotel chain.
Karly Edwards, deputy trustee of
Portland-based UNITE HERE Local 9,
suggests that conference planners nego-
tiate “force majeure” language in con-
tracts with hotels. Depending on how
they’re worded, such clauses can pre-
vent organizations from losing deposits
or having to pay cancellation fees if
they cancel because of a labor dispute.
Sample language is available at
www.unitehere8.org.
Inmex, a UNITE HERE-supported
non-profit that was founded in 2006,
can also help. Inmex, which stands for
Informed Meetings Exchange, provides
a number of resources for meeting plan-
ners at www.inmex.org, and helps users
select socially-responsible hotels.
Contracts covering about 400 work-
ers expire June 30 and July 31 at the
four unionized hotels in the Portland-
area: the Benson, Paramount, Hilton
Portland & Executive Tower, and Hilton
Vancouver, Washington. And contracts
covering 1,400 workers at seven Seat-
tle-area hotels and meeting spaces ex-
pire at the end of May, June, and July.
Those are: The Westin Hotel Seattle,
The Edgewater Hotel, Seattle Hilton,
Washington Athletic Club, Space Nee-
dle Sky City Restaurant, Doubletree
Hotel Seattle Airport, and Hilton Seattle
Airport and Conference Center.
In October 2010, UNITE HERE
struck Hilton hotels in Chicago, Hon-
olulu, and San Francisco before reach-
ing agreements on new contracts.
“It’s important that hotel workers not
be locked into recession-era contracts,
and locked out of the recovery,” said
Eric Van Rossum, secretary-treasurer of
Seattle-based UNITE HERE Local 8.
As the recession took hold, hotel
workers suffered layoffs, hours cuts,
and workload increases, Van Rossum
said, but hotel business has bounced
back since its 2009 low point and is on
track for full recovery in 2012 and
2013.
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