NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | May 15, 2015 | PAGE 3
With six weeks remaining, it’s an open question
whether the Democratic-controlled Oregon
Legislature will deliver for working people.
Oregon AFL-CIO’s legislative agenda still in the air
By Don McIntosh
Associate Editor
With six weeks remaining in its
2015 session, the Oregon Legis-
lature has entered the season of
vote-counting and deal-cutting.
Democrats control 35 of the
60 seats in the House, and 18 of
30 seats in the Senate, yet it’s an
open question whether they’ll
deliver significant gains for
working people this year. Sev-
eral key labor-backed bills
would require more from Ore-
gon employers; if those bills
come to a vote, corporate De-
mocrats would have to demon-
strate which side they’re on.
The Oregon AFL-CIO this
year is pushing to increase the
state minimum wage, require
paid sick leave, and penalize
large employers that don’t offer
health insurance.
Raising the minimum wage
Senate President Peter Court-
ney told a business group March
26 that he won’t allow a vote on
raising the state minimum wage.
His office hasn’t responded to
several requests from the Labor
Press to clarify that stance. But
labor lobbyists still hope to get
around Courtney’s curse, and
are trying to line up support
among lawmakers to raise Ore-
gon’s minimum wage beyond
its current $9.25 an hour. On
April 20, a whole set of bills to
raise it various amounts made it
out of the House Business and
Labor Committee and the Sen-
ate Workforce Committee. Now
the bills are in the House and
Senate rules committees.
There’s also a bill to lift a state-
wide ban on local governments
setting higher local minimum
wages.
Meanwhile, supporters of a
$15 minimum wage are in the
first phase of gathering signa-
tures for an initiative aimed at
the 2016 ballot. The chief peti-
tioners on the measure are re-
tired union letter carrier Jamie
Partridge, farmworker leader
Ramon Ramirez, and Marcy
Westerling from the nonprofit
Rural Organizing Project.
Paid Sick Leave
Oregon’s statewide paid sick
leave proposal is looking a little
more sickly than when it was
first introduced. As introduced,
HB 2005 and SB 454 would
have given all workers in Ore-
gon 56 hours a year of paid sick
leave. But as amended, the bill
cuts that down to 40 hours, ex-
empts businesses with five or
fewer employees, and pre-
empts any local jurisdiction
from passing a stronger stan-
dards. The City of Eugene last
year granted sick leave to all
employees in an ordinance
that’s due to take effect July 1;
that would be struck down un-
der the amended bill. Still, ad-
vocates are saying a statewide
sick leave policy would be a
significant advance; if passed,
Oregon would be only the
fourth state to have such a re-
quirement. The bill is currently
in the House Rules Committee.
A publicly-sponsored re-
tirement savings plan for the
private sector
A House proposal to create a
state-sponsored retirement sav-
ings program is in the Joint
Ways and Means Committee.
The plan would help workers
who don’t have an employer-
sponsored plan, starting in June
2017.
Penalize large employers
when their workers go on
Medicaid
What do you do with large
employers who don’t offer
health insurance, and who pay
employees so little that they get
public medical assistance? Un-
der an AFL-CIO-backed Senate
bill, they would face a penalty
equivalent to 90 percent of the
cost of coverage under a “silver
level” health plan on the Oba-
maCare health insurance ex-
change. The bill passed the Sen-
ate Workforce Committee April
23 and is now in the Ways and
Means Committee.
Transportation funding
For the Oregon State Build-
ing and Construction Trades
Council, the top priority this
year is passing a new transporta-
tion investment package, which
would include an increase in the
gas tax. That would require a
three-fifths supermajority in
both legislative chambers,
meaning at least some Republi-
cans would have to vote for it.
But Republican legislators are
saying they won’t support it un-
less Democrats agree to roll
back the just-approved exten-
sion to Oregon’s low-carbon
fuel standard program.
Expansions and fixes to the
state prevailing wage require-
ment
One bill would make it clear
that newly self-governing state
universities are still obligated to
pay prevailing wage on con-
struction projects on university-
owned land; it passed the House
41-18 and is now in the Senate
Workforce Committee. Another
bill would clarify that if more
than $750,000 of public funds is
spent on a project, it must pay
prevailing wage even if it’s on
private land; it passed the Senate
22-6 and is now in the House
Business and Labor Committee.
Making public collective bar-
gaining agreements stick
Public sector unions have
complained about an abuse of
the collective bargaining
process: Public employers will
bargain a union contract, and
then after it’s signed, bring up
new issues and impose changes
without the union’s input. A bill
to rein that in would require
binding arbitration before an
employer could impose new
terms during the life of a collec-
tive bargaining agreement. It
passed the House 32-25 on
March 3, and is now in the Sen-
ate Workforce Committee.
Clearing the path for a con-
vention center hotel
Metro is overseeing a $200
million public-private partner-
ship to construct a new conven-
tion center headquarters hotel,
using private investment and
public bonds backed by hotel
taxes and lottery revenues. But
the project faced several law-
suits saying Metro was exceed-
ing its charter. A bill to make it
clear that the Metro regional
government has the authority to
finance visitor-oriented facilities
was backed by the Building
Trades Council and others. It
passed the Senate 20-10 and the
house 35 to 24, and was signed
into law by Governor Kate
Brown on May 5.