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.