PAGE 6 | November 20, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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Who’s on our side?
By Tom Chamberlain Oregon AFL-CIO President
Our workers’ movement must evolve
The 2015 Oregon AFL-CIO Convention was
a testament to the growth and strength of Ore-
gon’s workers’ movement. A total of 248 del-
egates and 148 guests attended to celebrate
the accomplishments of the last two years,
and to set the course for the next 24 months.
The number of guest itself is significant:
Community partners and allied organizations
were in attendance, and since the 2013 con-
vention, are allowed to participate in conven-
tion debates to bring a different perspective to
our movement.
There is a direct link between the success
of the Oregon Strong Voice program and the
increased participation of our community
partners. If you’re unfamiliar, Oregon Strong
Voice is a coalition of community-based or-
ganizations, activists, and unions in Southern
Oregon, Central Oregon, and Lane County
that drive progressive policies through city or-
dinances and elections on the local level.
Examples of our success can be seen in
each active region. In Southern Oregon,
where Sen. Alan Bates needed a stronger
voter contact program, we filled that void and
made the difference that swept Sen. Bates
across the finish line. In Eugene, building
trades unions and community organizations
saw how the Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemp-
tion (MUPTE) was being manipulated to al-
low hiring of contractors without proper li-
censes, wage theft, illegal dumping, and
importing workers from out of state, to in-
crease profits. Oregon Strong Voice Lane
County was born from this fight, forming a
coalition to call for needed revisions to the
MUPTE through Eugene City Council. To
respond to a rental housing shortage in Cen-
tral Oregon, Central Oregon Strong Voice
passed a local ordinance that creates a permit-
ting process for short term rentals by gener-
ating funds for affordable housing.
For our workers’ movement to survive, we
must constantly evolve. The first resolution
of the convention restructured central labor
councils from autonomous bodies directly af-
filiated with the national AFL-CIO, without
staff, to Labor Chapters affiliated with the
Oregon AFL-CIO, with staff. Our hope is to
build a stronger relationship between chapters
and Oregon Strong Voice to increase local
power by moving a working people’s agenda.
Convention delegates passed a resolution
in support of the $15 minimum wage and a
separate resolution directing us to develop
strategies to raise the wage through legislation
and the ballot. Such strategies must include
removing the ban on local governments from
establishing a minimum wage that lifts work-
ers out of poverty.
The convention was different —at times
like a celebration of our accomplishments, in-
cluding statewide laws to ban the box, paid
sick days, retirement security, organizing
wins, and electoral victories. Attendees were
proud, and understood that we are now a
movement for all workers.
Our success is why there was also a
shadow cast across convention. That shadow
is cast by the Koch Brothers, the Freedom
Foundation, and the National Right to Work
Committee: individuals and organizations
whose mission is to destroy the labor move-
ment and stop us as the vehicle of change and
voice for working people. Their strategy
ranges from anti-worker ballot initiatives to a
possible decision by the United States
Supreme Court. These are well-funded at-
tacks that we will face for at least the next
decade. Convention speakers, plenaries and
workshops helped attendees to begin prepar-
ing to face challenges ahead, and to under-
stand the need to create a broader movement
that grows our community allies and build
power at the grassroots.
The Oregon AFL-CIO is positioned well
for the fights to come. As long as we fight,
there is hope.
Tom Chamberlain is president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, a
120,000-member-strong federation of labor unions.
FIGHT FOR 15
Fast food workers hold mass
rallies and one-day strike
Workers in 270 cities nation-
wide took part in mass rallies
and a one-day strike by fast food
workers on Nov. 10. The rallies,
organized nationally by the
union-backed group Fight for
15, were the latest move in their
drive for $15 hourly wages and
the right to unionize without
employer interference. But this
time, the campaign added an-
other message: We vote, and
we’ll remember next November
who was for raising low-wage
workers’ pay and who was
against it. In a statement, the
Fight for 15 described workers
paid less than $15 an hour as “a
voting bloc that can no longer
be ignored.”
At least 64 million U.S.
workers — fast food workers,
retail workers, Walmart work-
ers, port truck drivers, adjunct
professors, part-time UPS driv-
ers, and more — earn $15 an
hour or less.
Two of the larger protests
were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
site of that evening’s GOP pres-
idential debate, and Brooklyn,
New York, where 1,000 people
took part in a pre-dawn march
on a low-paying McDonald’s.
Los Angeles television sta-
tions reported thousands of fast
food workers there walked out
in their first-ever one-day strike.
Los Angeles has 181,000 fast-
food workers, whose median
wage of $9 an hour nets them a
yearly income of just above
$11,000, far below the federal
poverty line.
— Mark Gruenberg, PAI
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NATIONAL
Attorneys general file pro-
union briefs in Friedrichs case
State attorneys general from 21
states — including Oregon and
Washington — and the District
of Columbia, announced Nov.
15 they are filing a friend-of-
the-court brief urging the U.S.
Supreme Court to uphold exist-
ing law that protects the right
of public-sector unions to col-
lect “fair share” or agency fees
from workers who do not
choose to join the union but are
covered by collective-bargain-
ing agreements that benefit
them. Their brief addresses
Friedrichs vs. California
Teachers Association, a case
that challenges the requirement
to pay “fair share” dues.
New York State Attorney
General Eric Schneiderman is
leading the coalition filing the
brief, which was joined by at-
torneys general from 20 other
states.
If the court strikes down the
requirement, it would be a
heavy blow to organized labor
nationwide.
UNITE HERE takes on Airbnb
in San Francisco, and loses
Housing costs have become
unaffordable for working peo-
ple in San Francisco, and one
factor has been the conversion
of rental housing units for use
as short-term rentals through
Airbnb.com. Airbnb has also
cost as many as 400 jobs in the
union hotel sector.
So UNITE HERE Local 2
fought back, and spent close to
$400,000 backing Proposition
F, a ballot measure to limit pri-
vate, short-term housing rentals
to 75 nights per year — and en-
sure they’re paying the re-
quired hotel taxes and follow-
ing city code. Airbnb spent $8
million to defeat Prop. F. The
measure went down to defeat
66 to 44 percent.