PAGE 8 | April 15, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Who’s on our side?
By Tom Chamberlain Oregon AFL-CIO President
Ireland’s corporate agenda
T
o see the result of a corporate
agenda run amok, just look to Ire-
land. At 12.5 percent, Ireland’s corpo-
rate tax is one of the lowest in the
world. The U.S. corporate tax rate is 35
percent. Many American corporations
are now headquartered in Ireland:
Google, Facebook, Apple, and Mi-
crosoft, to name just a few. Some cor-
porations have factories in Ireland,
while others have just enough of a pres-
ence to dodge U.S. taxes.
The shift in Ireland’s governmental
philosophy of what is good for busi-
ness is good for Ireland has predictable
results. Most U.S. corporations that
have Irish facilities oppose a unionized
workforce. Master labor agreements
bargained between businesses, the gov-
ernment, and labor unions have been
declared unconstitutional in Ireland.
Irish workers do not have a right to
collective bargaining and without mas-
ter agreements their ability to negotiate
for better lives is diminished. Currently,
25 percent of Irish workers belong to a
union, but that percentage is dropping,
and now more unionized workers are
in the public sector.
Jobs created since the 2008 reces-
sion pay significantly less than pre-re-
cession jobs.
Absent master agreements, the
plight of Irish workers is very similar
to American workers: shouldering
more responsibility of funding vital
services like healthcare, education, in-
frastructure, feeding the poor, and pro-
viding housing — all while wages and
benefits are eroded. At the same time,
corporate and Wall Street profits are at
record levels.
What is ironic is 100 years ago on
Easter in the streets of Dublin, and
throughout Ireland, over 3,000 Irish
trade unionists and socialists fought for
independence and social justice. Their
Proclamation of Independence reflects
the values of shared prosperity, equal
rights for all regardless of gender, race,
ethnicity or religion. Within five days,
the British Empire crushed their dream
of a nation of workers. Within three
weeks, all the leaders of Easter Rising
were executed by firing squad and
3,000 were placed in British prisons. In
1921, 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties split
from the British Empire, forming the
Irish Free States now known as the Re-
public of Ireland. I am sure those who
fought and died in the Easter Rising of
1916 would be appalled to see Ireland
as a corporate tax haven.
Irish working people, like Ameri-
cans, are tired of an economy where
their sweat and toil rewards the rich
and powerful, but does little or nothing
for working people. Working people
have become disenfranchised from po-
litical parties, not trusting elected rep-
resentatives who time and time again
chose a corporate agenda. That corpo-
rate agenda thirsts for increasingly
cheaper labor costs and pits state
against state, country against country,
seeking greater incentives in exchange
for jobs that all too often disappear
when the incentives expire.
The corporate agenda will not be de-
railed overnight. It is a battle of inches
gained and lost. We are in the trenches
each election cycle, holding elected
representatives accountable. And we
can see working people’s victories:
The governor of Oregon and the Ore-
gon Legislature fought for working
people during the 2016 legislative ses-
sion, passing renter protections, a
higher minimum wage, and solutions
to address Oregon’s affordable housing
shortage. Gov. Kate Brown, Senate
President Peter Courtney, and House
Speaker Tina Kotek provided the lead-
ership needed to find solutions to some
of Oregon’s challenges. As Gov.
Brown stated at the minimum wage bill
signing, ‘we find solutions to Oregon’s
problems by bringing organizations
and citizens together to find common
ground.’
That is the Oregon way, and frankly,
it’s why Oregon is a leader in advanc-
ing a working peoples’ agenda.
Tom Chamberlain is president of the Oregon AFL-
CIO, a 120,000-member-strong federation of labor
unions.