Northwest labor press., January 21, 2011, Page 7, Image 7

JAN, 21, 2011:NWLP
1/18/11
10:35 AM
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Conyers to speak at single
payer forum in Portland
Supporters of a “single payer” public
health insurance system are gearing up
for a daylong Jan. 29 conference in
Portland at which they’ll hear from the
leading single payer advocate in Con-
gress — and strategize how to support a
single payer bill that will be introduced
in the Oregon Legislature.
The United States has a government-
provided single-payer health insurance
system for those 65 and older, known
as Medicare, and it’s extremely popular
among seniors. But private insurance
companies and their political allies have
fiercely opposed proposals to extend
Medicare to all Americans, such as HR
676, a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. John
Conyers (D-Ill.). Conyers will talk at
the conference about his bill, which
President Barack Obama and Demo-
cratic leaders in the House and Senate
refused to consider during the 2009-
2010 deliberations over health insur-
ance reform.
Also headlining the event will be Dr.
Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a
National Health Program (PNHP).
Flowers, a Maryland pediatrician, was
arrested during a 2009 hearing of the
Senate Finance Committee for de-
manding that the committee hear testi-
mony on Conyers’ bill. Committee
Chair Max Baucus refused during
weeks of hearings on health care reform
to allow testimony from any supporter
of a single payer system, even though
Conyers’ bill had 87 Congressional co-
sponsors and a companion bill in the
Senate sponsored by Independent
Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Such uni-
versal government-provided health in-
surance is common throughout the
world.
The Portland conference, paid for by
the Presbyterian Church USA, has the
endorsement of the Oregon AFL-CIO
and 10 other labor organizations. It will
take place Jan. 29, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30
p.m., at the First Unitarian Church,
1211 SW Main St., Portland.
Activists, including Portland Jobs
with Justice, hope to use the conference
as a springboard to build support for a
bill to be introduced in the Oregon Leg-
islature the following week by State
Rep. Michael Dembrow and State Sen.
Chip Shields.
Though single payer wasn’t consid-
ered as a nationwide option during the
Congressional health care debate,
Sanders and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-
Oregon) were able to win a provision in
the final version of the health reform
legislation that gives states some lati-
tude to experiment with single payer.
Section 1332 of the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act allows states
to implement alternatives to the private
insurance market exchanges, with a fed-
eral waiver, as long as they provide cov-
erage at least as comprehensive and af-
fordable for a comparable number of
residents. That opens the door to states
that want to try a single payer system.
Besides Oregon, campaigns are un-
der way to propose single payer this
year in Vermont, Minnesota, Pennsyl-
vania and California.
To register for the conference, visit
www.SinglePayerOregon.org or call
503-262-4970.
Who’s On Our Side?
By Tom Chamberlain
O
regon’s unemployment rate has
hovered at 10.5 percent since
2008, and while there are some
signs that our economy is beginning
to rebound and that the spring unem-
ployment numbers may show some
improvement, it will not be enough
to give relief to the 200,000 Orego-
nians who are unemployed.
Those 200,000 Oregonians are
either trying to make ends meet on
their meager unemployment benefits
or have exhausted those benefits
and rely on odd jobs, help from fam-
ily and friends, or our social safety
net, such as food stamps, welfare
and — if they are lucky — Medi-
caid.
And while they face the daily
struggle of trying to stay in their
house, keep their car, and feed their
family, they also face full days feel-
ing unproductive and alone without
the satisfaction of putting in a fair
day’s work for a fair day’s pay.
There are a number of organiza-
tions that have established unem-
ployed support groups: Machinists,
Jobs with Justice, Labor’s Commu-
nity Service Agency, Working
America, and others have had some
success in reaching and providing
needed support for the jobless.
But these programs still aren’t
reaching enough people.
That’s why the AFL-CIO has se-
lected five pilot cities, including
Portland, to expand support and re-
sources to the unemployed. In Port-
IBEW’s Malbin to
co-chair prevailing
wage advisory panel Representing workers at OHSU
Norman Malbin, in-house counsel
for the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers Local 48, has been
named labor co-chair of the Prevailing
Wage Advisory Committee (PWAC) by
Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad
Avakian.
Shawn Miller, counsel forAssociated
Builders and Contractors and the Inde-
pendent Electrical Contractors of Ore-
gon, was named management co-chair.
PWAC was created by legislative ac-
tion in 2003, directing the commissioner
of the Bureau of Labor and Industries to
appoint an equal number of representa-
tives from management and labor in the
building and construction industry who
perform work on public works con-
tracts. The committee is charged with
advising the labor commissioner on
matters regarding the prevailing wage
rate laws that apply to public construc-
tion projects.
Previous co-chairs Don Kool of the
United Association of Plumbers and
Steamfitters, Local 290 (retired), and
Jim McKune, chief operating officer of
Emerick Construction Co., completed
their terms at PWAC’s Jan. 20 meeting.
Malbin and Miller will take charge
Feb. 1.
JANUARY 21, 2011
land, we will be working with the
Northwest Oregon Labor Council,
Labor’s Community Service
Agency, and Working America,
among other community partners.
