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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 2014)
Will the minimum wage movement come to Oregon? Back in May, Oregon business lob- byists must have felt sheltered from the storm. Three hours north, a surging minimum wage movement had Seattle business groups so far on the defensive that business leaders themselves were pushing a $3.18 an hour increase in or- der to prevent a $5.68 an hour increase. [They lost.] But in Oregon, the business lobby had planted a fire break back in 2003 — legislation, passed by the then- Republican Legislature and signed by then-Governor John Kitzhaber, that barred Oregon cities from passing a higher minimum wage than the state. So in the May primary, when Con- cordia College economics instructor Nicholas Caleb tried to replicate the ex- ample of Seattle’s Kshama Sawant, it failed to ignite. Sawant in November had beaten a long-term Seattle City Council incumbent by campaigning strongly for a $15-an-hour city mini- mum wage. But when Caleb called for the same in his insurgent campaign for Portland City Council, incumbent Port- land Commissioner Dan Saltzman replied that the City is barred by state Judge orders Kellogg’s to take locked-out Bakers back to work MEMPHIS (PAI) — A federal judge in Memphis, Tenn., has ordered Kel- logg’s to take back the 226 union work- ers it locked out from its cereal plant there over nine months ago. The workers, members of Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 252G, returned to work Aug. 11. U.S. District Judge Samuel Mays ruled on July 31 that the company was using “creative semantics” to force changes in the workers’ collective bar- gaining agreement. He ordered Kel- logg’s to re-establish its old employ- ment conditions, and he ordered the firm to resume bargaining. He called ending the lockout “just and proper.” Kellogg’s lockout of the mostly mi- nority workforce, which began Oct. 22, 2013, became a cause for the union and for civil rights groups nationwide. That’s because profitable Kellogg’s de- manded the workers take deep pay cuts, pay more for their health insurance, and allow the firm to outsource their jobs. When they refused, it locked them out. Mays called the lockout “unlawfully coercive” and said it “discriminates against the employees for their partici- pation in protected collective bargain- ing activity.” Union President David Durkee said “the federal judge agreed entirely and unequivocally with the union and the National Labor Relations Board. Judge Mays rejected each and every argu- ment Kellogg has made since this dis- pute began.” law from passing such an ordinance, though he pledged try to get that law changed next year. Three months later, there’s no sign yet of a plan to end the pre-emption when the Oregon Legislature meets next year. But that doesn’t mean that the minimum wage movement sweeping the country is going to skip Oregon. In fact, forces are gathering to push a “re- set” of Oregon’s minimum wage. On Aug. 8, representatives of six of the state’s most politically active unions and three nonprofit groups met with state Sen. Diane Rosenbaum and Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian at the Oregon AFL-CIO headquarters in Port- land. The meeting was to talk strategy about passing an increase to the mini- mum wage in the Oregon Legislature in 2015. Rosenbaum was chief peti- tioner on the 2002 ballot measure that raised Oregon’s minimum to $6.90 and indexed it to inflation thereafter. Today it’s $9.10 an hour. But given the politi- cal opening provided by a burgeoning national movement, and the president calling for $10.10, supporters of an in- crease think Oregon’s minimum wage could be much higher. “We’re convinced now is the time it needs to happen,” said Oregon AFL- CIO Legislative Director Elana Guiney. “Every union I’ve talked to in Oregon is interested in raising the minimum wage.” Guiney said some unions are getting behind an ongoing campaign to raise the minimum wage in Portland, while others are interested in legislative action to raise it statewide. Guiney said supporters are going to try to come up with a figure they can re- alistically find support for: More than $10.10, though less than the $15 figure being championed elsewhere. One possible reference point would be the federal poverty level for a family of four, which currently works out to $11.47 an hour for a full-time year- round worker. That’s why Oregon La- bor Commissioner Avakian proposed adjusting Oregon’s minimum wage to $11.50 in a July 15 guest column in the Portland homeless newspaper Street Roots. Avakian said such a raise would benefit 450,000 Oregonians, and would generate more than $188 million per year in new purchasing power to stimu- late the economy. Whatever the target, Guiney said the minimum wage supporters at the Aug. 8 meeting were steadfastly not interested in watering down the raise with conces- sions or irksome complexity, like dif- ferent timetables for different-sized businesses, or a lower minimum wage for tipped workers. “The minimum wage is never going to be a living wage,” Guiney said, “but we do want to make sure it’s enough that families are able to put food on the table.” — D ON M C I NTOSH 2014 Have a Great Labor Day! When Working Families Succeed, Oregon Prospers! AUGUST 15, 2014 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 23
