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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2015)
PAGE 8 | July 17, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ...Legislature adjourns From Page 7 HEALTH CARE would have generated $343 mil- lion for roads. But the plan needed some Republican votes because of Oregon’s requirement that tax increases pass by a 3/5 supermajority. Republicans de- cided to hold the transportation package hostage in order to get Democrats to repeal the Clean Fuels program. Democrats balked, and stalemate resulted. ☒ $337 million State Capitol ren- ovation The State of Oregon has spent more than $30 million planning a renovation of the Capitol building — a four-year $337 million project. But the project didn’t get the green light from lawmakers. Service Employees (SEIU) Lo- cal 49, which represents 7,600 health care workers, has a cam- paign called Act Now for a Healthy Oregon that pushes for industry reforms. But this year’s effort was opposed by dozens of lobbyists representing the med- ical-industrial complex, and they’re used to getting their way in Salem. PUBLIC SECTOR ☒ A deal’s a deal In 1995, a Re- publican-led legislature rewrote Oregon’s public employee col- lective bargaining law to reduce union power. Twenty years later, public employee unions are still trying to get Democratic majori- ties to undo the damage. One ex- ample is “expedited bargaining.” A public employer like the City of Portland can sign a union con- tract, then come back soon after and say something new has come up, and unilaterally impose new terms — over union objec- tions — after 90 days of desul- tory “expedited bargaining.” Oregon AFSCME and Oregon School Employees Association pushed a bill to require binding arbitration in such cases if the two sides couldn’t agree. It passed the House 32-25. In the Senate … it couldn’t get a floor vote. ☒ Right to unionize The Oregon State Bar is a quasi-public agency that polices misconduct by lawyers. Should its staff have the same right as other workers to unionize? Oregon House De- mocrats thought so, and ap- proved a bill to make the Bar subject to Oregon’s collective bargaining law — on a party-line 35-25 vote. In the Senate, it died in committee. ☑ Improvements for crisis unit workers Oregon’s Stabilization and Crisis Unit is a network of 23 secure group homes where about 250 AFSCME-represented staff work with sometimes vio- lent adults or children with intel- lectual or developmental disabil- ities who are deemed a risk to the public, themselves, or fellow res- idents. AFSCME was able to pass a bill this year to allow the staff the same early retirement benefits that police and fire fight- ers get, and another bill creating a task force to improve staff safety. ☒ Health care price trans- parency One bill would have re- quired health care facilities to publish prices, so consumers could make informed choices about where to go. Instead, law- makers passed what state Sen. Chip Shields (D-Portland) called “sham hospital rate trans- parency.” Hospitals will submit price data for the most common procedures, but the state will keep it secret, instead publishing the “median” price. ☒ Taxing health care facilities that don’t provide charity care Oregon’s non-profit hospitals get all kinds of tax breaks—no prop- erty taxes, no income taxes, nothing—but face no require- ments on how much charity care they’re supposed to provide in exchange. In fact, SEIU says, hospital spending on charity care declined by nearly half in the first half of 2014. But a bill to link the property tax exemption to the amount of charity care died without a committee vote. ☑ Hospital staffing ratio SEIU and the Oregon Nurses Associa- tion did win a set of improve- ments to a nurse staffing ratio law. The 2001 law requires hos- pitals to have a minimum staffing plan developed by a joint committee of nurse managers and direct care nurses. Now, that committee will have a position for a CNA or LPN too, and at unionized hospitals, the direct care nurses will be selected by the union. Also, committee meet- ings will be open to hospital staff and to union reps. Health care providers will also get at least 10 hours off after working 12 hours in a 24-hour period. And nurses will be allowed to refuse to work overtime if they believe that would jeopardize patient or em- ployee safety. ONLINE EXTRA For even more bills, plus links to see how your reps voted, visit the online version of this article at: http://bit.ly/1JfEACk 9300 NE Vancouver Mall Dr., Suite #100, Vancouver, WA - 98662 www.elitedentistrywa.com 360-695-5555 Unionized Dental Office by the Vancouver Mall Now Accepting New Patients!!! FREE electric tooth brush or FREE sweatshirt at the completion of treatment • Flexible office hours: Late evening and weekend appointments available • Same day emergency treatment Lifetime FREE Teeth Whitening • No insurance, no problem. 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