We will combine several established
unemployment programs so that we
can access more resources and de-
velop more opportunities for the un-
employed — both union and non-
union.
Anti-union forces continue to try
to portray unions as being concerned
only with our own members. But in
doing that, they take away the voice
of so many American workers —
because when it comes down to it,
we, along with Working America,
are the only groups giving voice to
all working people. It’s time,
though, that we reach out beyond
our role in supporting working peo-
ple in Oregon and help those who
used to work find their voice as well.
In Oregon alone, our community
affiliate, Working America, has a
membership of over 135,000 mem-
bers who do not belong to a union.
Many of them are unemployed.
Within our own ranks there are hun-
dreds of union members on the
books who are not working. And
thousands more Oregonians were
union members before they lost their
job and their union. These Oregoni-
ans are our brothers and sisters, even
if they are not union members.
It’s high time that union member-
ship does not stop with a paycheck.
Moving forward, we will treat par-
ticipants in our unemployed pro-
gram just like members of any other
constituency group — Young
Emerging Labor Leaders, Coalition
of Black Trade Unionists, Pride at
Work, or Labor Council of Latina
American Advancement.
In mid-February we will hold the
first meeting for unemployed Orego-
nians and work with them to create
an Oregon Jobs Jump Start Express,
as the program is being called na-
tionally. At that meeting we look
forward to finding out what unem-
ployed Oregonians need, and how
the participants think they can join
together to raise their common
voice. If you or someone you know
is interested in participating in this
group, call the Oregon AFL-CIO of-
fice at 503-585-6320 and we’ll get
you more information as it gets
closer to the event.
Meantime, spread the word to
former co-workers and your fellow
union members who are out of
work.
Because, moving forward, Ore-
gon’s union movement is on your
side — even after the paycheck
stops, whether or not you’re a union
member.
Tom Chamberlain is president of
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
Raahahn retires after 34 years with AFSCME
Longtime union field rep Dave Raahahn, 61, retires
today, Jan. 21, after 34 years in American Federation
of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AF-
SCME).
When he settled in Portland in 1970, Raahahn was
an anti-war long-hair who’d grown up outside
Rochester, New York.
On Oct. 1, 1976, he started working at the Hooper
Detox Center, a Multnomah County agency that
treated the severely intoxicated. Raahahn did laundry,
then food service, then drove the van that picked up al-
coholics in need of medical detoxification. The job
paid the minimum wage, but Raahahn began going to
AFSCME Local 88 union meetings. His testimony at
a late 1970s union contract bargaining session helped
the union double the wage.
In 1980, county workers went on strike. Raahahn
remembers it as the first public workers strike after
Oregon’s passage of the Public Employee Collective
Bargaining Act. For six weeks, county offices were
closed. Raahahn was the strike captain for his building
— the detox center. He ran a union soup kitchen and
served on the strikers assistance committee, which
helped members in special financial hardship.
After the strike, Raahahn’s union involvement con-
tinued to deepen. He served on his local’s bargaining
team. He took leaves from his job
to do political work for the local,
state, and national AFSCME —
including a six-month stint as
driver for then-gubernatorial can-
didate Ted Kulongoski during his
1982 primary campaign. Kulon-
goski won the primary but lost
the November general election to
D AVE R AAHAHN Vic Atiyeh.
In the early 1980s, Raahahn’s
county department was privatized. [Today, Hooper
Detox and its Chiers vans are run by the non-profit
Central City Concern under a county contract.]
Raahahn took a job in 1984 as a parking enforce-
ment officer in the Transportation Department of the
City of Portland. He wrote tickets for parking viola-
tions, making the rounds on foot or by scooter. And
he got involved in his new union local, becoming
Transportation Department chapter chair (kind of like
a chief steward) for AFSCME Local 189.
He took classes through the Labor Education and
Research Center (LERC) of the University of Oregon
and graduated from its U-LEAD leadership training
program. And he served as an AFSCME delegate to
the Northwest Oregon Labor Council.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
When a union rep position became vacant in On-
tario, Oregon, in 1999, Oregon AFSCME Executive
Director Ken Allen asked Raahahn to fill in for a few
weeks. The few weeks became a few months. In 2000,
a position opened up as rep for his former local at Mult-
nomah County, and Raahahn applied and was hired.
Later, he was assigned to represent members at
Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) Lo-
cal 328, Oregon AFSCME’s largest.
Union political efforts are Raahahn’s passion. He’s
proud of his record at OHSU recruiting members to
contribute to PEOPLE, AFSCME’s political program.
Support for PEOPLE tripled at OHSU, from 6 percent
to 19 percent.
“We as public employees have the unique ability
to elect our own bosses,” Raahahn explains, “and once
they’re elected, to influence the way that public em-
ployees are treated, and in a larger sense, how all
workers are treated.”
Raahahn would continue on, he says, but a chronic
pain disorder has begun to make the long hours of a
union rep difficult to maintain. Look for him instead
behind the wheel of his restored Milano Maroon 1965
Corvette roadster, on the golf course while his back
holds up, or fly-fishing one of the Northwest’s great
rivers.
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