NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | November 18, 2016 | PAGE 7
Big wins in Washington for labor
Who’s on our side?
By Tom Chamberlain Oregon AFL-CIO President
To our union volunteers:
THANK YOU!
A
s the outcomes of the 2016 General Election sink in, one
thing is certain: Union members and working people
have stepped up to the plate in a tremendous way over the
past few months. The efforts by unions across Oregon in mo-
bilizing members to vote for candidates and issues who sup-
port us cannot be ignored. I’m grateful for everything you did,
and everything we accomplished together since Labor Day.
Thank you to each volunteer who knocked on doors, made
phone calls, passed out fliers, and helped with every compo-
nent of the Oregon AFL-CIO’s Labor 2016 program.
Looking at the numbers, it’s staggering: Together we
knocked on over 100,000 doors, made over 260,000 phone
calls, sent almost 650,000 pieces of mail, and handed out over
2,800 fliers at worksites. Volunteers from over 30 different
unions filled more than 1,000 shifts.
Our efforts included canvasses and phone banks in the Port-
land metropolitan area, Bend, Salem, Woodburn, Medford,
Ashland, Eugene, Albany and more. We saw results from all
our efforts with some important victories for our endorsed
statewide and legislative candidates.
The election of Gov. Kate Brown will push our state for-
ward for working people. Gov. Brown has a long history of
advocacy, and I know she will continue to stand up for work-
ers and our unions in the coming years.
I’m disappointed that Brad Avakian will not move on to
Secretary of State, but I know that he will continue to be a
strong voice for workers as labor commissioner. Working
people will continue to make sure all our voices, not just those
of large corporations, are heard in Oregon’s elections.
While Measure 97 was defeated, we changed the debate
about the massive gap between where we are and what we
need to fund education, health care and senior services in Ore-
gon. To close that gap, we can no longer afford to be 50th in
the nation in corporate taxes. We have started a conversation
that will not be ignored.
Our efforts on behalf of union-endorsed candidates in our
State Legislature have shown us that in communities across
Oregon, working people are eager to support leaders who
stand up for our issues and our priorities. We look forward to
a productive 2017 legislative session and more opportunities
to advance an agenda designed to give all Oregonians a fair
shot at prosperity.
I’m grateful for the volunteers across Oregon who made
our wins possible. We could not have done this without union
members standing together to fight for what we believe in. I
look forward to what Oregon’s union movement will accom-
plish next.
Tom Chamberlain is president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, a 130,000-member-strong
federation of labor unions.
Low Prices!
Washington State Labor Coun-
cil, AFL-CIO, ended up with
much to celebrate in this year’s
general election results. All 12
statewide candidates it endorsed
won office. All three of its en-
dorsed ballot measures passed,
including a measure that will
raise the minimum wage to
$13.50 over the next four years
and guarantee all workers paid
sick leave. And the carbon tax
measure it opposed — which
failed to invest in clean energy
and worsened state budget chal-
lenges — went down to defeat.
And that’s not all. Puget
Sound voters approved $54 bil-
lion in transit improvements
over the next 25 years, including
62 miles of light rail and new
bus and heavy rail service to
King, Pierce and Snohomish
counties.
And Seattle voters passed a
measure — by 77 percent — to
improve working conditions for
hotel workers. Effective imme-
diately, hotels with 100 or more
rooms must provide health in-
surance to full-time employees
and limit housekeeper workload
to 5,000 square feet per shift —
to protect them from injury. And
hotels with 60 or more rooms
must take steps to combat sex-
ual harassment and assault by
guests.
Then there’s the Washington
Legislature, which has been
gridlocked for years between a
GOP-led Senate and a Democ-
rat-led House. This election,
with labor support, Democrats
added two seats to their House
majority, which is now 52 to 46.
And in the Senate, Democrats
gained one seat, reaching a 25-
24 majority — in theory. The
problem is: Mason County Sen.
Tim Sheldon, who tells voters
his preference is the Democratic
Party, has caucused with the Re-
publicans since 2012. Assuming
he continues to do so, expect
more gridlock. And that’s at a
time when Washington lawmak-
ers face a state Supreme Court
order to finalize a plan to fully
fund public schools by 2018.
Probst defeat a big union loss
Labor had high hopes of retak-
ing the Washington Senate by
electing Tim Probst in the 17th
Legislative District in eastern
Vancouver. But he lost by al-
most 5,000 votes to state Rep.
Lynda Wilson, who is one of the
most anti-union Republicans in
the Legislature. Wilson is mar-
ried to a board member of the
anti-union Freedom Foundation.
Freedom Foundation is the
group that has sent mail and
canvassers to union-represented
home care workers urging them
to stop paying union dues.
Worse yet for labor, Wilson’s
House seat was won by a Free-
dom Foundation staffperson,
Vicki Craft.
Labor also failed to unseat in-
cumbent Southwest Washington
Republican Congresswoman
Jaime Herrera Beutler. Jim
Moeller trailed her badly 39 to
61 percent. Moeller had to give
up his Vancouver state Senate
seat to run. He was succeeded
by union-endorsed Democrat
Annette Cleveland.
SW Washington legislative races
Here’s how WSLC-endorsed candidates
fared on election night:
17th Legislative District
Senate: Tim Probst LOST
House 1: Sam Kim LOST
19th Legislative District
Senate: Dean Takko WON
House 1: Teresa Purcell WON
House 2: Brian Blake WON
49th Legislative District
Senate: Annette Cleveland WON
House 1: Sharon Wylie WON
House 2: Monica Stonier WON
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