AFL-CIO department backs
Blumenauer’s gas tax plan
Who’s On Our Side?
By Tom Chamberlain
A
s 2013 draws to a close, there is
much to be angry about.
An estimated 1,500 to 1,800 peo-
ple are sleeping on Portland’s streets
or in their cars. Cuts to our country’s
food subsidy programs mean there
will be more kids going to school
hungry. And cuts to unemployment
benefits in the recently-proposed
budget will force unemployed fami-
lies to move in with family and
friends, seek space in shelters, or end
up with nowhere to go, in any event
joining the legion of the homeless.
As the stock market climbs to
record levels, home prices soar, and
we add over 200,000 jobs to our
economy, it is easy for the Congress
to think the recession is over and that
now is the time to cut back on bene-
fits for those in need.
I am angry, and when you’re an-
gry, it’s easy to focus on what is
wrong and forget about what is right.
The 2013 AFL-CIO National
Convention is reinventing the union
movement, demanding accountabil-
ity and transparency, forcing our
movement to grow from 50 discon-
nected unions to a federation with a
national vision. Our vision grows our
movement. It builds coalitions and
fights for all workers. It passes com-
prehensive immigration reform and
marriage equality; it creates middle
class jobs and protects our environ-
ment while advancing an agenda that
increases wages and benefits for low-
wage workers; it not only allows our
union movement to join with our
partners but it reminds us that we
must regain our historic role of being
the voice for all workers – union and
non, the poor, the sick and the disad-
vantaged.
Earned sick days is a classic ex-
ample of those efforts. Working with
and through coalitions, we passed an
earned sick days ordnance in the City
of Portland. And working with our
coalition partners we will pass legis-
lation to give all Oregon workers sick
leave in 2015.
A $15-an-hour living wage ordi-
nance passed by SeaTac voters gives
low-wage workers hope.
We witness Oregon’s junior U.S.
Sen. Jeff Merkley evolve from a
politician to a warrior against Con-
gressional stagnation as he led the
charge for filibuster reform. Without
his efforts, workers would not have
the protection of a functioning Na-
tional Labor Relations Board.
The Oregon AFL-CIO came to-
gether in a big way in 2013. We
worked together to ensure that the
new Convention Center Hotel would
be built union and that the 300 hotel
workers who will eventually be hired
have an unfettered path to join a
union. We are developing strategies
and finding new resources to organ-
ize workers in a collaborative way
that is proving to be a national model.
There is no question that America
is following a pro-corporate agenda
at the expense of American workers.
And there is more going wrong for
workers than going in our favor. But
we as a movement are moving in the
direction of change that will lead to
greater power and influence.
As we march shoulder-to-shoulder
with our sisters and brothers in Bend
and Hermiston for comprehensive
immigration reform, you can feel it.
When you catch a ride with Union
Cab, you can feel it. When you sign
the petition for marriage equity, you
can feel it. When you talk to the para-
transit lift drivers who just obtained
their first contract, you can feel it:
pride, hope, and a renewed belief that
we can together create the America
we were promised, that we can create
an America that we deserve.
As we look toward 2014, we know
that the future is on our side.
Tom Chamberlain is president of
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades
Department (TTD) is backing a plan by
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) to pay
for more highway and mass transit con-
struction and repair nationwide through
doubling the federal gas tax, which has-
n’t been raised in 20 years.
The object, TTD Secretary-Treas-
urer Larry Willis says, is to provide
money for needed infrastructure repairs
and replacement and, not incidentally,
to provide jobs for construction work-
ers at a time of high unemployment in
that economic sector.
Blumenauer introduced two pieces
of legislation Dec. 4 to raise money for
infrastructure. Falling gas tax revenues
due to lessened driving and more fuel-
efficient vehicles have left the high-
way-mass transit trust fund (HTF),
which pays for such projects, strapped
for cash.
One Blumenauer bill, HR3636,
would increase the federal gas tax to
33.4 cents per gallon over the next few
years. It has been 18.4 cents per gallon
since 1993. The other bill, modeled on
a program in Portland, would let states
explore charging drivers taxes by vehi-
cle miles traveled.
“The infrastructure deficit is every
bit as serious as the budget deficit,”
Blumenauer said. But he admitted sup-
port for a gas tax hike — which polls
show two-thirds of respondents oppose
even if they know its money goes for
highways and mass transit — “will be
hard to find.”
It isn’t hard to find at TTD, which
advocated the gas tax hike and looked
favorably on the vehicle miles traveled
plan, too.
“Here is the problem — we are try-
ing to run a 2013 surface transportation
system on a 1993 budget,” Willis said at
Blumenauer’s press conference. “Of
course it’s not working. Bridges are lit-
erally falling down, highway delays are
choking our economy and public transit
systems are cutting routes and jobs
while Americans are demanding more
transportation options.
“This bill is about creating and sus-
taining jobs for transit employees, con-
struction workers and those who de-
pend on an efficient and multimodal
transportation system. It is about re-
versing years of neglect and underin-
vestment in our transit systems, high-
ways and bridges. And it is about
boosting the ability of our businesses
to move goods efficiently and provid-
ing Americans with safe and reliable
commutes.
“The nation needs its surface trans-
portation infrastructure modernized
and expanded, and millions of workers
are unemployed or underemployed.
Congress must summon the political
will to do what virtually everyone
agrees must be done,” he said.
TTD, citing the nonpartisan Con-
gressional Budget Office, said the trust
fund may be insolvent after this com-
ing October. It added that without more
revenue, the trust fund “may incur a
$365.5 billion deficit over the next 23
years,” its policy statement said.
Trust fund insolvency would cut an-
nual federal spending on mass transit
from $11 billion to $3.5 billion and on
highways from $40 billion to $4.5 bil-
lion, TTD stated. “Allowing these pro-
grams to fall over this cliff would kill
most planned projects and threaten mil-
lions of jobs. An answer must be
found,” the department declared.
“The simplest solution to the threat
of insolvency is to increase the gas tax
and index it to inflation” as “the labor
movement and businesses of all sizes”
agree, TTD added. “Yet to date, anti-
tax zealots and extremists who clearly
fail to understand how America main-
tains and modernizes its transportation
system have managed to stop any
progress.”
Even if an employer fails to
buy workers comp coverage
an injured worker has the
right to obtain benefits.
Learn about your rights
before you give up on
obtaining help when
you are hurt on the job.
DECEMBER 20, 2013
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 19