Northwest labor press., March 16, 2018, Page 6, Image 6

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March 16, 2018 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
ENDORSEMENT SEASON
AFL-CIO issues May primary recommendations
As of March 1, the Oregon
AFL-CIO has endorsed the fol-
lowing candidates and issues:
Congressional
U.S.Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, CD 1
Eric Burnette, Candidate for CD 2
U.S. Rep Earl Blumenauer, CD 3*
Statewide
Gov. Kate Brown
Val Hoyle for Labor Commissioner
Ballot Measures
No on Initiative Petitions 5 & 22 (anti-
immigrant measures)
State Senate
Athena Goldberg, SD 3
Senator James Manning, SD 7
Senator Sara Gelser, SD 8*
Senator Chuck Riley, SD 15
Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, SD 17
Senator Rob Wagner, SD 19
State House
Representative Tina Kotek, HD 44
Representative Jennifer Williamson, HD 36
Representative Paul Holvey, HD 8*
Representative Nancy Nathanson, HD 13
Representative Dan Rayfield, HD 16
Representative Julie Fahey, HD 14
Rachel Prusak, Candidate for HD 37
Representative Andrea Salinas, HD 38
Representative Mark Meek, HD 40*
Representative Karin Power, HD 41*
Representative Rob Nosse, HD 42
Representative Tawna Sanchez, HD 43*
Representative Barbara Smith Warner, HD 45
Representative Alissa Keny-Guyer, HD 46
Representative Diego Hernandez, HD 47*
Representative Chris Gorsek, HD 49
Representative Carla Piluso, HD 50*
*pending receipt of satisfactory candidate
questionnaire.
...Union members are running for office
From Page 1
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife,
was once a city councilor in the tiny
Eastern Washington town of Dayton. Now
she’s running for Salem City Council,
Ward 8, against incumbent Jim Lewis.
(mickiforsalem.com)
■ Dean Tucker, a former timber feller who
works as an appraiser in the Douglas
County Assessor’s office, is running for
his boss Roger Hartman’s job. After
Hartman won election to the nonpartisan
seat in 2014, Tucker and other employees
joined Oregon AFSCME. Hartman later
barred the wearing of union T-shirts in
their Roseburg offices, among many other
controversies. (tuckerforassessor.com)
Of course, union members don’t
have to go to candidate school to
run for office. In Yamhill County,
two other Oregon union mem-
bers are making first-time runs
for office:
■ Josh Rojas serves young people as a care
coordinator for Yamhill County Health and
Human Services. He’s also president of
AFSCME Local 1422, and one of three
candidates challenging incumbent Stan
Primozich for Yamhill County
Commission, Position 1.
(facebook.com/RojasForYCC)
■ Chelsey Williams is a shop steward in
American Federation of Teachers
Local 6069, which represents graduate
student faculty at Oregon State University.
She’s one of two candidates challenging
incumbent Mary Starrett for Yamhill
County Commission, Position 3.
(chelseyforcommish.com)
INTERESTED IN RUNNING?
Oregon: Oregon Labor Candidates
School candidate training events take
place March 20 in Hermiston and April
14 in Eugene. A multi-session class
Portland starts October. Find out more
at oregonlaborcandidateschool.org
Washington:The next candidate
training for Washington union mem-
bers will take place March 28-30 in
Yakima. For details, see
http://bit.ly/2I9eOrt.
Who’s on our side?
By Tom Chamberlain Oregon AFL-CIO President
A new era in American unionism
B
etween 1945 to 1965, America workers’ wages doubled,
and between 1965 and 1985, wages almost doubled again.
But since 1985, wages have been stagnant. Today, 20 percent
of the wealthiest Americans own 86 percent of American
wealth: the highest in history. It is should not be a surprise to
anyone that the rise and decline in wages tracks with the rise
and decline of worker power through union membership. And
that is precisely why our workers’ movement is a target.
On Feb. 26, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in
Janus v AFSCME. A pro Janus decision would eliminate
agency fees for nonunion members. The goal of the deep-pock-
eted backers of Janus is to bankrupt unions and eliminate our
political power, resulting in a political and legislative agenda
that favors corporations, Wall Street, and the wealthy. Their ar-
gument is that agency fees for non-members who enjoy all the
benefits of a union contract is an unconstitutional act of com-
pelled speech.
The rise of the worker power in the United States was a time
of great activism. Strikes were more common and workers who
lived through the Great Depression knew what this country was
like before the rise of unions: low wages, no pensions, no ben-
efits, and little or no job safety protections. The connection be-
tween individual members ran deep with their unions. Prior to
payroll deductions, dues were collected through union stewards
on a one-on-one basis. Each month, a member would pay their
dues and have a one-on-one conversation. That conversation
could have been about sports, family, politics and sometimes a
union issue. The connection that was forged resulted in a sense
of union ownership with members. Today’s unions have
reestablished those one-on-one conversations between mem-
bers and union representatives.
What might a post-Janus world look like? Many believe that
the West Virginia teachers’ strike foreshadows a new era in
American unionism. As workers become more involved in their
unions through increased member-to-member communication,
they move toward activism and solidarity. States that have bal-
anced budgets on the backs of public employees are vulnerable
to backlash, like we just witnessed in West Virginia. Workers
who have become frustrated with a system that victimizes them
and their families will look for a vehicle to strike back. That ve-
hicle has and always will be the American union movement.
Our workers’ movement was designed to be a radical counter
to capitalism. Today’s economic division between workers and
the wealthiest Americans looks more like the 1890s and the
early days of the 1900s than anytime in modern history. It was
a time of great labor unrest: In the 1890s there were over 20
strikes, and each had a significant impact on our history. Like
many workers today, they scratched out a living working sev-
eral jobs to survive while poverty and homelessness ran ram-
pant. The robber barons of the 1890s, like today, believed that
workers were a commodity to be used and discarded.
Workers will only tolerate such abuse for so long before they
fight back for the well-being of their families. Pay attention to
the workers at Vigor Shipyards who are still fighting for respect
on the job and a 40-hour workweek. A pro-Janus decision by
the Supreme Court will eventually result in a more militant
form of unionism where workers choose to fight back against
a system that is rigged for the rich. Our success as we move
forward is to ignore those things that separate workers — pri-
vate versus public, manufacturing versus the building trades —
and to support each other on the picket line and in our capitals.
We must remember that solidarity equals success.
The Oregon AFL-CIO is a 138,000-member-strong federation of labor unions.