Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2014)
Nationwide, labor loses on candidates, wins on measures Around the United States, labor- backed swing-state candidates fared poorly in the November 2014 general election, yet on ballot measures, voters mostly agreed with labor, passing min- imum wage increases and the right to sick leave. Republicans added 14 seats to their majority in the U.S. House, and picked up at least eight seats in the U.S. Sen- ate (with a Louisiana race to be de- cided in a December runoff). The GOP Senate gains mean a switch to a Re- publican majority when the new sena- tors take office in January: At least 53 of the 100 seats, and maybe 54. Meanwhile, five members of a crop of anti-union Republican governors who swept into office four years ago were re-elected, despite being targeted by the national AFL-CIO for retire- ment. Chief among them was Wiscon- sin Gov. Scott Walker, whose 2010 law stripping public employees of all meaningful collective bargaining rights provoked a lengthy but ultimately un- successful occupation of the state Capitol in Madison. Walker survived a 2012 recall effort, and this year won re- election to a second four-year term, with 52 percent of the vote. Ohio Gov. John Kasich — whose law stripping public worker union rights was struck down by voters in 2011 — won re- election by a landslide 64 percent. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder — who signed an anti-union “right-to-work” law in the state where the United Auto Workers was born — won with 51 per- cent. Florida Gov. Rick Scott — who pushed vouchers and charter schools and tried to curtail collection of union dues and political contributions — won with 48 percent of the vote. And Maine Gov. Paul LePage — who re- moved a labor history mural from a state office building — beat a chal- lenge from former congressman and union steelworker Mike Michaud by 48 to 43 percent. Labor did have at least one notable statewide win: In a closely-fought race for California school superintendent, union-backed incumbent Tom Torlak- son, a former teacher, beat billionaire- backed former charter school executive Marshall Tuck. And on a slew of ballot measures, voters took the side of unions, public employees, and low-wage workers. When minimum wage increases are on the ballot, they win Minimum wage increases were on the ballot in multiple states, counties and cities, and passed, in all but one case, by sizable margins: • Alaska – $9.75 an hour by 2016, except for minors working fewer than 30 hours a week; passed by 69 percent • Nebraska – $9 by 2016, passed by 59 percent • South Dakota - $8.50 per hour by 2015, passed by 55 percent • Arkansas – $8.50 per hour by 2017, passed by 66 percent Under those four measures, an esti- Candidates supported by the NW Oregon Labor Council do well on election night The Northwest Oregon Labor Council (NOLC) fared quite well on Election Day, winning four of five races that it was involved in. Tops on the list was the election of 29-year-old union activist Kyle Allen to the Hillsboro City Council. Allen, taking his first stab at elected office, soundly defeated Hillsboro school board member Monte Akers, capturing nearly 64 percent of the vote. Voter turnout out in Washington County, where Hillsboro is located, was 66.6 percent. NOLC-endorsed Henry Heimuller was re-elected to the Columbia County Board of Commissioners. He defeated Wayne Mayo 54.5 to 45 percent. And Cathleen Callahan was elected Judge for the Circuit Court, 19th Dis- trict. She out-polled Jean Marie Martwick with 54 percent of the vote. Martwick was appointed to fill a va- cancy left by the retirement of Judge Steven B. Reed last fall by Gov. John Kitzhaber. She was challenged in her first bid for a full term of office by Callahan, a Goble resident who has a law office in St. Helens, and attorney Jason Heym. In the May primary, Martwick won 37.7 percent of the vote, while Calla- han won 36.4 percent. Voter turnout in Columbia County was 72 percent. In Portland, NOLC-endorsed Ballot Measure 26-159 passed handily, cap- turing nearly 74 percent of the vote. The $68 million general obligation bond will be used to fix playgrounds and trails, and improve park facilities. It is a continuation of an existing parks bond that expires in 2015. Voter turnout in Multnomah County PAGE 2 was 67 percent. NOLC’s only loss came in Clacka- mas County, where David Robinson lost his bid to unseat Sherry Hall for County clerk. The vote was 59 percent to 40 percent. Voter turnout in Clackamas County was 66 percent. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS mated 420,000 workers will get raises starting in January. And that’s not all. San Francisco voters approved by 77 percent a raise to $15 an hour by 2018. And Oakland voters, by an 81 percent margin, approved a measure that raises the minimum wage to $12.25 an hour next March, and gives workers the right to at least five days of sick leave per year, and nine days at employers where there are more than 10 workers. Only one minimum wage increase failed at the polls: A measure in Eu- reka, California, population 27,000, would have raised the minimum wage to $12 an hour for employers with 25 or more employees, but got 38 percent support. Meanwhile, voters in Illinois passed a non-binding advisory measure call- ing on the state legislature to raise the minimum wage to $10 by 2015. And in Wisconsin, voters in nine counties and four cities passed non-binding measures calling on the legislature to raise the state minimum to $10.10 an hour. [Since Scott Walker was re- elected and both legislative chambers are controlled by Republicans, that might not happen, but on Oct. 27, a union-backed group filed a lawsuit to force a minimum wage increase under a law that says the state’s minimum must be not less than a living wage.] Paid sick days Besides Oakland, sick leave meas- ures also passed in Trenton and Mont- clair, New Jersey, and in Massachu- setts. The Massachusetts measure, which passed by 60 percent, requires employers with 11 or more employees to offer up to 40 hours of paid sick time per calendar year, while smaller em- ployees must offer the same amount of leave, unpaid. All told, it’s estimated that a million more workers will get sick leave as a result of the measures. Other ballot measures: • California Proposition 47 — backed by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor — passed with 59 percent; it reduces sentences for non- violent drug and property crimes and spends the savings on programs de- signed to keep offenders out of prison. • Voters in Phoenix, Arizona, over- turned a city ordinance that replaced public employee pensions with a 401(k). • In Anchorage, Alaska, 54 percent voted to repeal a local ordinance that limited city worker pay raises, elimi- nated binding arbitration and the right to strike, and set up a system for out- sourcing union work. • Voters in Alachua County, Florida (Gainesville), approved by 72 percent a non-binding straw ballot in favor of amending the U.S. Constitution to de- clare that corporations are not people and money is not speech. The measure is in response the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case. NOVEMBER 21, 2014
