Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2013)
Sick leave ordinance gets first hearing at Portland City Council In four hours of public comment, sentiment runs 3 to 1 in favor of a sick leave ordinance By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor Portland City Council is on the verge of passing an ordinance giving workers the right to sick leave — a far- reaching advance that would improve working conditions for more than a quarter million workers. The proposed ordinance had its first official hearing Jan. 31. Facing packed chambers, City Council heard close to four hours of public comment that ran more than three to one in favor of the ordinance. Those in favor included Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury and state representa- tives Michael Dembrow, Alisa Keny- Guyer, and Jessica Vega Pederson, as well as leaders of at least half a dozen labor organizations, and officials re- sponsible for public health in the Port- land area. Speaking against it were a U.S. Bank joins as title sponsor of BULL Session U.S. Bank has joined the National Electrical Contractors Association/In- ternational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (NECA/IBEW) as co-title sponsor of the Business, Union, Labor, Leaders (BULL) Session. The organization’s fundraising event in Oregon takes place in Sep- tember and includes a dinner/auction and one-day golf tournament. Since its inception in 1991, the BULL Session has donated more than $4.6 million to children’s charities, in- cluding Children’s Developmental Health Institute (formerly The Artz Center for Developmental Health and Audiology), Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Gales Creek Camp, March of Dimes, Providence Child Center, Ran- dall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel, Shriners Hospitals for Chil- dren Portland, Special Olympics Ore- gon, and Wheel to Walk Foundation. U.S. Bank serves more than 300 la- bor-management groups with com- bined assets of $37.3 billion. “The Oregon-Columbia Chapter of NECA is proud to partner with U.S. Bank,” said Tim Gauthier, executive manager of NECA and president of the BULL Session. “U.S. Bank is proud to support such a worthy cause,” said Jeff Kerr, presi- dent of U.S. Bank Institutional Trust and Custody. “This is a natural part- nership for our organization and rein- forces our dedication to labor manage- ment plans.” PAGE 4 handful of business owners and indus- try lobbyists, though some other busi- ness owners spoke in favor. The proposed ordinance would re- quire employers to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours of work — up to 40 hours a year. It would be paid sick leave for employers with more than five employees, and unpaid for employers with five or fewer em- ployees. Employees could use the sick leave when they or a close family member or domestic partner are sick, injured, or in need of preventive med- ical care. The ordinance — introduced by Commissioner Amanda Fritz, is the first significant issue tackled by the newly installed Council in which Mayor Charlie Hales and Commis- sioner Steve Novick are new members. Several city commissioners said they would support changes to make the ordinance clearer or more work- able, but none appeared to be swayed by arguments that they should wait for the state Legislature to take action. Dembrow — a state representative from Northeast Portland and a long- time leader of American Federation of Teachers — read a letter signed by Oregon Senate Majority Leader Diane Rosenbaum declaring that City Coun- cil passage of a sick leave ordinance would only strengthen efforts to pass statewide legislation. The Legislature would have plenty of time to act; Portland’s ordinance, as proposed, would take effect Jan. 1, 2014. That’s incidentally also when the most significant parts of the federal At a Jan. 31 hearing at Portland City Council, Fred Meyer employee and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 member Kimberly Johnson speaks in favor of a sick leave ordinance, alongside Local 555 Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Anderson. legislation known as Obamacare takes effect, so Portland workers would not only get the right to take time off when they were sick, but also would have ac- cess to affordable medical care. Several business people — includ- ing the owners of Huber’s and the Daily Cafe — said providing paid sick leave would be burdensome. But at the end of the hearing, Fritz said she was more concerned about the hardship workers face when they work sick or lose wages. As for the cost to employ- ers, if every worker used the maximum five sick days a year and had to be re- placed during their absence, it would add 1.9 percent to payroll costs. In San Francisco, which has such an ordi- nance, workers use about three days a year on average. Meanwhile, at restau- rants, sick employees would likely seek to swap shifts, which the pro- posed Portland ordinance allows, rather than lose tips. For union grocery workers, a sig- nificant feature of the ordinance is that it allows workers to use sick leave on the first day of an illness. Current gro- cery contracts with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 pro- vide paid sick leave, but the leave starts on the third day. Teresa McGrath — one of a contingent of Local 555 mem- bers at the hearing — told City Council how she lost her grocery checker job in November 2012 because she made a cash handling error while working dizzy and nauseated on the second day of a bout with the flu. A 14-member task force chaired by Fritz and fellow Commissioner Dan Saltzman is meeting three times to dis- cuss modifications to the proposal. One issue they’ll consider is whether the ordinance should cover employees who are based elsewhere but work part of the time in Portland, including trucks that pass through. The task force is about evenly split between advocates and critics of the ordinance, but Fritz said its task is to propose modifications to make the or- dinance more workable, not to deter- mine whether to proceed with the or- dinance. The one labor representative on the task force is Local 555 Secre- tary-Treasurer Jeff Anderson. City Council will hold a second hearing Feb. 27 on the ordinance, and a vote on it is tentatively scheduled for March 6. Columbia Pacific BCTC heading to the ‘Couve Delegates to the Columbia Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council will hold their fourth meeting each month in Vancouver, Wash. Delegates currently meet every Tuesday at Kirkland Union Manor in Southeast Portland. Beginning Tuesday, Feb. 26, dele- gates will meet at 1:30 p.m. at Labor- ers Local 335 hall, 2212 NE Andresen Road, Vancouver. “The new location and time will al- low a greater participation to a few im- portant local governmental meetings,” said Executive Secretary Jodi Guetzloe Parker. The Port of Vancouver begins its bi weekly meetings on the second and fourth Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Port offices located at 3103 NW Lower River Road. And Clark County Com- missioners meet on most Tuesdays at 10 a.m. at the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St. “Both meetings are equally impor- tant, and deserve our attention. With the move, we can have a viable pres- ence in these rooms, create relation- ships, and report potential jobs that can impact our affiliates, just to name a few of the opportunities,” Guetzloe Parker said. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS FEBRUARY 15, 2013
