Nov. 16, 2012_NWLP 10/10/17 10:52 AM Page 4
Voters weigh in on workers rights around the nation
rooms to pay workers at least $13 an hour, with
annual raises of 2 percent and a minimum of five
paid days off per year for full-time workers.
Workers rights were on the line this election
day. Ballot measures in half a dozen states touched
on collective bargaining rights, card check union-
ization, and union political contributions. This also
was the year more labor organizations took stands
on same sex marriage and decriminalization of
marijuana.
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
C OLLECTIVE B ARGAINING IN M ICHIGAN :
Michigan in particular was a ballot measure bat-
tleground this year, with three union-sponsored
ballot proposals on collective bargaining rights:
By a 58 to 42 percent margin, voters turned down
Proposal 2, an amendment to the state Constitu-
tion that would have declared that public and pri-
vate employees have the right to organize and
bargain collectively. The amendment would have
pre-empted laws limiting collective bargaining,
like so-called “right-to-work” and “paycheck pro-
tection” laws. Unions worked hard to put Proposal
2 on the ballot, and spent over $21 million to gal-
vanize support and turn out the vote, but were out-
spent by business groups and billionaires like
casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and the family of
Amway founder Richard DeVos. Also defeated
was Proposal 4, which would have given collec-
tive bargaining rights to state-paid in-home care
workers. But labor did succeed in repealing the
state’s anti-union emergency manager law,
which authorizes the governor to put appointees
in charge of local governments that are in fiscal
distress, with the power to modify or terminate
union contracts.
B ANNING C ARD -C HECK IN A LABAMA : Al-
abamans voted 2-to-1 to approve a legislatively
referred amendment to the state Constitution de-
claring that “the right of individuals to vote for
public office, public votes on referenda, or votes
of employee representation by secret ballot is
fundamental.” But then, state law already man-
dated secret ballots for public office; the intent of
this deviously worded amendment was to bar the
“card check” method of union recognition. Un-
der card check, which has been legal under the
National Labor Relations Act since 1935, an em-
ployer may recognize a union without an election
if a majority of workers have signed cards asking
for it. Arizona, Utah, South Dakota, and South
Carolina passed similar laws in 2010, which are
being challenged in court as illegal pre-emptions
of the federal law.
P AYCHECK P ROTECTION IN C ALIFOR -
NIA : California unions had to re-fight a “paycheck
protection” ballot measure aimed at limiting union
political fundraising. In 1998 and 2005, voters re-
jected similar measures, which would “protect”
employees from having the right to voluntarily
contribute to union political action funds via em-
ployer payroll deduction. This year’s measure,
Proposition 32, was disguised as a ban on corpo-
Democrats celebrate the re-election of President Obama and a full slate of statewide posts at an
election-watch party Nov. 6 at Portland’s Hilton Hotel.
rate and union contributions to state and local can-
didates, but its key feature was a ban on automatic
deductions of union members wages to be used
for politics. Prop. 32 backers spent more than $50
million on the campaign — funded by billionaires
and out-of-state super PACs The national AFL-
CIO noted that the money came from two outside
groups with ties to oil tycoons David and Charles
Koch, as well as to Karl Rove, the top strategist
to former president George W. Bush, whose web
of super PACs and non-profit groups spread hun-
dreds of millions of dollars in campaigns across
the nation.
Voters didn’t fall for it, and rejected it by a 56
to 44 percent.
TEACHER BASHING
A slew of measures from the corporate educa-
tion reform playbook were on state ballots:
• In what the Idaho Statesman newspaper
called “a stunning rebuke” to the state’s Republi-
can governor, Idaho voters turned back a legisla-
tive overhaul of public education. Teachers unions
gathered signatures to refer laws passed by the
Legislature to voters — hoping to overturn them.
Proposition 1 would have stripped teachers of the
right to collectively bargain anything but wages,
barred early retirement incentives, and put them
on year-to-year contracts. Proposition 2 would
have mandated teacher performance pay based on
test scores. And Proposition 3 would have author-
ized public charter high schools and promised
hand-held computers for students. None of the
laws came even close, with “no” votes ranging
from to 57 to 66 percent.
• An even higher portion — 68 percent — of
South Dakota voters repealed a law that would
have set up performance-based teacher bonuses,
ended teacher tenure and granted scholarships to
education majors in math and science.
• But Washington voters, in their third time
voting on the issue, passed by 50.1 percent a
union-opposed measure authorizing the establish-
ment of 40 public charter schools over the next
five years. And Georgia passed by a 2-to-1 mar-
gin a constitutional amendment to allow the state
to set up charter schools.
Other employment related questions on state
and local ballots:
• Oklahoma voters passed by a 3-to-2 margin
a legislative referral barring race-based affirma-
tive action in state and local employment and con-
tracting.
