Eight ways that ALEC is targeting working families
By KENNETH QUINNELL
AFL-CIO Now blog
Information about the American
Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
working in secret to push state-level
policy to more extreme levels is com-
ing to light more and more, and Amer-
ica’s working families are starting to
stand up to the group’s corporate-
driven agenda.
While ALEC’s agenda is all over the
policy map, the organization has a par-
ticular focus on pushing new laws that
attack working families and undercut
the rights of workers, both in the work-
place and in retirement. Here are eight
of the most dangerous and most wide-
spread ways that ALEC is targeting
workers and their right to a voice on the
job.
8. Voter ID Act: Laws directly
based on or similar to ALEC’s Voter ID
Act have been introduced in recent
years in nearly every state, with more
than a dozen states passing or strength-
ening such laws in the past three years.
These laws disproportionately affect
working families, senior citizens, peo-
ple of color and residents of rural areas,
and help elect legislators who vote
against the rights and needs of workers.
7. Paycheck Protection Bills:
ALEC has at least four different ver-
sions of this legislation, each one more
extreme than the last, that were intro-
duced 20 times in various states in
2013. These bills range from requiring
that each employee sign an annual
form authorizing that their union dues
be allowed to be used for political pur-
poses to preventing payroll deductions
from being used for union dues. These
bills provide no additional rights to
workers and do nothing more than
THE KORPI LAW FIRM PLLC
Honoring Employees
on Labor Day
Michael H. Korpi
Attorney at Law
weaken the ability of workers to col-
lectively bargain by depriving unions
of the funds they need to fight on be-
half of their members.
6. Direct Union Assaults: Through
model legislation such as the Election
Accountability for Municipal Em-
ployee Union Representatives Act and
the Decertification Elections Act, intro-
duced in Idaho and Arizona, respec-
tively, ALEC is seeking to make pub-
lic employees vote over and over again
to retain their union status, giving
ALEC and other groups the opportu-
nity to flood workers with anti-union
propaganda.
5. Public Employees’ Portable Re-
tirement Option Act: Through this
and similar bills, 10 states have at-
tempted to weaken or eliminate de-
fined-benefit pension plans and replace
them with defined-contribution plans,
i.e. 401(k), which make retirees depend
on the market for how much money
they have for retirement and health
care.
4. Council on Efficient Govern-
ment Act: As Orwellian a name as any
in the ALEC arsenal, this legislation
does nothing but use government
money to create a commission to fig-
ure out ways to privatize government
services. In other words, yet another
example of ALEC attempting to get
taxpayer money into the hands of pri-
vate corporations without any account-
ability or taxpayer recourse.
3. Right to Work Act: This incred-
ibly misleadingly titled legislation
gives no one any new rights and does
nothing but prevent employees from
paying for the benefits that unions earn
on their behalf. So-called “right to
work” for less states end up paying
their workers a lot less than states that
don’t have such laws. In 2013, 15 states
introduced this legislation.
2. Parent Trigger Act: These laws
give parents the option, once a majority
of parents sign a petition, to change a
public school into a charter school, give
students vouchers or close the school.
Seven states have passed parent trigger
laws similar to the ALEC bill. Parent
Trigger laws force parents to make a
bad choice — either stick with a poorly
performing school, or take drastic ac-
tions that are likely to make things
worse, do little to help students and are
a boon for corporate groups that run
private schools. Meanwhile one of the
best tools for helping working families
reach the middle class — public edu-
cation — gets less and less funding.
1. Wage Protections: In 14 states,
ALEC model legislation attacking
wage protections were introduced. The
bills sought to weaken or eliminate
laws that require prevailing wages, liv-
ing wages or minimum wages. Big cor-
porations heavily support these efforts,
which would only serve to lower wages
for workers.
On Aug. 8, unions and other oppo-
nents of the ALEC agenda rallied at the
conservative group’s convention in
Chicago.
(Editor’s Note: This is a partial list
of Oregon politicians that are known to
be involved in, or previously involved
in ALEC.
H OUSE OF R EPRESENTATIVES : Rep.
Kevin Cameron (R-Salem); Rep. Jason
Conger (R-Bend); Rep. Sal Esquivel
(R-Medford); Rep. Tim Freeman (R-
Roseburg); Rep. Bruce Hanna (R-
Roseburg); Rep. Wally Hicks (R-Grants
Pass); Rep. John Huffman (R-The
Dalles); Rep. Mark Johnson (R-Hood
River); Rep. Bill Kennemer (R-Oregon
City); Rep. Michael R. McLane (R-
Powell Butte); Rep. Dennis Richard-
son (R-Central Point); Rep. Sherrie
Sprenger (R-Scio); Rep. Kim Thatcher
(R-Keizer); Rep. Jim Thompson (R-
Dallas); Rep. C. Gene Whisnant (R-
Sunriver).
S ENATE : Sen. Ted Ferrioli (R-John
Day); Sen. Larry George (R-Sher-
wood); Sen. Fred Girod (R-Stayton).
F ORMER R EPS : Katerina Brewer (R-
Hillsboro); Shawn Lindsay (R-Hills-
boro); Matthew Wand (R-Troutdale);
Matt Wingard (R-Wilsonville).
Representing employee benefit plans
in Oregon and Washington
for more than 20 years
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For all the hard work you do,
wishing you have a relaxing Labor
Day weekend. You deserve it!
FROM
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
AUGUST 16, 2013