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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 2017)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 118, NUMBER 21 IN THIS ISSUE UNIONS FOR KIDS: Poker tournament raises money for Doernbecher, Labor’s Community Services | Page 8 BUILDING TRADES : Portland ready to move on new Community Benefits Agreementl. | Page 10 SEIU to strike at 2 hospitals p.2 Meeting notices p. 6 PORTLAND, OREGON NOVEMBER 3, 2017 UNION DEMOCRACY NATIONAL National AFL-CIO convention GOP tax plan sparks major backlash Over 1,200 delegates, alter- nates and guests gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, Oct. 22-25 for the national AFL-CIO’s 28th Constitutional Convention. The convention is held every four years to elect officers and adopt policy resolutions. The AFL-CIO isn’t a union. It’s a federation of 56 national and international labor unions that represent 12.5 million American workers in total. The AFL-CIO includes almost every national union except the Carpenters, National Education Association, Teamsters, Serv- ice Employees International Union, and International Long- shore and Warehouse Union. Breaking with past practice, this time AFL-CIO declined to invite any national politicians to address the convention. That — and a resolution passed on Day 3 of the convention — were meant to communicate the need for labor to be politi- Convention delegates unanimously re-elected Richard Trumka (Mine Workers) as president, Liz Shuler (Electrical Workers) as secretary-treasurer and Tefere Gebre (United Food and Commercial Workers) as executive vice president of the AFL-CIO. In addition, delegates elected 55 vice presidents who will serve as the Executive Council for a four-year term. Shuler is a member of Portland-based IBEW #125. cally independent of the two major parties. The convention also empha- sized racial equity and inclu- sion. That was the subject of a pre-convention day of work- shops, and attendees got to wit- ness the exclusion of Black Americans firsthand: Bruce Franks, Jr., a young Black state representative from St. Louis, was invited to speak to the pre- convention gathering Oct. 21, but was refused entry by con- vention center security officers, Turn to Page 11 would go to the top 1 percent of income taxpayers, and the top tenth of a percent would get an average tax cut of over $1 mil- lion a year. Meanwhile, nearly one third of households earning between $50,000 and $150,000 would see a tax increase due to the repeal of personal exemp- tions and deductions. In an Oct. 26 speech in the Senate, Oregon’s Ron Wyden, ranking Democrat on the tax- writing Senate Finance Com- mittee, called it “a feast for the ultra-wealthy” in which the middle class is on the menu. “This debate is coming,” Wyden warned. “It’s going to happen at the speed of light. The whole process could be over be- fore anybody has put a dent in their holiday shopping, but that’s Turn to Page 3 OREGON COLLECTIVE BARGAINING Tax on hospitals and insurers will go to voters in January Strike at Lane County Lane County employees represented by AF- SCME Local 2831 went on strike for a week be- fore reaching agreement on a new three-year contract. The bargaining unit totaled 692 work- ers, including 80 nurses and 110 probationary and temporary workers. They walked off the job Wednesday, Oct. 18 and returned to work Wednesday, Oct. 25. The strike caused county health clinics and dumps to close. Strikers pick- eted at nine locations. Workers struck chiefly over county proposals on pay and health care, said Oregon AFSCME spokesperson Ross Grami. A county pay study showed that members were making on average 15 percent below their peers at comparable pub- lic employers, Grami said, but Lane County re- jected a union proposal to raise wages 14.8 per- cent. And the county’s health insurance proposal required employees to contribute for the first time toward the health insurance premium — ̦$20 to $70 a month, plus increased copays and deductibles. In the settlement, which was ratified Oct. 27, members agreed in the end to the county health insurance proposal, though the county agreed to delay the start date for health insurance pay- ments to July 1. By Don McIntosh For four decades, while wages have stagnated for American working people, the incomes and accumulated wealth of the top 1 percent — and the top tenth of 1 percent — have be- come so untethered from the rest of the country that America is today witnessing the birth of a new aristocracy of inherited wealth. What do Republicans in Congress propose to do about that? Abolish the estate tax on the estates of the wealthy, and cut taxes massively on the rich and corporations. As of press time, details of the still-evolving tax-cutting plan were being kept secret even from fellow Republicans in Congress. But based on the GOP framework released Sept. 27, 80 percent of the tax cuts To preserve Medicaid funding, Oregon AFL-CIO urges yes vote The contract also provides a 3 percent raise in the first year, and 2 percent in second and third years. A joint labor-management committee will review wages of some employees mid-way through the contract. Three Republican legislators who oppose new Oregon taxes on hospitals and insurance com- panies have collected enough signatures to put the law before voters in a Jan. 23, 2018 special election. House Bill 2391 was passed by the Legislature earlier this year to raise money that at- tracts federal Medicaid matching funds to pay for the Oregon Health Plan. It will be Measure 101 on the ballot. A “yes” vote keeps the taxes. The taxes — 6 percent on hospital net revenue, and 1.5 per- cent on health insurance premi- ums — are forecast to raise $670 million in the next two years. Labor organizations urging a yes vote include Oregon AFL- CIO, American Federation of Teachers-Oregon, Oregon AF- SCME, Oregon Education Asso- ciation, Oregon Federation of Nurses and Healthcare Profes- sionals, Oregon Nurses Associa- tion, Oregon School Employees Association, and Service Em- ployees Locals 49 and 503. They’re joined by more than 50 community, civil rights, and non- profit organizations. The effort to overturn the law is led by State Reps. Sal Esquivel (R-Medford), Julie Parrish (R- West Linn) and Cedric Hayden (R-Fall Creek). Oregon has relied on the so- called “provider tax” on hospitals to fund the Oregon Health Plan since 2004, but the insurance tax is new. ONLINE PLEDGE Oregon AFL-CIO is asking Oregonians to sign an online pledge to vote yes on Measure 101 http://bit.ly/2yS9PJL
