A mixed bag for labor at Oregon’s short legislative session
Organized labor had a mixed bag of
results at the recently completed 33-day
“short session” of the Oregon Legisla-
ture.
“Top priority” bills for the building
trades, firefighters, and grocery work-
ers were successful. Other priorities,
such as funding for the Columbia River
Crossing, were not.
Lawmakers passed SB 5703 to pro-
vide public bonding for a variety of
construction projects, including $198
million for Oregon Health and Sciences
University’s (OHSU) cancer center.
Nike founder Phil Knight offered
OHSU a $500 million donation to es-
tablish a world class treatment and re-
search facility if the university could
Anti-high-capacity
transit measure
passes in Tigard
A labor-opposed ballot measure in
Tigard that will stifle high-capacity
transit projects in the city narrowly
passed in a special election March 11.
Ballot Measure 34-210 passed by
220 votes in a special election that drew
less than 37 percent of Tigard’s 26,972
registered voters. The vote was 5,066
to 4,846.
With passage, the City of Tigard
has to amend its city charter to offi-
cially oppose high-capacity transit. The
city will also have to obtain voter ap-
proval before it can change its compre-
hensive plan to site light-rail or bus-
rapid-transit projects.
Additionally, the city is required to
send a letter to the governor, the Ore-
gon Department of Transportation,
TriMet, Metro, Washington County
and the Federal Transit Administration
annually notifying the agencies of its
opposition to high-capacity transit.
The ballot measure was sponsored
by tea partiers and the conservative
Oregon Transformation Project.
In addition to labor, the measure
was opposed by the Tigard City Coun-
cil, the Tigard Chamber of Commerce,
and various environmental and pro-
transit groups.
match it. OHSU turned to the Legisla-
ture for help reaching that goal.
The bill includes requirements that
workers be paid prevailing wage, and
that its contractors meet apprenticeship
targets. OHSU will have goals for con-
tracting with minority and women-
owned businesses, and include provi-
sions for contracting with businesses
based throughout Oregon.
Other projects slated for bonding in
the bill include urgent health and safety
projects at Oregon universities, and in-
vestments to support the expansion of
higher education in central Oregon.
Those projects — ranging from $2 mil-
lion to $21 million — include the Uni-
versity of Oregon, Oregon State Uni-
versity Cascade Campus, Southern
Oregon University, Oregon Institute of
Technology, Western Oregon Univer-
sity, and Central Oregon Community
College.
United Food and Commercial
Workers Local 555 received strong
support for its bill to ease penalties for
grocery clerks who unknowingly or in-
advertently sell alcohol to a minor for
the first time. SB 1546 changes the
penalty for first-time offenders from a
misdemeanor to a Class A violation.
The Oregon State Fire Fighters
Council won passage of SB 1518,
which allows frontline managers that
do not have the authority to hire, dis-
charge or impose economic discipline
to join the union. The Fire Fighters
Union was unsuccessful getting the bill
through the longer legislative session
last year.
Oregon AFSCME Council 75
passed a Corrections “gun bill.” HB
4035 allows Oregon state correctional
officers the ability to bring firearms
onto Department of Corrections prop-
erty and keep them locked in their cars.
AFSCME said it’s a personal safety is-
sue for Corrections members, who
travel long distances to and from work
at Oregon’s many rural prisons.
AFSCME also got through a work-
ers’ compensation bill that protects
public employees at Oregon State Hos-
pital and at state-operated group homes,
where employees are frequently injured
on-the-job by clients. HB 4104 man-
dates expedited pre-authorization of
workers’ comp claims when there’s a
disagreement between agencies and in-
surance companies. Union officials said
injured workers were not getting
prompt and appropriate medical care
and treatment through the workers’
comp system, leading more and more
employees to bypass the system and
use their own health care provider. This
resulted in skewed under-reporting of
on-the-job injuries.
Among other bills that passed with
labor support:
• SB 1542 will enable private indi-
viduals to purchase in-home care serv-
ices from the Home Care Commission
through the Home Care Registry,
which employs union-represented care
providers; and
• A budget bill, HB 5201, adds $2
million to a program of grants to help
school districts start career and techni-
cal education programs.
HB 4122 will require third-party
oversight on all outsourced information
technology (IT) projects that cost more
than $5 million (such as Cover Ore-
gon), and certain projects that cost
more than $1 million.
The Oregon AFL-CIO was success-
ful passing one of its four priority bills.
HB 4058 adds registered apprentice-
ship training programs to the state’s 40-
40-20 education goals.
Three other bills lobbied by the state
labor federation were not successful.
The biggest disappointment by far was
failure to move ahead on the Interstate-
5 replacement bridge over the Colum-
bia River, which would have created
thousands of construction jobs.
Last year, the Oregon Legislature
approved $450 million toward the
bridge project, but the GOP-led Wash-
ington Senate refused to allow a vote
on a bill that would have matched that
contribution. Oregon Gov. John Kitz-
haber responded with an Oregon-led
plan, which was strongly supported by
the AFL-CIO and Oregon State Build-
ing and Construction Trades Council.
HB 4113 had majority support in
the Oregon House, but not in the Sen-
ate. The Oregon Department of Trans-
portation (ODOT) began shutting down
the project after the Legislature ad-
journed. I-5 replacement bridge plan-
ning has been ongoing for more than 15
years, at a cost of more than $195 mil-
lion. ODOT said all of the work will be
archived before the project shuts down
completely May 31.
Also failing to win passage:
• SB 1543, to make it illegal for an
employer to cut workers hours in order
to avoid obligations under the federal
health insurance legislation commonly
referred to as Obamacare. The federal
legislation levies a fine of $2,000 per
year on enterprises with over 50 full-
time employees that don’t provide
health care, but some employers are
turning full-time workers into part-time
in order to evade the sanction.
• A tweak (HB 4054) to the ballot ti-
tle of a referendum that seeks to over-
turn a law passed last year allowing un-
documented residents to get state-
issued “driver cards” instead of full-
fledged drivers licenses.
• HB 4118, which would have re-
quired non-profits that employ individ-
uals with disabilities to pay state mini-
mum wage and comply with state labor
and occupational health and safety
laws.
• HB 4036, to mandate certain vio-
lent assaults against staff and other
clients at the Oregon State Hospital to
be prosecuted as felonies.
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Editor: Michael Gutwig
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MARCH 21, 2014