JAN, 21, 2011:NWLP
1/18/11
10:35 AM
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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
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503-288-5537
1638 NE Broadway, Portland
• Investment Consulting/Monitoring for Taft-Hartley Plans only.
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T ERRY G. H ANNON
P RESIDENT
JANUARY 21, 2011
E-Mail: solidarity2@earthlink.net
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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