Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2014)
Inside: Meeting Notices See Page 4 Volume 115 Number 1 January 3, 2014 Portland, Oregon 2013: LABOR IN REVIEW As reported in the pages of the Northwest Labor Press, 2013 was a year of legislative gains for organized labor, mostly — and a year that saw greater labor unity and a spirit of fight- back among working people. But there were also a number of tough contract fights, and some defeats. P ORTLAND C ITY H ALL It’s hard to overstate the importance of the new sick leave ordinance passed unanimously by Portland City Council in March. About a quarter of a million workers, nearly all non-union, gained an important human right in the work- place as of Jan. 1, 2014. That’s almost as many workers as all the union mem- bers in Oregon. The measure was spon- sored by City Commissioner Amanda Fritz after a campaign by Family For- ward Oregon, Causa, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, the Oregon Working Families Party, and Working America, among other groups. O REGON C APITOL The Oregon Legislature banned the expenditure of public funds to keep em- ployees from unionizing; gave workers the right to take up to two weeks unpaid bereavement leave; and expanded the prevailing wage law to cover public projects constructed with donor money. But lawmakers also trimmed public Sick pay advocate Andrea Paluso of Family Forward Oregon, pictured above with her children outside Portland City Hall, put together a union-community coalition that won an ordinance extending earned sick days to a quarter of a million Portland workers who didn’t have it. employee retirement benefits, and gave away over $500 million in new tax breaks to business owners. C ONGRESS A patient campaign by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) to reform the fil- ibuster bore fruit in 2013. Senate Ma- jority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) at length concluded that too few presi- dential nominees would ever get a vote if minority GOP senators could fili- buster their confirmation votes. Reid held a vote on a change to Senate rules, and a majority of senators voted to eliminate the filibuster on presidential nominations (except for U.S. Supreme Court nominations). The result is a fully functioning National Labor Rela- tions Board for the first time since Obama was elected — and a new La- bor Secretary who has already moved several long-overdue regulations: an OSHA rule protecting workers from silica dust, and a federal regulation ex- tending minimum wage and overtime to home care workers. Oregon AFL-CIO takes more political action for ‘14 At a Dec. 18 meeting of its Executive Board and political committee, the Oregon AFL-CIO made three political endorsements: Brad Avakian for re-election as Oregon labor commissioner, Oregon Nurses Asso- ciation staff representative Rob Nosse for state repre- sentative in House District 42, and a “yes” vote on a “driver’s card” referendum that will appear on the No- vember 2014 ballot. The state labor federation en- dorsed U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley’s re-election at its bien- nial convention last September. Republican state Reps. Kim Thatcher and Sal Es- quivel oppose a law passed in the 2013 legislative ses- sion that requires Oregon to issue resident driver’s cards without requiring that applicants prove legal presence in the United States. So they led a signature gathering effort to refer the law to voters. The driver’s card, which requires passing a drivers test to obtain, allows holders to drive legally in Oregon for three years. Unlike the driver’s license, which is good for five years, the driver’s card is not accepted by federal or state governments as a form of identification when applying for services that require citizenship or legal residency. Oregon Legislative and Communications Director Elana Guiney said it’s not just foreign-born residents who have trouble getting a regular driver’s license: some senior citizens, and homeless and indigent indi- viduals who don’t have an address or place to store records, also have had difficulty. A “yes” vote on the referendum is a vote to uphold the law as passed by the Legislature. In other business, the Oregon AFL-CIO Executive Board authorized the establishment of a yet-to-be- named non-profit, a type of organization known un- der the federal tax code as a 501(c)3. Other state labor federations have set up such groups, which conduct policy research, public education and issue advocacy, but aren’t allowed to get involved in politics. Those roles could supplement the Oregon AFL-CIO’s other work, and unlike labor organizations, 501(c)3s are al- lowed to accept foundation grants and tax-deductible contributions. The group would have a board that is independent from the Oregon AFL-CIO. The Oregon AFL-CIO E-Board swore in two new members: Jim Falvey and Lisa Gourley. Falvey, president of Portland-based National Asso- ciation of Letter Carriers Branch 82, replaced Kevin Card after Card took a job with the national union in Washington, D.C. Gourley, a board member of Ore- gon School Employees Association and president of the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Central Labor Council, re- places Stacey Chamberlain of AFSCME Council 75. The Board also dealt with leftover business from the September convention. With amendments, the Board passed Resolution 12, which puts the state labor federation on record supporting a requirement that po- litical campaigns disclose their donors. And the Board voted to table Resolution 13, which called on the Ore- gon AFL-CIO to organize a large public rally in de- fense of Social Security and Medicare. Instead, the state labor federation will coordinate with the national AFL-CIO, which is planning a campaign on the issue later this year. City of Portland employees represented by the multi-union coalition known as DCTU rallied outside City Hall Aug. 14 to demand a “fair contract now” — with a fair cost of living increase and no concessions on job security. But at year’s end, they still didn’t have it. N EWLY UNIONIZED WORKERS In March, a group of 781 graduate research assistants at Oregon State Uni- versity in Corvallis voted by a 9-1 mar- gin to join an existing unit of teaching assistants represented by American Federation of Teachers (AFT)-Oregon, and 287 workers at Mount Hood Com- munity College Head Start joined Ore- gon School Employees Association via signed authorization cards. Workers at KBOO-FM radio in Portland unionized — and negotiated a first contract with Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7901. And Union Cab — a newly-approved Portland cab cooper- ative affiliated with Local 7901 opened for business in April. In June, however, (Turn to Page 7)
