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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2015)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 116, NUMBER 11 INSIDE OR Legislature Union meetings Local Motion Classified ads PORTLAND, OREGON MAY 15, 2015 Oregon Supreme Court strikes down PERS pension cuts SALES JOB Obama stumps for a new super-sized NAFTA A contract is a contract, the court says in a unanimous decision Photo courtesy of Oregon Fair Trade Campaign By Don McIntosh Associate Editor Visiting Portland May 7-8, President Barack Obama spent the evening taking cash from the 1 percent, and the morning selling a trade deal written by the Fortune 500. At both events, union leaders were the out- siders— joining hundreds of protesters ringing a $500-per-ticket Demo- cratic Party fundraiser at A child holds a protest sign as police in riot gear stand guard outside downtown Portland’s Sen- Nike World Headquarters May 8, where President Barack Obama was tinel Hotel ($5,000 for a stumping for his top-secret trade agreement. photo with the president, $10,000 to attend a ‘meet and greet,’ and $33,400 to get recognition as a co-chair), and demon- strating outside an invitation-only speech at Nike World Headquarters in unincorporated Wash- ington County. On trade policy, organized labor is used to that outsider status, having been Turn to Page 11 Former Oregon AFL-CIO president Ed Whelan dies, 89 Ed Whelan, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO from 1965 to 1973, died May 7 after battling lung cancer. He was 89. Whelan’s accomplishments were numerous over his 55-year career. He was a World War II and Korean War veteran, a fire- fighter, a local union officer, a state union council president and lobbyist, an executive offi- cer of the Multnomah County Labor Council, a state legislator, president of the Oregon AFL- CIO, the first executive director of the Oregon Department of Economic Development, a PGE executive, and a small business entrepreneur. Whelan was born in Portland on Jan. 11, 1926. He grew up in North Portland and graduated 3 6 8 11 from Roosevelt High School. He served in the Army Air Corps and military reserves, where he achieved the rank of major. He attended the University of Portland before joining the Port- land Fire Bureau. He was active in the Fire Fighters Union, serv- ing as secretary of Local 43 and as president of the Oregon State Fire Fighters Council. He headed the Multnomah County Labor Council from 1957 to 1965. While at the helm of the labor council, he also served in the Oregon Legisla- ture. He was elected as a Dem- ocratic state representative in 1958, and served through the Turn to Page 9 By Don McIntosh Associate Editor SALEM—Just as public sector union leaders predicted two years ago, the Oregon Supreme Court struck down parts of two laws that would have cut public employee retiree benefits more than $4 billion. The court ruled April 30 that it was unconstitu- tional to reduce cost-of-living (COLA) increases to public em- ployee retirement benefits — once those benefits were already earned. In a unanimous 87-page legal decision, the court said the COLA cuts passed in 2013 vio- late the Oregon Constitution’s ban on laws that impair the ob- ligation of contracts. “Those [COLA] provisions have remained largely un- changed for 40 years,” wrote Chief Justice Tom Balmer. “They were part of the compen- sation that public employees— many of whom are now re- tired—were promised in exchange for the work that they already have performed.” The decision affects more than 332,000 current and former public employees in Oregon’s Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) — including teachers, firefighters and other state, county and local public workers. The PERS COLA was cut twice in 2013 — first in the reg- ular legislative session, and again even more in a special ses- sion called by then-Governor John Kitzhaber. The second law limited the COLA to 1.25 per- cent a year on the first $60,000 of the retirement benefit and 0.15 percent on benefits above that. Under the Supreme Court ruling, the Legislature may re- duce the COLAs applied to ben- efits earned AFTER the laws were passed — just not to bene- fits that were promised before then. The Court also upheld the part of the legislation which eliminated income tax offset payments to retirees who live out of state. Still, the biggest financial im- pact was from the cuts to al- ready-earned benefits. Retired Oregon School Em- ployees Association (OSEA) member Everice Moro was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. In the 30 years she worked as an educational assistant at Estacada School District, Moro con- tributed 6 percent of her salary to PERS. Now she receives a PERS pension of less than $19,000 a year. “I never feel like I should apologize to anyone for receiv- ing that money, because I earned it,” Moro said. “We took wage cuts and cuts in hours, and I never got more than a 2 percent (annual) raise in 30 years.” The COLA cuts would have cost Moro almost $69,000 over her projected lifespan. “This isn’t just about me or about public employees; it’s about keeping the promises we make,” Moro said. Plaintiffs attorney Hartman called the COLA-cut reversal a vindication. “When you win $4 billion, I’d call that a pretty substantial victory,” Hartman said. Retired Portland Water Bu- reau warehouse worker Michael Arken said he’s pleased with the Court’s decision, but he’s still sore at lawmakers for the COLA cuts on future benefits. A former union steward with AF- Turn to Page 4
