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-
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