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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2014)
Eugene could be next to guarantee paid sick days EUGENE — Eugene could become the second city in Oregon to guarantee all workers the right to sick leave. Port- land passed a sick leave ordinance in March 2013, but a bill to take it statewide died later in the year in a com- mittee of the Oregon House. Now a labor-community coalition has formed in Eugene to push an ordi- nance, similar to the coalition that helped pass it in Portland. Known as Everybody Benefits Eugene, the group had its first success when Eugene City Council held a Feb. 24 work session on the idea. A second council work session is scheduled for April 14. “This is about Eugenians doing what’s right for Eugene,” says Lili Hoag, a Eugene native who studied family policy at the London School of Economics. Hoag, now policy director at the group Family Forward Oregon, Major League Soccer referee lockout ends with 5-year pact The lockout of referees by Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Profes- sional Referee Organization (PRO) ended March 20 after the first two weekends of games when PRO and the Professional Soccer Referees Associa- tion (PSRA) agreed on a five-year la- bor contract. PRO locked out the referees before the beginning of the new season March 7 and used replacement officials. The PSRA became the National La- bor Relations Board-certified represen- tative of the referees and game officials last May, and the two sides have bar- gained since July. The new agreement was ratified by the union membership and the PRO executive board. “First contracts sometimes pose dif- ficult challenges as the parties seek to define the parameters of a new formal relationship,” said Scot L. Becken- baugh, acting director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which brokered the talks. The agreement runs until Jan. 15, 2019. Lucas Middlebrook, a PRSA lawyer, said the deal includes “substan- tially better” compensation and “a num- ber of non-economic work rule protec- tions such as a just-cause standard for certain disciplinary matters and stan- dardization of fitness testing. “In addition, the officials now have a contract protecting important quality- of-life items such as travel standards, vacation time and advance notice of match assignments,” he told Associated Press in an email. said it appears there is majority support on Eugene City Council for an ordi- nance, though no specific proposal has been introduced yet. City Council member Claire Syrett — a former organizer with the Jobs with Justice chapter known as the Eu- gene-Springfield Solidarity Network — is championing an ordinance, along with fellow council member Alan Ze- lenka, an energy consultant. At the Feb- ruary work session, five of the eight City Council members spoke positively of a sick leave mandate, and Mayor Kitty Piercy is said to be in favor. If an ordinance is unveiled at the April work session, Hoag said City Council would likely schedule a public hearing and take citizen comment be- fore voting on it. Kevin Billman, director of legislative and community affairs for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, said sick leave is a very important issue for the roughly 600 Local 555 members who work in Eugene Fred Meyer, Safe- way and Albertsons stores. That’s be- cause their union contract provides a paid sick leave benefit, but they can’t use it until the third day of an illness. So the first two days they or a child are sick, they either lose wages or they go to work sick or send a sick child to school. “It’s a hard choice,” Billman said. “Do they take care of their health or their finances?” UFCW has tried to negotiate first- day sick leave, but Billman said grocery employers have dug in their heels on that issue. A City ordinance would take it out of their hands — and set a level playing field on that issue for all Eugene employers. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research estimated that 51 percent of private-sector employees in Eugene — over 25,000 workers — have no sick days. Since no ordinance has been intro- duced, there are no specifics to debate yet. Under Portland’s ordinance, work- ers can use up to 40 hours a year of paid sick leave. It would add no more than 2 percent to an employer’s payroll costs if every worker used every hour of it. And for workers, it would be a major human rights advance, and a right en- joyed by most workers in other indus- trialized countries. Advocates say paid sick days also reduce the spread of ill- ness and increase productivity. Besides UFCW Local 555, the sick leave campaign is supported by the Oregon School Employees Association, AFSCME, Oregon Nurses Association, Service Employees, and the Fire Fight- ers. The Working Families Party of Ore- gon has conducted door-to-door can- vass to build support. The campaign is also backed by the NAACP and by over 45 businesses organized by the small business group Main Street Alliance. GOP targets NLRB rule to streamline union elections WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congres- sional Republicans introduced legisla- tion last month to block the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from implementing a proposed new rule that would give workers a more timely op- portunity to vote in a union election. As it is, the NLRB election process is riddled with delay that provides too many opportunities for employers to manipulate and abuse the legal process in order to stall union elections and mount aggressive anti-union cam- paigns. The NLRB proposed its new rule in February. NLRB Chairman Mark Gas- ton Pearce said the proposals “are in- tended to improve the process for all parties, in all cases, whether nonunion employees are seeking a union to rep- resent them or unionized employees are seeking to decertify a union.” The proposal will let the NLRB “more effectively administer” labor law,” he said. But on March 27, Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) introduced a bill that would require the NLRB to let 35 days pass after employees file a petition before they are allowed to vote on forming a union. Their bill would also give em- ployers 14 days to prepare their case before they go before an NLRB elec- tion official, and it would require the NLRB to identify who can vote before an election, rather than going back and doing it retrospectively. The Republican attack on the NLRB is not new. Lawmakers from that party have for years pursued bills to eliminate the agency entirely, or at the very least to severely cripple its ability to function by defunding it. (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon as a voice of the labor movement. 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Ore. 97213 Telephone: (503) 288-3311 Editor: Michael Gutwig Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non- profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore- gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union members. Group rates available to trade union organizations. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS, P.O. BOX 13150, PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 APRIL 4, 2014 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 3
