June 3, 2011_nWLP 5/31/11 10:21 aM Page 12
...A Better Way
“Purple and green look good together,” said Oregon AFSCME Executive Director Ken Allen, referring to the colors
of his union (green) and SEIU’s trademark purple at a May 20 rally at the Oregon state Capitol. “We’re here today
to say the message that purple and green are staying together.”
Agencies near and dear to labor
mostly spared cuts by Legislature
SALEM — Oregon legislators are
getting down to the nitty-gritty of the
state’s next two-year budget. They have
until the end of June to pass the budget
for a fiscal year that begins July 1. The
economy is better than it was two years
ago, but federal stimulus funds have
been used up, and it’s a lean, hard sea-
son for most state agencies.
Among agencies of special concern
to organized labor, the scenario is belt-
tightening, but no disabling cuts.
The Bureau of Labor and Industries
(BOLI) stood to lose eight positions in
the governor’s budget, but a Joint Ways
and Means subcommittee restored four
of them. Going forward as of press
time, it appeared that the agency will
shrink from its current full-time-equiv-
alent of 107.3 staff to 101. The cuts
would include one fewer wage and hour
compliance specialist, and one fewer
civil rights investigator. The agency was
to have lost two employees in the ap-
prenticeship division, but those were re-
stored by the subcommittee, with an ad-
ditional apprenticeship position added
for heavy highway construction.
University of Oregon Labor Educa-
tion and Research Center (LERC) does-
n’t appear to be under any special
threat, though it could have its budget
trimmed if higher education budget
overall gets chopped 7 percent.
The State of Oregon Employment
Relations Board (ERB) — which runs
elections, mediates disputes, and adju-
dicates labor law violations for state and
local government employees in Oregon
— is fully funded for year one with 13
full-time equivalent staff. But it’s on
track to lose about a quarter of its
budget in year two unless a committee
can come up with new funding ideas.
Unlike the National Labor Relations
Board, which administers labor law for
private-sector unions, ERB’s budget
PAGE 12
comes mostly from user fees, including
a per-capita fee paid by state agencies.
A budget work group composed of
union and employer representatives
agreed that ERB could increase filing
and mediation fees: The cost to file and
respond to an unfair labor practice
charge will rise to $300 from the cur-
rent $250. Mediation (which cost noth-
ing until 1995) currently costs a flat
$1,000 fee; under the proposal passed
by a Joint Ways and Means subcom-
mittee, mediation after June 30 will cost
$1,000 for the first two days, $500 for
the third day, $750 for the fourth, and
$1,000 a day after that. [Costs of medi-
ation are split between union and em-
ployer.] The one-quarter of ERB’s
budget that is in the air is the $900,000
it gets from the state general fund for
administering the Public Employee
Collective Bargaining Act for local gov-
ernments. ERB Board Chair Paul Gam-
son said a reform workgroup will dis-
cuss alternative sources of funding for
the second year — which could force
some pretty basic questions to be asked
about public sector collective bargain-
ing.
(From Page 1)
out between agency directors and the
Joint Ways and Means committee.)
• The Oregon Department of Rev-
enue, says Local 503 political organizer
Melissa Unger, has acted on a number
of Local 503 member suggestions to
improve tax collection.
• A proposal to have state agencies
scrutinize service and supply contracts
is emerging in the form of a budget line
item; it would require state purchasing
agents to seek 6.5 percent cost savings
from vendors.
• And a proposal to save state agen-
cies an estimated $15 million by pur-
chasing pharmaceuticals through the
Oregon Prescription Drug Program was
moving forward as of press time as Sen-
ate Bill 962.
“We haven’t been ignored,” says Lo-
cal 503 spokesperson Ed Hershey.
But SEIU and AFSCME have had
more mixed success with proposals to
take a close look at tax giveaways —
subsidies embedded in the state tax
code as credits and deductions.
The unions called attention to ineffi-
ciency in the way the state manages its
film tax credit; that led to a bill giving
the state film commission the discretion
to give subsidies directly, cutting out the
investor middle-men who currently put
money into film projects and then col-
lect it back as tax credits.
But a blanket proposal to rate tax
breaks according to whether they bene-
fit mostly the wealthy appears unlikely
to pass. Unger chalked that up to the 30-
30 Republican-Democrat split in the
Oregon House.
That logjam seemed to irk Oregon
AFSCME Executive Director Ken
Allen.
“The people in this building need to
wake up,” Allen declared at the rally.
“It’s time to end the giveaways. It’s be-
yond time to tax the rich.”
Organizers estimated from 3,000 to
4,000 people took part, including nearly
a thousand who came from around Ore-
gon on 22 buses. Participants were
bused from Albany, Beaverton, Bend,
Clackamas, Coos Bay, Corvallis, The
Dalles, Eugene/Springfield, Grants
Pass, Hermiston, Hillsboro, Hood
River, Klamath Falls, La Grande, Med-
ford, Pendleton, Portland, and Rose-
burg, and car pools embarked from As-
toria, Lincoln City, Newport, and
Tillamook.
On the way to Salem, some buses
made stops at corporate storefronts of
Verizon, Bank of America, and US
Bank to protest those profitable compa-
nies for not paying federal corporate in-
come tax.
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JUNE 3, 2011