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September 2, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
WYDEN: Democrats ‘feeling very, very good’ about fall elections
BEND — U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
said Democrats are “feeling very,
very good” about winning the
presidency and re-taking control
of the U.S. Senate this fall—
which would put Oregon’s senior
senator in a strong position to be-
come chair of the powerful Sen-
ate Finance Committee.
Wyden shared his thoughts
about the upcoming general
election Aug. 12 at the Oregon
State Building and Construction
Trades Council convention.
Wyden is up for re-election this
year, but he didn’t mention it
during his speech. [The Oregon
Working Families Party is run-
ning a candidate against Wyden
because of his support for fast
track and the Trans-Pacific Part-
nership. Republicans didn’t field
a viable candidate.]
Wyden said Democrats are
running “particularly strong” in
Illinois and Wisconsin, and the
party is opening leads in Penn-
sylvania, New Hampshire, Ne-
vada, and Indiana. He said races
are close in Ohio and Florida.
[AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka announced last month
that the labor federation will fo-
cus its election efforts on six bat-
tleground states—Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Nevada, Wisconsin,
Florida, and Missouri. In Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,
one in five voters will live in a
union household, Trumka said.]
“But I don’t want anybody to
think this is going to be a walk
U.S.. Sen. Ron Wyden speaks at OSBCTC convention
in the park,” Wyden warned.
“We’re going to have our work
cut out for us.”
If everything falls in to place
and Wyden becomes Finance
Committee chair in 2017, he
vowed to immediately go to work
on a major infrastructure bill. Not
doing so, he said, “would be leg-
islative malpractice.”
He said it could be paid for by
closing a tax deferral loophole
that allows corporations to park
money overseas.
“It’s the granddaddy of all tax
boondoggles. It’s something that
costs you $80 billion, as taxpay-
ers, every year,” Wyden said.
“The first thing we’re going to
do is roll as much of that back as
we can, and use it to create in-
centives for red, white, and blue
jobs — the kind of jobs that peo-
ple in the building trades do.”
Wyden also would like to ex-
pand the Build America Bonds
program, a tax credit program
that he helped initiate in the Eco-
nomic Recovery Act of 2009.
Wyden pledged to Building
Trades Council delegates that if
he is chair of the Finance Com-
mittee, “you will be partners with
me every single step of the way.
You are going to be at the table.”
On free trade agreements:
Wyden said both political parties
have failed to enforce current
trade laws. He told delegates that
he currently is pushing back
OSBCTC RESOLUTIONS
The Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council passed the following resolutions at their convention:
Support of Local Unions Forming Partnerships with CTE
Programs Urge affiliated Local Unions to make a concerted
effort to partner with high schools in their area, AND to offer use
of their facilities and faculty for Career Technical Education (CTE)
training of high school students to high schools that currently
offer or will offer CTE programs.
Support In-State RPS Generation Requirements Urge the
Oregon Legislature to implement a requirement that 85% of
Oregon’s energy generated to meet Renewable Portfolio
Standards (RPS) should be generated within state boundaries,
and the construction and design of these new facilities should be
done by members of the Oregon Building Trades, and prevailing
wage requirements should be the standard.
Support Transportation Infrastructure Financing The
number one priority of the OSBCTC is to get legislative approval
of a robust, multi-modal transportation infrastructure financing
plan in the 2017 legislative session.
Support Measure 98, the High School Graduation and
College and Career Readiness Act The OSBCTC supports
Measure 98, and the investments it proposes, with the goal of
ensuring that all high school students have access to meaningful
career-technical education programs, college credit courses, and
the supports they need to stay on track to graduation beginning
in 9th Grade; the Council will work with the campaign —
Oregonians for High School Success —to ensure the measure’s
approval by the voters in the November 2016 general election.
Use Entire Bonding Capacity to Fix Water/Air Pollution
Crisis Recognizing Oregon’s crumbling infrastructure, which is
beginning to poison the air and water, OSBCTC urges the
Legislature and the Governor’s office to use all of the state’s $167
million in unallocated bonding capacity to put Oregonians to
work to solve this urgent problem.
Support of the Jordan Cove LNG Export Terminal and the
Pacific Connector Natural Gas Pipeline The OSBCTC calls
upon Governor Brown, members of the Oregon Legislature, and
members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation to fully support
the permitting and construction of the Jordan Cove Liquefied
Natural Gas (LNG) export terminal at North Bend, Coos County,
Oregon, to improve the economy of the Pacific Northwest.
