Kitzhaber eyes special session, more PERS cuts
SALEM — Oregon Gov. John
Kitzhaber is targeting Sept. 30 as the
date for calling the Legislature back for
a special session to enact a revenue
package that would both raise some
taxes and create deeper cuts to the Pub-
lic Employees Retirement System
(PERS) — and possibly implement a
new strategy for the Columbia River
Crossing I-5 bridge project.
The tax and retirement package is a
continuation of the so-called “grand
bargain” that failed to come about
when the Legislature adjourned in July.
Kitzhaber and fellow Democrats want
an additional $200 million in tax rev-
enue, almost all of which would go to
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PAGE 8
K-12 schools. The Republicans’ price
for agreeing to new taxes is a deeper cut
into PERS.
The Columbia River Crossing was
on its death bed in June after the Wash-
ington Legislature failed to vote on a
transportation funding package to pay
for its portion of the bridge replace-
ment. Oregon lawmakers had agreed to
pay its $450 million share, but only if
Washington did the same.
Oregon is now considering a revised
bridge plan that doesn’t include Wash-
ington. But in order to proceed, law-
makers first must remove the require-
ment for matching funds from
Washington.
Kitzhaber has been traveling the
state, meeting with lawmakers from
both parties trying to broker a deal on
the “grand bargain.” Oregon’s constitu-
tion requires a two-thirds majority for
tax measures, so the governor needs
help in both chambers to strike an ac-
cord. The tougher of the two will be the
Senate, where it will take 18 votes. The
Senate has a 16-14 Democrat majority,
but the 14 GOP members of the Senate
are a tighter caucus than their House
counterparts.
While the plan is apparently still
fluid, it is expected that the PERS piece
would entail additional cutbacks to re-
tirees’ annual cost-of-living adjust-
ments (COLAs), plus possibly lower
payments to inactive PERS members
— people who have money in PERS
but are not currently employed by a
PERS employer.
Oregon AFSCME Council 75 Polit-
ical Director Joe Baessler says the gov-
ernor’s proposals on PERS go too far.
“We’re opposed,” Baessler told the
Oregonian newspaper. “We were op-
posed then [during the regular session],
and we’re still opposed.”
(Editor’s Note: Don Loving, com-
munications director for Oregon AF-
SCME Council 75, contributed to this
report.)
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Oregon University System workers file strike notice
Some 4,200 classified workers at
the Oregon University System’s (OUS)
seven state universities could strike
Sept. 30 — the first day of class for fall
term. The non-faculty employees,
which range from secretaries, custodi-
ans, and electricians, to cafeteria work-
ers, Internet technicians and others, are
represented by Service Employees In-
ternational Union (SEIU) Local 503.
OUS is comprised of the University
of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon State in
Corvallis, Portland State, Eastern Ore-
gon in LaGrande, Oregon Institute of
Technology in Klamath Falls, South-
ern Oregon in Ashland, and Western
Oregon in Monmouth.
After six months of bargaining,
wages and salary steps are a key stick-
ing points.
The union declared an impasse
Aug. 19. Strike authorization was
given Sept. 12 and the union’s bargain-
ing team filed a 10-day notice to strike.
The sides bargained unsuccessfully
throughout the weekend Sept. 14-15.
They met again Sept. 18, after this is-
sue of the Labor Press went to press.
Following the notice to strike, the
American Federation of Teachers-Ore-
gon and the American Association of
University Professors, which represent
OUS faculty, said they will support the
classified workers.
Presidents of student associations at
the University of Oregon, Oregon State,
and Portland State announced their sup-
port as well. Sam Dotters-Katz, presi-
dent of Associated Students of the Uni-
versity of Oregon, issued a press release
stating that on the first day of the strike,
students at every OUS campus will en-
gage in different actions, joining picket
lines and holding educational events
with students and faculty.
Since the recession began in 2009,
support staff at OUS campuses have
taken dozens of furlough days and their
ranks have suffered many layoffs.
Marc Nisenfeld, a development en-
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
gineer at Portland State University and
chair of the SEIU Local 503 bargaining
team, said classified employees have
fallen so far behind that nearly one quar-
ter of them meet the threshold for food
stamp eligibility for a family of four.
He said that some administrators in
the OUS “literally make more money
in one month than some of our workers
make all year.”
“The economy has turned around,
and people are moving forward. All
we ask is that we don’t fall further be-
hind,” he said.
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SEPTEMBER 20, 2013