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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2013)
Labor unions put together agenda for 2013 Oregon Legislature By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor SALEM — When the newly-in- stalled Oregon Legislature opens Feb. 4 for its 2013 session, organized labor will be in the building. The Oregon AFL-CIO will press lawmakers to fund the Columbia River Crossing, ban public sector union-bust- ing, and preserve industrially-zoned land. Building trades unions will seek to close loopholes in the state prevailing wage law. And public-sector unions will try to minimize the harm to mem- bers’ interests from a set of reforms Gov. John Kitzhaber is proposing to the Oregon Public Employee Retirement System (PERS). As always, the Legislature’s biggest task will be to approve a state budget, deciding how much the state will spend on education, public safety, and social safety net programs. But since voter- approved legislation bars any legislative revenue increase without a hard-to- achieve three-fifths supermajority, Capitol budget battles tend to be about how to prioritize existing revenues. The governor made PERS savings a major element of this year’s budget proposal. PERS covers approximately 120,000 retirees and 140,000 non-re- tired current and former public em- ployees. Over 900 Oregon public em- ployers participate in the system, including state and local government employers and school districts. Kitzhaber is proposing three changes: capping retirees’ cost-of-living in- creases at $480 a year; excluding PERS JANUARY 18, 2013 recipients who don’t pay Oregon in- come tax from a program of income tax reimbursements; and allowing union- ized public employers to negotiate par- tial reductions in the employer “pickup” of employee retirement con- tributions. The governor’s office says the first two changes would save state and local governments and school dis- tricts $865 million over two years. The third proposal, says Oregon AFSCME political director Joe Baessler, would “make it easier to slowly bleed folks” in contract bargaining. All three pro- posals would achieve savings at the ex- pense of public employee retirees. “We are disappointed,” wrote Serv- ice Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 503 President Rob Sisk in a letter to members, “because the governor’s main path to more revenue is to go after the earned benefits of front-line workers and retirees.” Sisk said the governor’s budget relies on PERS cutbacks to fund essential serv- ices, and it doesn’t address tax fairness. The cost-of-living cap would affect the 47 percent of PERS recipients who receive over $24,000 in annual benefits. But Baessler said judging by past court decisions, such a measure could be struck down in court, since it changes what workers were promised after they retire. Elana Guiney, legislative and com- munications director of the Oregon AFL-CIO, said the state labor federa- tion will support the legislative efforts of affiliated unions like Oregon AF- SCME Council 75. The Oregon AFL-CIO itself will be pursuing a “not-just-jobs, but good jobs” agenda, Guiney said. In other words, for any bill that lawmakers jus- tify as a job-creator, the labor federa- tion will ask for guarantees and mini- mum standards for the jobs created. The Oregon AFL-CIO will also pro- mote an expanded crackdown on em- ployers that falsely mischaracterize em- ployees as “independent contractors.” In recent years, a multi-agency task Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber met Jan. 7 with 12 officials from Oregon building trades locals and councils for a wide-ranging discussion about jobs, public works projects, and measures to defend the state prevailing wage. Kitzhaber was supportive of efforts to seek a project labor agreement with Nike on a planned expansion, said Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Secretary John Mohlis. force has improved enforcement, but it only acts when there’s a complaint. The Oregon AFL-CIO wants the state to hire an investigator to conduct proac- tive employer audits and levy fines on repeat offenders. The Oregon AFL-CIO will also back a bill to maintain Oregon’s supply of industrial land by making it harder to rezone land that’s slated for indus- trial use. And it will push a bill to bar tax- payer-funded union-busting by public employers. The bill would require pub- lic employers to remain neutral in any union organize drive. A bill in a previ- ous legislative session would have re- quired such neutrality of contractors doing government business as well, but the one to be introduced this year ap- plies only to public employers. Guiney (Turn to Page 7) Unions prepare to play defense in Washington Legislature OLYMPIA — Following the No- vember election, Washington state union leaders had high hopes for pro- worker legislation in the state capitol. Now — thanks to a pair of Democratic turncoats in the state Senate — labor is preparing for defensive fights. On Dec. 10, Senate Democrats Rodney Tom of Bellevue and Tim Sheldon of Mason County announced they would join with 23 Senate Repub- licans to form a “Senate Majority Coalition Caucus.” In effect, the two Democrats are col- luding with the Senate Republican mi- nority to deprive the 26-member ma- jority Democrats of Senate leadership. The way it works, Tom gets to be Sen- NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ate majority leader, Sheldon becomes president pro tempore, and Republicans get to chair the most important com- mittees. For example, Eastern Wash- ington Republican Janéa Holmquist Newbry — who has sponsored past bills to weaken the prevailing wage — will now chair the Labor, Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee (which she prefers to call the “Com- merce and Labor Committee”). Washington, like Oregon, is becom- ing a solidly “blue” state, with Democ- rats now occupying eight of the nine statewide elected offices, and holding 55-43 and 26-23 majorities in the state House and Senate, respectively. But this legislative coup makes it possible for Senate Republicans to block Demo- cratic proposals. “We expect the Senate majority to be hostile to labor’s interests,” says David Groves, publications director at the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC), the state-level AFL-CIO body. Nonetheless, WSLC plans to push a proactive agenda — “legislation that puts us on a high road to recovery by investing in jobs, increasing revenue and protecting families through strengthening our social and workplace safety nets.” The agenda starts with a call for ma- jor reinvestment in transportation and transit. Groves says the labor federation hopes to rally the business and environ- mental communities behind a 10-year, $20 billion funding package to main- tain and operate the state road and ferry system, improve freight mobility, and restore public mass transit. [Ferries are considered an extension of the state highway system under the Washington state constitution, but service has been reduced in recent years as the state has faced budget crises.] Other proposals include: • Cracking down on misclassifica- tion of employees as independent con- tractors, as well as violations of the re- quirement to pay minimum wage, prevailing wage, and overtime. • Mandating a preference for in-state goods and services in the state procure- ment process. • Establishing a Washington Invest- ment Trust, modeled after the Bank of North Dakota: State bank balances would be withdrawn from big Wall Street banks and instead lent to local governments for public infrastructure projects — at lower interest rates than the private bond market. The Trust would also fund student loans. • Reforming the state workers’ com- pensation system, giving injured work- ers information about how their bene- fits are calculated, and providing for attorneys fee awards in medical claims appeals, to give injured workers a more usable right to appeal. WSLC will also be ready to oppose any bills to repeal Washington’s annual minimum wage increase, make it harder to get unemployment benefits, or expand a new program of lump-sum injured worker payouts. [The lump sum option was sold to legislators as a cost- saving alternative to long-term workers compensation payments for injured workers over the age of 55, but it can result in reduced compensation over time.] The 2013 legislative session runs from Jan. 14 to April 28. WSLC will hold its annual legislative conference March 7 at the Olympia Red Lion. PAGE 3
