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