Inside:
Meeting Notices
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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,
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