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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 2011)
JAN, 21, 2011:NWLP 1/18/11 10:35 AM Page 3 At the Oregon Legislature Union leaders will lobby on behalf of working people By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor SALEM — Oregon’s citizen legis- lature convenes Feb. 1. The five-month session will be dominated by debates on how to deal with a severe state rev- enue shortfall. To make sure lawmak- ers remember working people when decisions are made, representatives of Oregon’s labor union movement will be frequent visitors in the Capitol. For the Oregon AFL-CIO, the num- ber one legislative priority will be sup- porting good jobs, said spokesperson Elana Guiney — whether that means maintaining public services and public sector jobs, attracting manufacturing, or making additional public invest- ments in construction or infrastructure. The AFL-CIO won’t be pushing bills to expand labor rights this year, Guiney said, because it would be diffi- cult given the makeup of the House to get anything through. Republicans gained seats in the Oregon House in the November 2010 election, and the chamber is now split 30-30 between the two parties. The governorship and the Oregon Senate remain in Demo- cratic hands. Guiney mentioned two job-related bills the federation will support. New officers elected at Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central Labor Council KALAMA — New officers have been elected to the Cowlitz-Wahki- akum Counties Labor Council. They are: President Jeff Washburn of Plumbers and Fitters Local 26; Vice President Tim Pfeifer of Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Local 580; Recording Secretary-Treasurer David Myers of the International Broth- erhood of Electrical Workers Local 970; Sergeant-at-Arms Steve Swarat of Service Employees International Union Local 925; and Trustee Linda Hart of United Food and Commercial Work- ers Local 555. Hart will join Lowell Lovgren of AWPPW Local 633 and Dale Barto of Machinists Lodge W536 as trustees. The latter two were not up for election. One would require that whenever prime industrial land is converted to an- other use, other industrial land be found to replace it. Keizer Station, near Salem, is an example of the problem: A parcel of land there had been re- served for industrial use, but instead was developed as a shopping center. [So instead of being a site for high- wage manufacturing, it’s become an opportunity for big-box chains to em- ploy low-wage workers to sell foreign- made goods.] The other bill would allow develop- ers of gas, water, and electric transmis- sion lines to get a conditional permit before obtaining permission from landowners. Current rules bog down the permitting process, Guiney said. Another bill that may get labor sup- port is HB 2033, a bill Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian will be pushing to restore career and technical education to Oregon middle schools and high schools. It would expose stu- dents at up to 10 schools to high-de- mand jobs in renewable energy, health care, and manufacturing. United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 will con- tinue its legislative campaign to protect members from draconian penalties for unwitting sales of alcohol to minors. Last session, the union was able to win a law decriminalizing such sales (mak- ing it a civil, not criminal offense). But Local 555 Secretary-Treasurer Jeff An- derson said the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is undermining the intent of the decriminalization by targeting cashiers with felony “furnishing alco- hol to a minor” charges — even though that statute is aimed at intentional “shoulder-tap” type activity. And State Rep. Brad Witt (D- Clatskanie), who is also a Local 555 union rep, is expected to propose a ban on alcohol and tobacco sales at self- checkout stations. Oregon Working Families Party — a minor political party that has union support — will work to pass a bill cre- ating a state bank. The idea — modeled on the Bank of North Dakota — is to take the billions of dollars the State of Oregon now deposits mostly in large out-of-state banks, and deposit the funds instead in a state-owned bank, which would partner with community banks and lend to Oregon farms and businesses. Kitzhaber taps Shepard for labor adviser Duke Shepard, Oregon AFL-CIO political director since January 2006, has been hired by newly-sworn-in Ore- gon Gov. John Kitzhaber. Shepard worked for Kitzhaber once before as a field coordinator of Kitzhaber’s 1994 campaign for gover- nor. Now Shepard, 38, will be labor and human services adviser to the gov- ernor. The Oregon AFL-CIO won’t hire a replacement. Instead, Shepard’s re- sponsibilities will be divided between President Tom Chamberlain, Field Di- rector Graham Trainor, and Communi- cations Director Elana Guiney. Shepard has a bachelor’s degree in political science from University of Oregon. Before he was hired by Cham- berlain, Shepard managed the 1996 ini- tiative campaign that raised Oregon’s minimum wage, served as policy ad- viser to Multnomah County Chair Di- ane Linn, worked on Congressman Pe- ter DeFazio’s 2004 re-election campaign, helped create a regional business plan at the Portland Business Alliance, and spent time as an organ- izer with the Oregon Nurses Associa- tion. Twice elected to the Mt. Hood Community College Board of Direc- tors, Shepard also ran for a seat on the Metro Council in 2010, but dropped out of the race after finishing a distant second in the primary. D UKE S HEPARD Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call 503-288-5537 1638 NE Broadway, Portland • Investment Consulting/Monitoring for Taft-Hartley Plans only. • Trustees, do you think an experienced money manager as your Investment Consultant would be helpful? 503-227-2895 T ERRY G. H ANNON P RESIDENT JANUARY 21, 2011 E-Mail: solidarity2@earthlink.net NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 3
