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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 2012)
Nov. 16, 2012_NWLP 10/10/17 10:52 AM Page 3 Portland City Council aims for sick leave vote by year’s end If passed, Portland would join Seattle San Francisco in human rights advance A campaign to require paid sick leave for all Portland workers is picking up speed as the current City Council heads into its last few months. City Commissioner Amanda Fritz announced at an Oct. 27 mayoral can- didates forum that she’s working with other City Council members to pass a paid sick days ordinance by the end of the year. The candidates forum was hosted by the Latino civil rights organ- ization Causa, which is part of Every- body Benefits — a coalition of unions and community groups that’s pressing for a paid sick leave ordinance. San Francisco, Seattle, and Con- necticut have passed laws requiring employers to provide paid sick leave, and activists say San Francisco’s ordi- nance is the model to strive for: Work- ers there accrue an hour of sick leave for every 30 hours of work, which they Backed by members of his group, Francisco López of the Latino human rights group Causa tells Portland City Council Oct. 31 that 40,000 minority workers in Portland don't have a single paid sick day a year. use when they or a family member are sick — up to five days a year at work- places with fewer than 10 employees, and nine days a year at larger work- places. Exact terms of the Portland ordi- nance are still being worked out. Fritz and her staff — along with staff from the offices of city commissioners Nick Fish and Dan Saltzman — met three times in early October to discuss details with a stakeholder group convened by Andrea Paluso, coordinator of the Everybody Benefits coalition. Stake- holders included business owners as well as staff from five labor organiza- tions: Oregon AFL-CIO, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, Service Employees Local 503, Ameri- can Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, and Oregon Nurses Association. Now Fritz’ office is working with the city attorney to draft an ordinance. Paluso said the coalition is pushing for every worker to be covered regard- less of the size of the employer. “This is a labor standard,” Paluso said. “Just like we don’t have a differ- ent minimum wage for small employ- ers, we shouldn’t say small employers don’t have to give their employees ac- cess to sick days.” “Everybody needs coverage. This is a public health issue, and an economic security issue.” On Oct. 31, Causa members visited City Hall. During the public comment session of the City Council meeting, Causa executive director Francisco López thanked Fritz and urged mem- bers of City Council to pass an ordi- nance. He said Latino workers in restaurants and elsewhere dispropor- tionately lack paid sick days. An esti- mated 40 percent of Portland workers — and 57 percent of Latinos — don’t have paid sick days, according to re- search by Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “Portland has great restaurants,” Lopez said. “When friends come to Portland, they always compliment the great quality of food. But there is some- thing my friends don’t know about Portland, that many waiters, waitresses, cooks, busboys … come to work sick because they do not get paid for sick days, because they are afraid of losing their job, and because losing a day of work means they will not have enough money to pay for rent.” “I think [Amanda Fritz] is motivated to try to get this done by the end of the year,” Paluso told the Labor Press. “We shouldn’t make the working people of … Landslide vote at TriMet Lift (From Page 1) This time, workers made it all the way to a supermajority union vote, and while they were at it, val- idated an experiment in unity by the Oregon AFL-CIO — experienced staff organizers from AFL-CIO-af- filiated unions were paired up with paratransit drivers for a “blitz” of home visits to their coworkers. Union-busting consultants some- times try to frighten workers about the prospect of union people show- ing up on doorsteps, but that’s how unions must be built — face-to-face contact — when employers moni- tor workers on the job and refuse to let union organizers on the property. After the union vote, TriMet Lift workers from several locations cel- ebrated at the Oregon AFL-CIO hall (alongside cab drivers who won the right to form a union-affil- iated cab company the same day). Local 757 President Bruce Hansen said First Transit has used the nonunion unit against the unionized units; wages for experienced driv- ers are more than $2 lower at Re- gion 3 than at the previously union- ized units. Now that Region 3 is part of the union family, Hansen said, they’ll be better able to raise conditions for all the units. Once the National Labor Rela- tions Board certifies the results, the two sides would begin bargaining for a first union contract covering THE AYES HAVE IT: The hand of union election observer Roni White shows the tally from her fellow drivers at TriMet Lift Region 3 — 111 for the union, 31 against. K NOW Y OUR R IGHTS IF YOU ARE INJURED AT WORK BUT NOT SURE YOU NEED MEDICAL TREATMENT OR FILE A CLAIM , AT LEAST GIVE THE EMPLOYER NOTICE THAT YOU MAY HAVE HURT YOURSELF AT WORK TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS LATER , SHOULD YOU NEED TO FILE A CLAIM . NOVEMBER 16, 2012 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 3
