June 3, 2011_nWLP 5/31/11 10:21 aM Page 1
Inside
MEETING NOTICES
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Page 6
Volume 112
Number 11
June 3, 2011
Portland, Oregon
Thousands at Capitol
rally for a ‘Better Way’
State workers call for
more efficient
government, fewer
managers, and more
taxes on the wealthy
Several thousand Oregon public employees and their allies converged on the state Capitol in Salem May 20 to send a
message to legislators and the governor not to balance the state budget on the backs of workers alone. The rally was
staged after the release of the state’s May revenue forecast, which came out May 12.
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
SALEM — “We took our fair share
of the burden last time, and we’re pre-
pared to do it again,” said state worker
union leader Heather Conroy. “How-
ever, we should not, can not, and will
not do it alone.”
Conroy — executive director of
Service Employees (SEIU) Local 503
— made that declaration May 20 in
front of several thousand supporters out-
side the state Capitol. But the message
was aimed at the lawmakers behind her.
State workers are being asked to agree
to pay and benefit cuts in light of the
state’s budget shortfall, but they want to
know that they’re not the only ones sac-
WSLC calls workers’ comp reform ‘shameful’
By DAVID GROVES
OLYMPIA — In a special 30-day
overtime session, the Washington State
House and Senate passed labor-op-
posed workers’ compensation legisla-
tion May 23, without amendment, that
Gov. Chris Gregoire calls “some of the
largest reforms in the system’s 100-year
history.” The bill — which had no pub-
lic hearing and no fiscal note explain-
ing its costs — was made public for the
first time at about noon that day, passed
the House 69-26 in the afternoon, and
passed the Senate 35-12 in the evening.
The special session ended May 25.
EHB 2123 was the product of
closed-door negotiations between the
Democratic governor and legislative
leaders of both parties, who held a news
conference May 22 announcing the
deal, which passed both houses within
24 hours. It will make Washington the
first state in the country that offers what
Gregoire calls “structured settlements”
to injured workers 55 years and older
(lowered to 50 by 2016), which are es-
sentially the lump-sum buyouts op-
posed by labor but spread over periodic
payments. Next year alone, the state an-
ticipates injured workers will get settle-
ments that are $335 million less than
they would otherwise receive, and a to-
tal of $545 million less over 2012-15.
“The passage of EHB 2123 without
public hearing, without public debate
was shameful,” said Jeff Johnson, pres-
ident of the Washington State Labor
Council, AFL-CIO. “I am astounded by
the ability of a Democratic Legislature
to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our
unique workers’ compensation system,
only to begin its second 100 years by
dismantling that which makes it unique.
You can re-label compromise-and-re-
lease settlements as ‘structured settle-
ments’ and you can deceive yourself
into believing that workers have real
protections in this bill, but you cannot
avoid the fact that more than a half bil-
lion dollars in benefits will be taken
from injured workers from this section
of the bill alone.”
EHB 2123 also freezes injured
workers’ cost-of-living adjustments for
one year, reducing benefits by an esti-
mated $31 million in 2012 and $124
million in 2012-15; deducts prior dis-
ability awards from pension awards and
eliminates interest payments of perma-
nent partial disability awards, which
cuts benefits by $99 million in 2012 and
$133 million over 2012-15; and makes
several other changes.
Advocates on both sides of the issue
— from the labor federation to the
right-wing Washington Policy Center
— expressed concerns about the haste
of EHB 2123’s passage, the lack of
public hearings, and the likelihood for
confusion and drafting error. In the
hours after the bill was publicly released
at noon May 23, the Washington State
Labor Council issued an “action alert”
and legislators received about 1,500 e-
mails in opposition to the proposal. But
in the end, the vote had been decided
long before the bill even existed.
In Southwest Washington, 49th Dis-
trict State Rep. Sharon Wylie opposed
the bill while State Rep. Jim Moeller
and State Sen. Craig Pridemore voted
for it. All three are Democrats.
In the 18th District, State Represen-
tatives Ann Rivers and Ed Orcutt, and
State Sen. Joe Zarelli all supported the
bill. All three are Republicans.
In the 17th District, State Represen-
tatives Tim Probst, a Democrat, and
Paul Harris, a Republican, voted against
the bill, as did Republican State Sen.
Don Benton.
Some legislators celebrated with
business lobbyists after the vote.
Said Johnson: “As Boeing and busi-
ness lobbyists celebrated with glasses
of wine after the House vote, and House
members of both parties joined them in
the celebration, it reminded many of us
in labor of the after-midnight gutting of
our unemployment insurance system
and attacks on workers’ compensation
in 2003. It is almost as if the defeat of
Initiative 1082 (to privatize the workers’
compensation system) never hap-
pened.”
(Editor’s Note: David Groves is
publications director for the Washing-
ton State Labor Council.)
rificing. Corporations and the wealthy
need to pay a bigger share of taxes, and
the state needs to find efficiencies by
thinning management’s ranks. Those
suggestions are some of the highlights
of a 62-page report SEIU Local 503
published March 21, entitled “Moving
Oregon Forward: A Better Way.”
Better Way was also the title of the
May 20 mass rally at the state Capitol,
which was organized by SEIU, an affil-
iate of the Change to Win labor federa-
tion, and the other large state workers
union, AFL-CIO-affiliated American
Federation of State, County and Munic-
ipal Employees (AFSCME), with sup-
port from dozens of labor and commu-
nity groups. The rally took place on the
last of the 10 unpaid furlough days that
most state workers were required to take
in the current state budget biennium.
In ongoing bargaining over the next
two-year contract, Local 503 and Ore-
gon AFSCME are seeing proposals for
a de facto 6 percent pay cut — in which
the state would take back the pension
“pick-up” it first gave under Republican
governor Vic Atiyeh in lieu of a pay in-
crease. State worker contract bargain-
ing takes place in a sort of two-step
dance simultaneous to the legislative
budget process, since the state only can
spend what legislators approve. Law-
makers this year are working on a state
budget proposal that assumes a freeze
or reduction of the salaries and benefits
of the governor, statewide elected offi-
cials, legislators, and agency managers
— and concessions from state workers
on salary, health care, and pension
costs.
It’s in that context that Local 503
asked its state worker members to sug-
gest ideas for savings. Many of their
suggestions are contained in the report.
“An all-cuts budget is simply unac-
ceptable, both for us and those who rely
on our work every day,” Conroy told
rally-goers. “There is a better way.”
Some of the Better Way proposals
are getting traction:
• SEIU’s finding of 1 manager for
every 5.7 workers embarrassed the
state; House Bill 2020, still alive as of
press time, would direct state agencies
over 100 employees to aim for an 11-
to-1 ratio (with exceptions to be worked
(Turn to Page 12)