Eugene weekly., February 24, 2011, Page 6, Image 6

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BY BOB BUSSEL
What’s at Stake
Wisconsin showdown is over civil rights
L
et’s stipulate from the outset that
Wisconsin is not Egypt, Madison is not
Cairo, and Scott Walker is not Hosni
Mubarak. Nonetheless, the Wisconsin gover-
nor’s proposal to curtail collective bargaining
rights for most of his state’s public employees
is a profoundly disturbing act that disrespects
workers’ rights, threatens economic recovery
and violates important democratic principles.
Let’s be clear about the real motivations
behind Gov. Walker’s actions. Emboldened by
their triumphs in the midterm elections and
using state budget deficits as a pretext, conserva-
tives are now poised, in Grover Norquist’s notorious
formulation, to realize their long-held dream of reducing government
“to the size where they can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in
the bathtub.” In contrast to the largely nonunion private sector, pub-
lic employee unions still have the resources to mount effective politi-
cal and ideological resistance to this radical agenda. By gutting public
employees’ collective bargaining and representational rights, Walker
and other Republican governors would remove a formidable remain-
ing obstacle to the right-wing’s master plan to weaken public institu-
tions and allow private entities to assume greater responsibility for
providing vital social services.
Hence the consistent use by conservatives of skewed statistics to
portray public employees, among them teachers, correctional officers,
and child-care workers, as a “new privileged class” whose outsized
wages and benefits are responsible for our economic woes rather than
sharp revenue losses incurred by the most profound economic crisis
since the Great Depression. By turning public employees into pariahs
and pitting private and public sector workers against each other, the
political right deflects attention from its unwillingness to tackle the true
sources of our social and fiscal distress: the financial industry’s reckless
speculation that brought us to the brink of economic collapse, the con-
tinuing outsourcing of American jobs, a tax code that allows many busi-
nesses to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, and stagnant wages that
rob our economy of the consumer purchasing power it needs to fuel
economic recovery.
We also need to recognize the indispensable social and economic
role that collective bargaining plays and what we stand to lose if
Wisconsin and other states limit its operation in the public sector. In the
U.S., government is not required to provide many of the social benefits
(health care, vacations, sick leave, pensions) that most of us would
agree are needed for a decent and secure life. It was only through col-
lective bargaining in the private and later the public sector that many
Americans began to obtain greater access to these benefits and
upgrade the quality of their lives. Here in Oregon, we saw this most
dramatically when home health and child-care workers, who look after
some of our most vulnerable populations, gained improved wages,
health insurance and enhanced dignity through the collective bargain-
ing process.
Indeed, collective bargaining has boosted the purchasing power of
workers, provided ongoing economic stimulus, enabled millions of
Americans to gain admission to the middle class, and provided them with
an effective voice in shaping their working conditions. When Wisconsin
Senate Majority leader Scott Fitzgerald laments that “everything from
workplace safety to some of the egregious items that are part of collec-
tive bargaining now in Wisconsin has a fiscal piece to it,” he is asserting
(falsely) that public sector collective bargaining is a luxury we can no
longer afford. Instead, what he, Walker, and their conservative allies
offer is a continuing race to the bottom and a return to darker times in
our history when the lack of strong unions and effective collective bar-
gaining made us less democratic, less fair, and less free.
Just as we were inspired by the struggle to gain democracy in
Egypt, we must defend democracy in Wisconsin and give full-throated
support to public employees fighting to maintain collective bargain-
ing as a democratic necessity and a social good. The right to band
together with one’s fellow workers and negotiate wages, hours, and
working conditions with employers, be they public or private, is a
fundamental civil right that distinguishes democracies from authori-
tarian regimes. We relinquish it at our peril.
Bob Bussel is associate professor of history and directs the Labor Education and Research Center at the UO.
6
FEBRUARY 24, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
COUNTY ASKS
JUDGE TO
RECONSIDER
The Lane County Board of
Commissioners filed a legal motion last
week asking a judge to reconsider a ruling
that members of the board violated the
Oregon Public Meetings Law through
successive, one-on-one discussions.
