Oregon building trades back Merkley for re-election
LINCOLN CITY — U.S. Sen. Jeff
Merkley picked up his first union en-
dorsement Aug. 16 when the Oregon
State Building and Construction Trades
Council (OSBCTC) backed his re-elec-
tion. The council was meeting at its
52nd annual convention Aug. 16-18 at
Salishan Lodge.
Merkley, who is entering the final
year of his first six-year term, focused
his remarks on restoring middle-class
jobs. OSBCTC represents more than
25,000 construction workers in 29
unions and six district councils.
“If we want this nation to get back
on track and grow again, we’d better
focus — hard — on jobs for the middle
class,” he said. “...The byproducts are
going to drive the economy back to
success in a much more powerful way.”
Merkley said that thanks to a strong
labor movement, America experienced
a huge growth in its middle class from
1945 to 1975. Workers saw their real
wages increase as productivity in-
creased.
“And then something changed,” he
said.
With increasingly virulent attacks
on unions, wages went flat for the next
three-and-half decades (despite contin-
ued increases in productivity). Then
the Great Recession of 2008 hit and
wages declined.
“Sixty to 80 percent of the jobs lost
(in the Great Recession) were living
wage jobs, but only about 40 percent of
the jobs we’re getting back are living
wage jobs,” he said. “We’re getting a
whole lot of no benefit, minimum wage
jobs.”
Merkley said the United States must
invest more in its infrastructure, invest
more in career technical education, get
back to manufacturing, and require fed-
erally-funded projects to use American-
made materials.
He has sponsored a number of bills
that would provide low interest loans
and loan guarantees and credits for in-
stalling energy-efficient renovations in
commercial and multi-family residen-
tial buildings. The bills include the Ru-
ral Energy Savings Program and the
Water Infrastructure Finance and the In-
novation Authority (WIFIA). The Ru-
ral Energy Savings Program would as-
sist rural electric co-ops in offering low-
interest loans to their customers, which
families and businesses can repay
through savings on their monthly en-
ergy bills. WIFIA would help urban and
rural municipalities replace and repair
aged and crumbling water supply infra-
structure and wastewater treatment fa-
cilities using low-cost federal loans.
“This is the most cost effective strat-
egy there is — the biggest bang for the
buck in creating jobs.You get huge
leverage for low interest loans, and you
can’t outsource the jobs, and 95-plus
percent of the materials are made in the
United States,” Merkley said.
Both concepts have passed in the
Senate but are now bogged down in the
U.S. House.
Merkley pointed out that the U.S.
spends only 2 percent of its gross do-
mestic product on infrastructure, com-
pared to 10 percent in China and 5 per-
cent in Europe.
“China has gone from bicycles to
bullet trains over the last 10 years,” he
said. “We’re barely repairing the infra-
structure we already have, let alone
building infrastructure for the future
economy. That’s no way to prepare for
the future economy.”
Merkley has championed several
amendments on Buy America. One
closed a loophole that allowed the San
Francisco Bay Bridge to use Chinese
steel. Merkley also employed a floor
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley greets delegates after speaking at the 52nd annual convention of the Oregon State Building and
Construction Trades Council. He is pictured above shaking hands with A.J. Blair, financial secretary of Iron Workers
Shopmen Local 516. At the left is Stan Daniels, business manager of Insulators Local 36.
amendment to include Buy America
language in the WIFIA legislation.
In addition to Merkley, several
elected leaders addressed the conven-
tion, including Labor Commissioner
Brad Avakian, Secretary of State Kate
Brown, state Treasurer Ted Wheeler,
state Sen. Lee Beyer (D-Eugene), and
state Reps. Val Hoyle, (D-Eugene),
Caddy McKeown, (D-Coos Bay), Mar-
garet Doherty, (D-Portland), and Julie
Parrish, (R-Tualatin).
Hoyle was awarded the “Legislator
of the Year,” and Doherty was recog-
nized as having the “Fastest Gavel in
the West.”
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SEPTEMBER 6, 2013