Continue Funding OMCS The OSBCTC will levy for one year,
starting at the date this resolution is adopted, an assessment of
$1 per member, per month, for the purpose of supporting the
efforts and work of Oregonians to Maintain Community
Standards, OSBCTC’s political action committee. The Executive
Board will review any further increases or decreases in six
months, and have the authority to adjust according to need.
against Canada, which is “rip-
ping off” the U.S. on softwood
lumber. “Canadians subsidize
their softwood and basically are
dumping it in the United States,”
he said. “Too often, both politi-
cal parties have walked away
from it (enforcement). So I told
the Obama people, this is the
time when we have got to go to
the mat on those kinds of issues
that relate to family wage jobs.”
Wyden said his trade policy is
simple: “Make it in Oregon.
Grow it in Oregon. Add value to
it in Oregon. And ship it some-
where.”
He said trade-related jobs pay
better than non-trade-related
jobs. “One out of five jobs in
Oregon revolves around interna-
tional trade, and those jobs pay
18 percent more because they’ve
got more value added in it,” he
said. “And you’ve got to do it.
Ninety-five percent of the con-
sumers are outside the United
States, folks.”
On multi-employer pension
plans: Wyden says he is fully
aware of the problems with un-
derfunded multi-employer pen-
sion plans and the financially
struggling Pension Benefit
Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).
“Obviously, we’ve got a lot to
do. PBGC is very much under
siege. And clearly we have lia-
bilities in industries nobody ever
expected,” he said.
Wyden believes Congress
will act on a bill this fall to help
the insolvent coal miners pen-
sion and health care fund. Then
lawmakers will turn their atten-
tion to the under-funded Central
States Teamsters pension plan.
He said Congress then must
tackle the question of how to
shore up the entire multi-em-
ployer pension system and
whether or not it should start
looking at alternatives.
On Donald Trump: “Never
in my imagination did I think
that an American political candi-
date would appeal to foreign
spies to ask for help winning an
American election,” Wyden
said. “We’re talking about imag-
ination-defying statements,”
from the Republican presidential
nominee.
However, “Trump has done a
lot of smart things over the
years. He got out of real estate,
which has some risk, and he got
into all this branding stuff. He
just put his name on buildings
and steaks, and bottled water. No
down side, lots of up side. So
this is not a stupid man. We’re
going to have our work cut out
for us.”
Frew takes helm of Oregon
Building Trades Council
BEND—Tim Frew, a 32-year
member of the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Work-
ers (IBEW), succeeded John
Mohlis as executive secretary of
the Oregon State Building and
Construction Trades Council
(OSBCTC), effective Sept. 1.
Frew has job shadowed Mohlis
for the past several months, in-
cluding during the short session
of the Legislature in February.
Frew, of Eugene, is a member
of IBEW Local 280 based in
Tangent. He said he will make
the commute from Eugene to
Portland, where the building
trades office is located.
“I will be wherever I need to
be to represent the building
trades council,” he said.
Frew, 58, joined IBEW Local
177 in Jacksonville, Florida as
an apprentice in 1984. Prior to
that he spent a year at Florida
State University, then joined the
U.S. Navy, where he was an
electricians mate.
With his journeyman card in
hand, Frew traveled with his girl-
friend (and future wife, Jackie) to
several states, working along the
way. They settled in Eugene in
1991, where he became an active
member of Local 280.
Frew volunteered as an organ-
izer and steward. He chaired the
IBEW-NECA Safety Commit-
tee, and attended Oregon AFL-
CIO conventions as a delegate
for the local. He served one term
as vice president of Local 280,
and two terms as business man-
ager, from 2009 to 2015.
Frew currently sits on the
Oregon Elevator and Electrical
Board, as well as the Construc-
tion Industry Energy Board.
Because Frew is a member of
the IBEW, OSBCTC president
Gary Young, business manager
of IBEW Local 48 in Portland,
had to resign. The council’s con-
stitution states that leadership
positions cannot be held by
members of the same union.
So, delegates elected Joe
Bowers, business manager of
Iron Workers Local 29, to finish
out Young’s term as president.