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
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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
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