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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 2017)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | October 6, 2017 | PAGE 3 University of Oregon LERC celebrates 40 years of support for labor By Don McIntosh University of Oregon Labor Ed- ucation and Research Center (LERC) is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding this month. LERC is a university ex- tension program that helps unions with training and re- search. The idea for it first came up in 1971 as a resolution passed at the annual convention of the Oregon AFL-CIO. It took several attempts, but with the help of Ted Kulongoski — who was then a state representative from Eugene — a proposal to establish LERC won approval at the Oregon Legislature in 1977. Today, LERC has five fac- ulty, five support staff, offices on UO’s Eugene and Portland campuses, and an annual budget of just under $1 million. An ad- visory board of about 30 labor and legislative leaders meets quarterly to offer guidance. LERC is one of at least 19 such programs around the country. Unlike regular university programs, LERC doesn’t offer academic credit. Instead, it’s part of the state university sys- tem’s adult education outreach effort, not unlike the agricul- tural extension work done for the farming industry at Oregon State University, or the Popula- tion Research Center at Port- land State University that helps LERC FACULTY AND STAFF IN 1994: Marcus Widenor, Lynn Feekin, Steve Hecker, Jill Kriesky, Bill Fritz, Charles Spencer, Margaret Hallock, Steven Deutsch, Lee Schore, Val Font, Clara Coester, Barbara Hedges, Malcom McRae, and Connie Wagner. city planners. “Education, research and service are the three pillars of a public university,” LERC direc- tor Bob Bussell told the Labor Press, “and I think we have done an effective job of inte- grating those functions and ful- filling the university’s public mission.” LERC is best known for three regular programs that have trained generations of union stewards and officers over the years: ▪ AFL-CIO Summer School, a three-day program of classes that draw about 150 union participants to the UO campus in Eugene every summer; ▪ Public Employment Rela- tions Conference, which takes place at the Salem Con- vention Center in the spring in even-numbered years, bringing together about 200 attorneys, arbitrators, and la- bor and management staff representatives for strategy workshops and updates on public employee case law; and the ▪ Collective Bargaining Insti- tute, a five-day intensive bar- gaining training for about 30 union members, held every December at the Menucha Retreat and Conference Cen- ter in Corbett. Lately, LERC has also worked with a number of larger unions to help with strategic planning and leadership devel- opment. And LERC staff have published research that has had an impact on public policy, like a report on abusive scheduling practices by employers, which contributed to legislation passed this year. Will LERC be around an- other 40 years? Only if unions and their allies maintain their support of it. As Bussell has of- ten said, “eternal vigilance is the price of a labor education pro- gram.” Funding for LERC and pro- grams like it elsewhere some- times comes under political at- tack by opponents of the union movement, who argue that tax- payers shouldn’t support union training — never mind the fact that it’s the official policy of the federal government to encour- age collective bargaining. “There are people that ques- tion the legitimacy of a publicly- funded program in the univer- sity that views the union movement and workers as its primary constituency,” Bussell said. “We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had people who have been prepared to step up and de- fend us when our legitimacy and role have been questioned.” LERC’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY BENEFIT CELEBRATION ■ Where/when: Oregon Zoo, Wednesday, Oct. 11 ■ Cost: $100 per person ■ Information and tickets: lerc.uoregon.edu/40th-anniversary POLITICS NW Oregon Labor Council endorses PCC bond renewal Raymond Thomas Cynthia Newton Melissa Haggerty James Coon Chris Frost Sydney Montanaro Even if an employer fails to buy workers’ comp coverage an injured worker has the right to obtain benefits. Learn about your rights before you give up on obtaining help when you are hurt on the job. 820 SW Second Ave., Suite 200, Portland, OR 97204 Scott Sell Chris Thomas www.tcnf.legal Delegates to the Northwest Oregon Labor Council voted Sept. 25 to endorse Portland Community College Bond Measure 26-196, which will appear on the ballot in an elec- tion Nov. 7. If approved, the measure would not increase the tax rate, because it is a renewal of an ex- piring bond, passed by voters in 2000. The tax rate is cur- rently 40 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The bond money would pro- vide $185 million in funding to be directed toward constructing job training facilities, and to expand and modernize technol- ogy and equipment. Ballots will be mailed start- ing Friday, Oct. 20. Ballots must be received at your county elections office or offi- cial drop site location by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017, to be counted. Postmarks do not count.
