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April 16, 2021 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
UNION ORGANIZING
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
LEGISLATURE IN SESSION
OREGON
WASHINGTON
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CORRECTION
A story in our April 2 issue about a union
agreement at the proposed renewable
diesel refinery at Port Westward incorrectly
said the 30-year lease on the property was
signed with the Port of Clatskanie. There is
no such entity, and the lease was signed
with the Port of Columbia County.
Hours: Mon-Sat 12-6 pm Closed Sunday
Two union-backed bills have passed at
least one Oregon legislative chamber.
A bill to give hiring hall workers the
right to paid sick leave passed the
Senate. Union construction workers
were left out when Oregon passed paid
sick leave in 2015. SB 588, to ensure
they have the same rights, passed the
Oregon Senate 22-4 on March 24 and is
now in the House.
A bill to set the prevailing wage at
the union rate has passed the
Senate. In order to set the wage that
must be paid on public construction
projects, Oregon right now conducts
time-consuming annual surveys, and
union leaders say the results often don’t
reflect what’s really paid. SB 493, a bill
to base the prevailing wage on the
collectively bargained rate, like
Washington does, passed the Oregon
Senate 16-11. Scappoose state Sen.
Betsy Johnson was the only Democrat
to oppose it in a March 31 vote that was
otherwise along strict party lines. The
bill is now in the House.
Several priorities of the Washington
State Labor Council look likely to pass.
A bill to give farm workers the right
to overtime pay is on track to
pass. In a bipartisan 91-7 vote on April
9, the Washington House of
Representatives passed a bill to make
Washington the first state to give
agricultural employees the right to a
40-hour work week and overtime pay.
Because a technical amendment was
adopted, SB 5172 now returns to the
Washington Senate for concurrence. It
earlier passed the Senate 37-12 and
was expected to do so again. “SB 5172
will end a racist legacy and correct an
injustice that has existed for too long,”
said Washington State Labor Council
President Larry Brown.
COVID-19 workers’ comp
presumption bill is near the finish
line. Frontline workers who are
infected with COVID-19 will receive
medical coverage and partial wage
replacement for lost work hours under
SB 5115, which passed the state Senate
48-1 on Feb. 23 and the state House 68-
30 on April 5. The bill was amended in
the House, so it must return to the
Senate for concurrence. It will create a
presumption that frontline employees
infected by COVID-19 qualify for
workers’ compensation, unless it is
proven they caught it outside work. It
would also require businesses to be
more transparent about cases and
potential exposure during a pandemic. It
would provide protections to virtually all
workers who have significant interaction
with the public, including first
responders, health care workers, food
service workers, teachers, grocery
workers, and farm and food-processing
workers. It had an emergency clause
and would have taken effect as soon as
it was signed, but the House removed it.
A top labor priority, the Worker
Protection Act, has died in the
state Senate. The Worker Protection
Act (HB 1076), would have allowed
workers to seek justice in court if their
employer violates wage, work safety
and discrimination laws. It passed the
Washington House 53-44 on March 5
but died April 2 when it failed to
advance from the Washington Senate
Ways and Means Committee by a cutoff
deadline. The bill was a top legislative
priority for the Washington State Labor
Council, AFL-CIO, which vowed to push
the proposal again next year.
Lifeworks NW workers
file for union election
A majority of workers at a Hills-
boro mental health and sub-
stance abuse crisis center are
ready for a union. The unit con-
sists of about 60 mental health
therapists, substance use coun-
selors and support staff at
Hawthorn Walk-In Center, a fa-
cility funded by Washington
County and run by the Portland-
based nonprofit Lifeworks NW.
It also includes a group of crisis
clinicians that ride with the
Washington County Sheriff’s
Office in response to behavioral
health calls routed through 911.
They asked the National La-
bor Relations Board March 23 to
schedule a union election. It’s
the latest in a series of cam-
paigns by Oregon AFSCME to
unionize and improve conditions
at behavioral health providers.
Oregon AFSCME asked for vol-
untary union recognition, but
Lifeworks NW declined.
“Lifeworks has reached out to
anti-union law firms in an at-
tempt to neutralize this effort,”
said Oregon AFSCME Execu-
tive Director Stacy Chamberlain
in a press statement. “Lifeworks
should not be using their limited
resources on anti-union activities
to fight their own employees.”