Pacific Northwest senators hold powerful committee seats
U.S. senators from Oregon and
Washington hold powerful committee
seats in the 113th Congress.
With Democratic control of the Sen-
ate, Oregon’s senior senator Ron
Wyden will chair the Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources and
serve on the Finance Committee, the
Select Committee on Intelligence, the
Budget Committee, and the Special
Committee on Aging.
Patty Murray, the senior-most sena-
tor from the Pacific Northwest, will
chair the Budget Committee. She also
will serve on the Appropriations Com-
mittee, Rules Committee, Veterans Af-
fairs Committee, and the Health, Edu-
cation, Labor and Pension (HELP)
Committee.
Joining her on the Budget Commit-
tee are Wyden and first-term Sen. Jeff
Merkley of Oregon. The Budget Com-
mittee sets annual priorities and targets
for federal spending.
Merkley also will serve with Mur-
ray on the powerful Appropriations
Committee, which crafts the annual
funding bills for all federal discre-
tionary programs.
Additionally, Merkley has been as-
signed to the influential Banking,
Housing and Urban Affairs Committee,
which has jurisdiction over Wall Street
regulation and oversight, and to the En-
vironment and Public Works (EPW)
Committee.
Maria Cantwell of Washington will
chair the Indian Affairs Committee, and
hold seats on the Commerce Commit-
tee, Energy Committee, Small Busi-
ness Committee, and the coveted Fi-
nance Committee, which deals with
...PIRG fundraisers strike
(From Page 8)
worker for any reason or no reason at
all.
“Their position is that ‘at-will’ is a
firm position,” Elder said. “We said it’s
a non-starter for us.”
The Fund says it’s against just cause
because it wants to retain “flexibility,”
Elder said. But the Fund hasn’t demon-
strated any of that flexibility, workers
say: In June, the Fund fired nine-year
employee Cortina Robinson, one of its
most successful fundraisers, for being
$47 under her fundraising quota.
Robinson was on the union bargaining
team.
The Fund has also said no to a
clause known as “union security.”
That’s a stance that puts the progressive
non-profit group in the same league as
advocates of so-called “right-to-work”
laws. A “union security” agreement,
standard in union contracts, requires
FEBRUARY 1, 2013
that all represented workers pay dues
or their equivalent. But in 24 states,
“right-to-work” laws prohibit union se-
curity clauses in union contracts. With-
out union security, dues are voluntary.
Some workers pay. Others freeload:
They benefit from any improvements
the union negotiates, and the union is
required by law to represent them in
disciplinary hearings, but they pay
nothing. The point of right-to-work is
to deprive unions of resources; its ad-
vocates claim to be concerned about
the right of workers to work without
paying union dues, but tellingly show
no concern for any other workplace
right.
In sum, the Fund wants to remain an
at-will and “right-to-work” employer,
and is eliminating core union support-
ers one by one.
The next bargaining session is
scheduled to take place Feb. 12 to 14.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,
tax policy, and trade agreements.
Each of the senators is considered
“labor friendly.” Merkley, who was
elected to his first term in 2008, has a
100 percent COPE (Committee on Po-
litical Education) voting record as
7LUHG
:RUNLQJ
3$,1"
0RVW,QVXUDQFH
3ODQV$FFHSWHG
3 528'/< 6 (59,1*
3 257/$1' : 25.(56
) 25 2 9(5 < ($56
Murray is serving her fourth term in
the Senate, having first been elected in
1992; Wyden has served since 1996;
and Cantwell was re-elected to a third
term last November. She was first
elected in 2000.
%HHVRQ&KLURSUDFWLF
KHOSVEULQJWKH
UHOLHI\RXQHHG
RI
LQ
tracked by the national AFL-CIO.
Wyden, Cantwell, and Murray come in
at 90, 90, and 91 percent, respectively.
Wyden, Cantwell, and Murray have a
history of voting in favor of free trade
agreements, which unions adamantly
oppose.
7UHDWPHQWIRUSDLQGXHWR
RYHUXVHDQGUHSHWLWLYHPRWLRQ
&KLURSUDFWLFDGMXVWPHQWV
7UHDWPHQWIRUDFFLGHQWDQG
VSRUWVUHODWHGLQMXULHV
5HKDELOLWDWLRQH[HUFLVHV
7KHUDSHXWLFPDVVDJH
,QWHUQDOGLDJQRVLVDQGWUHDWPHQW
/DEWHVWVDQG[UD\V
'U'DQ%HHVRQ&KLURSUDFWRU
6(7KLUWHHQWK$YHLQ6HOOZRRG
&$//
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 7
