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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2016)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | February 5 , 2016 | PAGE 11 Hillsboro School Board opposes minimum wage hike The Hillsboro School Board on Jan. 12 voted 4-3 to oppose rais- ing Oregon’s minimum wage to either $13.50 or $15 per hour. Two initiative petitions to raise the minimum wage are gathering signatures for the No- vember ballot — one to $13.50 and the other to $15. And Gov. Kate Brown recently announced her own plan to raise the mini- mum wage. Her plan will be brought up for debate during the 2016 legislative session that be- gan this month. Voting in favor of the school board taking the position to op- pose the minimum wage in- crease were board members Glenn Miller, Erik Seligman, Wayne Clift, and Monte Akers. Voting against were Lisa Allen, Kim Strelchun and Ja- neen Sollman. Allen, who is in her first term on the board, was endorsed by the Northwest Ore- gon Labor Council. The Portland Tribune re- ported that school superintend- ent Mike Scott admonished board members about taking a position on the issue. Scott said 50 percent of the families the school district serves live below the poverty level. Additionally, he said, there are district em- ployees who earn less than $13.50 an hour. “I don’t know if that’s a posi- tion a school board should be taking. There’s a sensitivity around it,” he said. On Jan. 26, a group of union members and activists from 15 Now Oregon held a rally and press conference at the school district administration offices prior to a regularly scheduled school board meeting. “This vote was taken despite the fact that half of the students in the Hillsboro School District live below the poverty line. Forty percent of the district’s students are Latino, and 60 per- cent of Latino workers make less than $15 per hour,” a press release stated. “None of the school board members live in poverty. None are Latino.” ... SOU settlement In a press statement, SOU said: “Though SOU disagreed with BOLI’s conclusion that ad- ditional wages were owed on the project, due to the time and cost of litigating the dispute, the SOU administration concluded that it was in the best interest of all involved to mutually resolve the dispute. SOU is looking for- ward to moving on from the is- sue and continuing to serve our students and community.” Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian told Oregon Public Broadcasting, “when we do an investigation, we investigate both the government agency and the contractor to make sure the law is being followed. There’s a responsibility of both the contractors and the govern- ment body to ensure that work- ers are being paid the amount of money that they’re due.” Avakian said contractors and public agencies will often check with the agency before initiating a project, to see if it falls under the state’s prevailing wage laws. “It’s unfortunate that did not happen in this case, which is what led to the investigation and now the settlement,” Avakian told OPB. “But, that said, we’re very pleased that Southern Ore- From Page 10 $1 million — BOLI is contacting each worker to secure individual releases of claims so that it can collect and distribute the addi- tional payments. BOLI antici- pates that all workers will receive payment by May. The settlement agreement re- leases SOU, ACC, Adroit and all other parties from future wage claims, while admitting no wrongdoing or liability on the disputed wages. 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We publish the first and third Fridays of each month, and the deadline is one week prior to that. STAT OF THE MONTH A Harvard Business School analysis of $2.4 trillion in S&P 500 company profits has found that 54 percent of that in- come went to stock buybacks that help boost executive pay, 37 percent to div- idends that enrich shareholders, and 9 percent to R&D and training and raises for workers. From the Institute for Policy Studies Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call Membership Subscription to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS 503-288-5537 1638 NE Broadway, Portland Low Prices! Annual Group Rate of 25 or more subscriptions only $10.08 each That’s only 42 cents an issue! Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6 Members receive: • Local labor news • Official Meeting Notices • Free Classified Ads CALL 503-288-3311 140
