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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2011)
National AFL-CIO posts interim rating of Congress; tallies slew of anti-union votes The national AFL-CIO has released its interim scorecard of members of Congress for votes cast so far in 2011. Oregon Congressmen Earl Blume- nauer and David Wu received 100 per- cent ratings. So did all four U.S. sena- tors from Oregon and Washington. The labor federation tallied votes on 18 pieces of legislation in the U.S. House, and four in the U.S. Senate. In the Republican-led House, votes tracked included measures to repeal and defund last year’s health care reform law, strip all funding of the National La- bor Relations Board (the NLRB admin- isters private-sector union elections and prosecutes certain abuses of workers’ rights), ban the use of project labor agreements on federal building projects, and eliminate the requirement to pay the prevailing wage to construction work- ers on federal projects. In the Democratic-led Senate, the votes tracked were on measures to strip collective bargaining rights from airport screeners, deprive flight crews of Oc- CWA promotes ‘Dosha Support Day’ Aug. 30 Communications Workers of Amer- ica Local 7901 is promoting a “Dosha Support Day” Tuesday, Aug. 30. Workers at the salon and spa are try- ing to secure a first union contract after voting last March to join Local 7901. Dosha offers hair styling and mes- sages for women and men, nail serv- ices, cosmetics, and skin and body care. Sign up for “Dosha Support Day” by calling Patty at 503-701-4573. cupational Safety and Health Adminis- tration protections, and make it hard for agencies like OSHA to issue new rules to protect workers, as well as a budget resolution to continue funding of the government. Greg Walden, Oregon’s only Re- publican member of Congress, had the lowest score in the state delegation, vot- ing in accord with the AFL-CIO rec- ommendation just 28 percent of the time (5 of 18 votes). Walden was one of about 50 Republicans to vote against four attempts to repeal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements. Walden also voted against the measure to de- fund the NLRB. Rep. Peter DeFazio voted with the AFL-CIO 89 percent of the time (16 of 18 votes); he disagreed with the federa- tion about the necessity of voting for two substitutes to the Republican budget resolutions. One of the substi- tutes would have frozen non-security discretionary spending for five years. Rep. Kurt Schrader also voted against those two, and he voted for a measure to cut spending for all non-de- fense items to 2008 levels. Those three disagreements with the AFL-CIO re- sulted in his 83 percent rating (15 of 18 votes). Southwest Washington Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler agreed with the AFL-CIO just once — voting against defunding the NLRB — which earned her a 6 percent rating. That wasn’t Washington’s lowest, however. House Republicans Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Doc Hastings had 0 percent ratings. Democrat Jim McDermott of Seattle had a 100 per- cent rating. Some of the anti-union measures passed the House, but none of them went on to pass in the Senate. But the votes sometimes showed how polarized the two parties are on specific union questions. For example, last year, the federal agency that runs union elections for airline and rail workers ended a long-standing practice of counting workers as votes against unionization when they fail to vote. A measure to re- instate that practice got the support of 220 Republicans, but was opposed by 16 Republicans and all 190 Democrats. Meanwhile, measures to repeal pre- vailing wage laws were opposed by virtually all Democrats, but had the support of nearly four-fifths of Repub- licans. ...Initiatives (From Page 2) ployee union political contributions. The two campaigns would presumably compete for funds from donors who want to limit political power of public employee unions. “We’re watching them closely, as we do all of these measures,” Moore says. Defend Oregon — the more cam- paign-oriented wing of Our Oregon — is gathering information about what pe- titions are being circulated and is call- ing on supporters to report sightings of signature gatherers at: http://www.de- fendoregon.org/petitions.html. Portland supports striking Verizon workers Outside a Verizon Wireless store at 616 SW Broadway in Portland, pickets organized by Portland Jobs with Justice show support Aug. 11 for 45,000 Verizon workers who are on strike back east in the company’s land line division. Pictured facing camera are Marco Mejia and Camille White Avia. AUGUST 19, 2011 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 5
