... Oregon Legislature
Who’s On Our Side?
(From Page 3)
By Tom Chamberlain
L
ast month, I read two news arti-
cles that may not appear related
at first, but that together tell an im-
portant story about the problems
our country faces.
The first discussed the five-year
effort to pass a farm bill in the U.S.
House. The original House version
of the bill would have cut $21 bil-
lion over the next decade from the
Supplement Nutrition Assistance
Program, or SNAP (food stamps).
That version failed. Progressives
thought the cut was too deep. Tea
Party conservatives thought it did-
n’t go far enough.
On July 12, the House passed a
new version of the bill that cut fund-
ing for SNAP altogether.
That same day, I learned that as
of January 2013, Portland had ap-
proximately 16,000 homeless peo-
ple — up 5 percent over the last two
years. Almost 1,900 of Portland's
homeless population live in cars,
abandoned buildings or outside.
About 4,832 receive some kind of
housing support. The others are
lucky enough to have friends or
family whose couches they can
temporarily crash on.
These homeless Portlanders are
not just the individuals you see on
the street. More and more families
are homeless, too.
According to a November 2012
Oregonian article, over 20,000 Ore-
gon students are homeless. We
know that a hungry child is think-
ing about food — not learning —
when they’re sitting in a classroom.
Thousands of Oregonians have
not recovered from the recession
and are either unemployed or un-
deremployed. The recovery has
been strongest in low-paying indus-
tries, bringing down Oregon’s al-
ready-low median wage and leav-
ing more families in need of
assistance.
That brings us back to the farm
bill and SNAP.
Over 800,000 Oregonians — 22
percent of our population — relied
on this program in 2012. This is an
increase of 8 percent.
SNAP funding has long been
part of the farm bill for many rea-
sons, including the support farmers
receive when the poor are encour-
aged to by fresh foods at full price.
But it also creates a careful political
balance, where leaders from both
sides of the aisle can come together
and support our farmers and the
struggling families in their districts.
Unfortunately, in the age of
“grand bargains” that use our lives
as chips, this balance created a per-
fect place for anti-worker elitists to
use the poor in our country as bar-
gaining chips once again.
The most recent farm bill won’t
pass in the Senate, which means
there will be another vote on the
bill. As you might predict, four of
Oregon’s five members of Congress
voted “no” on the version that cut
out SNAP completely. But on the
earlier $21 billion cut, only three of
our U.S. representatives voted for
Oregonians needing food assis-
tance.
Before they vote again, Oregon’s
Congressional delegation needs to
walk the streets of our state and see
the poor and disenfranchised, spend
more time in Oregon schools and
understand the impact of hunger on
a student’s ability to learn, and
spend a shift at an Oregon Food
Bank. They need to understand the
impact of their vote.
It is too easy for our congress-
men and women to take political
votes in support of bad bills, hoping
their votes won’t lead to bad policy
because the Senate will fix it or the
president will veto it. But we send
these Oregonians to Washington,
D.C., to stand up for our state — to
stand on our side.
When the farm bill has its next
vote, we hope to see at least four,
and ideally all five, of Oregon’s
members of Congress standing for
Oregonians, and not counting on
the Senate to fix a bad bill or justi-
fying a bad vote by calling it “good
enough.”
Tom Chamberlain is president of
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
Labor history comes alive at Clark
County Historical Museum exhibit
E
E
FR
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VANCOUVER — Local labor history gets a closeup in a new exhibit at Clark
County Historical Museum. The “Labor: A working history” exhibit launched
July 11 with major help from more than two dozen local unions. It runs through
the end of 2014.
The exhibit tells labor’s story, from the 1830s, when Hawaiian workers were
employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company outside Fort Vancouver, to the rise of
Northwest labor unions in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Bringing history to life
are tools, artifacts, and early photographs of trade union members — decked out
in uniform or walking strike picket lines. And at several listening stations, visitors
can hear oral history interviews with labor figures.
Donated union labor also gave the museum a remodeled event and exhibit
space. The museum, its mission to preserve local history and serve as a community
center, is run by a private non-profit with fund-
ing from Clark County, in a building owned and
maintained by the City of Vancouver.
Admission is free for museum members
and military veterans and active duty person-
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families. The museum is located at 1511 Main
Street, Vancouver. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tuesday through Saturday.
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(TOP) IBEW Local 48 Business Manager
Gary Young (right) and retired Local 48
business manager Ed Barnes cut ribbon to
open a new labor history exhibit on display at
the Clark County Historical Museum.
PAGE 6
and possibly defeating a fourth one:
• Citizens United. HJM 6 calls on
Congress to overturn the 2010
Supreme Court case Citizens United v.
FEC by beginning the process of pass-
ing an amendment to the U.S. Consti-
tution. The Citizens United case lifted
restrictions on corporate political
spending, and led to a massive infusion
of money into 2012 election cam-
paigns.
• Save the Postal Service. HJM 7
urges Congress to pass the Postal Serv-
ice Protection Act of 2013, which
would end the unique requirement to
pre-pay retiree health care costs, a re-
quirement that is bleeding USPS of
funds and leading to near-insolvency
and widespread post office closures.
• Investigate Chinese paper sub-
sidies. SJM 5, filed at the request of the
Association of Western Pulp and Paper
Workers and the Carpenters Industrial
Council, urges the Commerce secre-
tary to investigate Chinese paper sub-
sidies, whether they violate rules of the
World Trade Organization, and the im-
pact they have on United States paper
manufacturers. Over 100,000 U.S. jobs
have been lost in the pulp and paper in-
dustry, at the same time that imports of
Chinese paper to the United States
have surged.
• No more tough sanctions during
farm labor stings. SJM 7 would have
told the president and Congress that
the Department of Labor, in effect,
shouldn’t use its strongest sanctions
when farm employers violate the min-
imum wage law. Last summer, DOL
used its “hot goods” sanction in a
crackdown on Oregon blueberry grow-
ers that were accused of using “ghost
workers,” workers not on the books,
who are usually not paid minimum
wage. SJM 7 passed the Senate, but
opposed by labor groups, failed to get a
vote in the House.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
loader trailer, $8,500 OBO. 503-741-0234
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wrenches, folding rulers, axes, hatchets,
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MOTORCYCLES, quads, boats, tractors,
RVs, trailers, bicycles, autos, lawnmow-
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u.S., GERMAN, Japanese military items,
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COLLECTOR, cash paid, old fishing
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COLLECTOR PAYS cash for older toys,
oil paintings, American art pottery, and
costume jewelry. 503 703-5952
Sporting Goods
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JULY 19, 2013