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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2019)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 120, NUMBER 13 IN THIS ISSUE LERC WINS BUDGET REPRIEVE U of O’s president held firm on cuts, but lawmakers came up with a patch | Page 7 GROCERY WORKERS AUTHORIZE STRIKE Strike votes continue in Oregon and SW Washington | Page 8 Meeting Notices p.4 Unionization elections p.8 PORTLAND, OREGON JULY 5, 2019 UNION ORGANIZING OREGON LEGISLATURE Psychiatric nurses unionize 2019 at the Oregon Capitol Lawmakers passed paid family leave and boosted school budgets, but also cut public worker com- pensation and punted on climate. UNITY AT UNITY: Union supporters Amer Filipovic, Tracie Henry, Haley Choi, and Jeff Ferrier gathered out- side Unity Center for Behavioral Health after registered nurses there voted overwhelmingly to unionize. A unit of 202 registered nurses at Unity Center for Behavioral Health voted overwhelmingly to join Ore- gon Nurses Association (ONA) in ballots counted June 19. The tally was 128 in favor and 25 opposed. Unity Center is Portland’s only 24-hour psychiatric emergency facility. It’s oper- ated by Legacy Health Sys- tems as a joint venture with several other health net- works. ONA supporters say they want a union in part to create a safer environment for pa- tients and staff. Since it opened in 2017, Unity Cen- ter has faced multiple inves- tigations over violations of safety rules. By Don McIntosh Union members might have thought Oregon’s 2019 legislative session would be a pivotal year for working people, thanks to a historic Democratic supermajority in both chambers. It didn’t work out that way. In the session that ended June 30, Democratic law- makers passed an important paid family and medical leave bill, and enacted a $1 billion corporate tax to shore up school funding, but also cut public employee compen- sation to shore up public pension finances and let several priority union proposals die with no vote. Meanwhile, Republican state senators learned first-hand the value of the strike, walking out not once but twice in a semi-suc- cessful ploy (depriving the body of the needed 2/3 quorum) to get concessions from leaders of the Democratic majority. “The PERS vote makes every- thing else taste like ash your in mouth,” said Joe Baessler, a vet- eran Oregon AFSCME lobbyist. Public employee unions like AF- SCME that had just worked to elect Democrats weren’t brought to the table when decisions were being made about changes to PERS, which included a cut in current worker compensation. “It was also tense the whole time, with bad feelings all around,” Baessler said. “I don’t think labor was appre- ciated this session,” said UFCW Local 555 Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Anderson. Two bills that were priorities for Local 555 were “shut out” without explanation, Anderson said, perhaps traded away in negotiations the union wasn’t part of. In a statement after it ended, Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain said while the session contained both wins and losses for working people and unions, “the betrayal of cutting the hard-earned retirement security of public work- ers is simply unacceptable.” WHAT PASSED, WHAT FAILED: PAGE 7 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch: Rich CEOs get richer, unlike the rest of us WASHINGTON, D.C.—In 2018, CEOs of S&P 500 com- panies received, on average, $14.5 million—a $500,000 in- crease from the previous year, according to the latest AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch report, re- leased June 25. Compare that to the average rank-and-file worker, who received barely more than a $1,000 raise, bring- ing total take-home pay in 2018 to $39,888. The S&P 500 is an index of 500 of the largest pub- licly traded U.S. firms. “The average CEO earns 287 times what an average employee earns,” said AFL-CIO Secretary- Treasurer Liz Shuler. “This dis- parity represents a fundamental problem with our economy: Pro- ductivity and corporate profits are through the roof, but wages for working people are flat—and THE 10 HIGHEST-PAID OREGON CEOs THE 10 HIGHEST-PAID WASHINGTON CEOs NIKE, Inc. Mark Parker $9,467,460 Schnitzer Steel IndustriesTamara Lundgren $9,088,535 FLIR Systems, Inc. James Cannon $7,959,846 Greenbrier Cos. William Furman $7,473,644 Lithia Motors Bryan DeBoer $5,464,394 Northwest Natural David Anderson $3,629,634 Umpqua Holdings Corp. Cort O'Haver $3,551,514 Columbia SportswearTimothy Boyle $3,304,203 Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. Michael Burger $3,221,383 Portland General Electric Maria Pope $3,216,062 T-Mobile John Legere $66,538,206 Microsoft Satya Nadella $25,843,263 Seattle Genetics Clay Siegall $18,107,037 Funko Brian Mariotti $16,395,614 Fortive Corp. James Lico $13,720,993 Starbucks Kevin Johnson $13,382,480 Zillow Group Spencer Rascoff $12,863,822 Monolithic Power Systems Michael Hsing $11,715,714 Weyerhaeuser Co. Doyle Simons $11,191,321 PACCAR, Inc. Ronald Armstrong $9,929,242 staying flat.” What’s worse, as Shuler pointed out: While rich execu- tives rake it in, these corpora- tions and their executives are paying less and less in taxes to support the public services and infrastructure that their compa- nies rely upon to make their profits. “The recent tax cut only made things worse by widening the gap between the 1% and the rest of us,” Shuler said. “The corporate income tax rate was reduced from 35% to 21%, and 60 of the largest U.S. companies paid nothing in federal income taxes last year—despite being profitable. In other words, Ama- zon users pay more for a Prime membership than Amazon paid in federal income taxes last year.” HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT ■ $14.5 million S&P 500 CEOs’ average 2018 compensation. ■ 287 to 1 The average S&P 500 CEO-to-worker pay ratio. ■ $5.2 million Increase in the average S&P 500 CEO’s pay over the past 10 years. ■ $7,858 Increase in the average U.S. rank-and-file worker’s pay over the past 10 years. ■ $93 billion Decrease in corporate income taxes following the passage of the 2017 GOP tax cut. ■ $0 Federal income taxes paid by 60 of the largest U.S. companies in 2018, including Amazon and Delta Airlines. View the full report, including state-by-state data, at aflcio.org/ paywatch/highest-paid-ceos