Judge Michael Gillespie wrote in his
ruling, in a lawsuit linked to timber baron
Aaron Jones, that County Commissioners
Faye Stewart, Pete Sorenson and Rob Handy
and former commissioner Bill Dwyer
violated the law by talking to each other one-
on-one outside a public meeting.
“The court’s conclusion is the first of its
kind in Oregon law and results in a substantial
change in the public meetings law,” the
board’s motion to reconsider states. In
support of its argument that the judge
changed the law, the board motion cites
attached “declarations of attorneys for the
Association of Oregon Counties and the
League of Oregon Cities.”
“No prior Oregon case has indicated that
a governing body can violate the Public
Meetings laws by successive, one-on-one
conversations that ultimately involve enough
members of the governing body to equal or
exceed the number of members who would
provide a quorum at a public meeting,” the
board legal memo states.
“This conclusion deviates dramatically
from the interpretation of the Public Meetings
laws by the Attorney General,” which is used
to train public officials on the law, the memo
states. The board quotes the AG’s manual on
the law: “A gathering of less than a quorum
of a committee, subcommittee, advisor
group or other governing body is not a
‘meeting’ under the Public Meetings Law.”
“The advice public bodies often receive
on this subject from legal counsel throughout
Oregon is consistent with this interpretation,”
the board memo states, noting that they
could find no cities or counties that interpret
the law as prohibiting successive, one-on-
one discussions as the judge claimed.
“Over the past 25 years, the legal counsel
for Lane County has not advised its board
and committees that successive, one-on-one
conversations of board or committee
members in numbers that could constitute a
quorum, violate the Public Meetings Law,”
the memo states, citing declarations from
three current and former county lawyers.
“The court’s conclusions of law, unless
vacated, may have a broad chilling effect on
legal, one-on-one conversations,” the board’s
legal memo continues. “Fundamental tension
will occur between the court’s interpretation
of the Public Meetings Law, on the one hand,
and constitutionally protected speech.”
The memo states that practical difficulties
in implementing the ruling and a possible
injunction against serial one-on-one
conversations will “bedevil enforcement.”
The memo notes that the judge himself
“called the search for a bright line rule under
Oregon’s law a ‘fool’s errand.’”
The memo also cites legal precedents in
arguing that the case was not filed against
Stewart and Dwyer and the judge may not
change the case at the end to add them as
defendants. “The court may not find that a
different, unpleaded combination of
commissioners violated the law.”
— Alan Pittman
REPS DE-FUND
SACRED
VESSELS
Planned Parenthood says condoms are
cheaper than diapers, but much of Congress
appears to disagree.
Supporters of Planned Parenthood
gathered at the old Federal Building as EW
went to press Feb. 24 to protest the proposed
de-funding of Planned Parenthood and other
family planning and sexual health
organizations. “We want to raise our voices
in protest and show that this vote is in
opposition to mainstream America,” says
Cynthia Pappas, CEO and president of
Planned Parenthood of Southwestern
Oregon.
The U.S. House voted Friday, Feb. 18 to
approve a budget that would eliminate all
funding for the Title X Family Planning
Program, a portion of the 1970 Public Health
Service Act. Because Title X is the only
federal grant program devoted solely to
family planning, the measure would cease
federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
Congressman Peter DeFazio, who voted
against the amendment, called the vote
extraordinary. “This is an egregious example
of Republicans using social issues to distract
from the real needs we face — fiscal
responsibility and targeted job creation. As
was apparent in the four days of debate last
week, they have no positive answers to
address the serious issues facing our
country.”
Eliminating Title X funding would cost
the federal government more money in
increased Medicare dollars, Pappas says. “In
fact, for every dollar the government spends
on family planning, it saves four dollars,”
she adds. In Oregon, 23,783 clients received
Title X-funded health care through Planned
Parenthood in 2010.
In addition to access to contraception and
information on contraception, each year Title
X provides funding for tens of thousands of
screenings for sexually transmitted infection,
pap tests and breasts exams through Oregon
Planned Parenthood alone. Title X is legally
prohibited from funding abortion as a method
of family planning.
“Elimination of federal funding would
have a disastrous effect on our ability to
provide health care to women who need it
most,” Pappas says. She adds that the
elimination of Title X funding is a strange
decision for Republicans who claim to
oppose abortion. “Planned Parenthood does
more than any other organization to
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