• Voters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and
San Jose, California, overwhelmingly approved
raising the minimum wage. The Albuquerque
measure raises it from $7.50 to $8.50 in 2013,
mandates future increases based on inflation, and
gives tipped workers a raise to 45 percent of the
regular minimum wage in 2013 and 60 percent in
2014. The San Jose measure raises it from the
state’s $8.00 to $10.00 an hour.
• Long Beach, California, voters approved a
local law requiring hotels with more than 100
TAX FAIRNESS
Organized labor has been a consistent advocate
for fair and adequate taxation, and this year was
no exception:
• Facing dueling tax measures, California vot-
ers approved a union-backed referral raising in-
come taxes on those with more than $250,000 in-
come and increasing the state sales tax by 0.25
percent. Voters rejected the other measure, which
was funded by the daughter and son of Berkshire
Hathaway billionaire Charles Munger, that would
have raised income taxes on a sliding scale,
mostly on those earning more than $200,000.
• Oregon voters rejected a measure phasing
out the state’s estate tax on millionaire estates, and
ended the “corporate kicker,” an unusual corporate
income tax refund that is triggered in years when
revenues exceed projections (The former was
sponsored by former Republican Party chair
Kevin Mannix, while the latter was placed on the
ballot by the union-backed coalition Our Oregon.)
• Washington voters extended an existing law
requiring legislative supermajorities for tax in-
creases, and Michigan voters approved a similar
supermajority requirement for the first time.
SOCIAL ISSUES
Labor organizations also took sides this year in
an array of ballot measures that might seem at first
glance to be distant from the traditional focus on
worker rights, wages and working conditions:
• Labor unions came out in favor of marriage
equality in four states this year. In Maine, Mary-
land, and Washington, voters approved ballot
measures legalizing same-sex marriage which
were backed by the AFL-CIO and other labor or-
ganizations. And in Minnesota, the state AFL-
CIO, AFSCME Council 5, the Service Employees
International Union State Council, and Minnesota
Federation of Teachers helped defeat a state con-
stitutional amendment that would bar same-sex
marriage.
• Marijuana measures had union support in
Washington and Oregon. Oregon’s Measure 80,
endorsed by the state’s largest private sector union,
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555,
fell short 45 percent to 55 percent. But Washing-
ton’s Initiative 592 passed, supported by the
Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. It li-
censes and regulates marijuana production, distri-
bution, and possession for persons over 21, re-
moves penalties for personal use and possession
of up to an ounce, imposes a 25 percent sales tax
on marijuana, and sets a standard for driving under
the influence.
• The California AFL-CIO took positions in
favor of measures replacing the death penalty
with life sentences; and requiring labeling of ge-
netically engineered food, but both measures
failed at the polls.
Simpson-Bowles ‘grand bargain’ candidates lose on Election Day
By KENNETH QUINNELL
WASHINGTON, D.C. — While
working families are resting after an ex-
hausting election cycle, working people
and union members are continuing to
mobilize. Before the end of the year,
Congress will meet in a “lame-duck”
session and tackle numerous issues that
could have powerful effects on the lives
of middle-class Americans.
Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles
have promoted a “grand bargain” plan
PAGE 4
that would cut Social Security benefits,
shift Medicare costs to beneficiaries,
lower tax rates for the wealthy and cor-
porations, and increase the tax incen-
tives for shipping jobs overseas.
Bowles and Simpson have been pro-
moting their plan heavily and took to
endorsing candidates who would sup-
port it.
Voters on Election Day rejected all
of the candidates that both Bowles and
Simpson endorsed:
In Nebraska, Bob Kerrey lost to Re-
publican Deb Fischer.
In New Hampshire, incumbent
Charlie Bass lost to progressive Annie
McLane Kuster.
In Rhode Island, Brendan Doherty
lost to Democrat David Cicilline.
All three losing candidates were out-
spoken in their support of the Bowles-
Simpson plan and their endorsement by
the plan’s authors. Voters made it clear
that they don’t want to cut benefits for
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
An election-night poll conducted by
Peter D. Hart Research Associates also
showed strong opposition to elements
of the Bowles-Simpson plan:
• Protecting Medicare and Social
Security from benefit cuts is more im-
portant than bringing down the deficit
(73 to 18 percent).
• 64 percent favor maintaining So-
cial Security and Medicare benefits by
increasing taxes on the rich.
• 68 percent oppose raising the
Medicare eligibility age.
• 69 percent oppose reductions in
Medicaid benefits.
• 84 percent oppose reducing Social
Security benefits.
• 65 percent oppose eliminating all
taxes on the offshore profits of U.S.
corporations.
(Editor’s Note: Kenneth Quinnell
writes for the national AFL-CIO NOW
blog.)
NOVEMBER 16, 2012