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