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Workers put views about work, Measure 8 on video
can be a good mother, the infant
will have an opportunity to grow
and develop and have a more
positive life than would other
wise be the case.”
Prall doesn’t believe
that the passage of Ballot Mea
sure 8 will help her do her job.
“Oregon is a beautiful place
to work and live. Our schools, parks,
and services are second to none.
And, we’re proud of our public em
ployees. They are on the front lines
to keep Oregon safe and protect our
way of life.
“But an initiative to cut public
employees’ pay by 6% and retirement
benefits by as much as 20% is on the
Oregon ballot in November.”
With those words on a 14-
minute OPEU video, public employ
ees from a variety of Oregon unions
use their own words to describe the
work they do every day.
“I’m floating on air for a
week when someone comes in to the
Salem Public Library and says ‘The
book you gave my son to read he has
✓ This video is available to mem
bers who want to bring together a
group of non-public employees
(family members, friends, and
neighbors.) to deliver a personal
message explaining why Measure
8 is bad for all Oregonians. Con
tact your Organizer for video and
House Party materials.
If every public employee con
vinces five other voters to oppose
Measure 8, we will win.
not put down; he read the book the
whole weekend and now he wants
more just like it’,” said Oregon
AFSCME member and youth and
children’s librarian Susan Dunn.
The video also contains inter
views with library patrons who say
how important die library is to them.
OPEU/SEIU Local 503 rep
resents workers in the State Parks like
naturalist Michael Niss who was lead
ing a nature walk the day that the
OPEU video team showed up.
“I am helping the environ
ment by opening up people’s eyes and
ears and senses to what’s here and
helping them appreciate it,” he said at
Portland’s Tryon Creek State Park.
For Juanita Reyna, biology
teacher John Bohrlander of Salem’s
McNary High School, was the inspira
tion to help her become the first person
in her family to graduate from high
school, and to go on to college to train
to become a nurse.
Bohrlander is concerned
about the effect Measure d will have
on people entering public employment.
“We don’t see our better stu
dents going into education at this time,”
NO GUARANTEE
ABOUT MONEY “SAVED”
Clockwise from upper left,
John Bohrlander waits for
crew to set up; Steve
Baska enters his patrol
car; Michael Niss answers
a nature question; Tom
Seubert, left, and Tim
Brusse describe the fires.
he says on the video. “It feels a little
frustrating to know that the overall
trend is to devalue the contribution of
the public employee.”
VIDEO DESIGNED FOR
FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS The
video is designed for Union members
to show their friends and neighbors—
who are not necessarily public work
ers — the kind of work that they and
public workers like themselves, do,
and why Ballot Measure 8 is unfair and
ought to be defeated in November.
OPEU member and The
Dalles police officer Steve Baska
speaks to that point when he says on
the tape, “If this initiative passes, it
would not be a strong signal we’re
appreciated by the community.”
The Dalles businessman
Howard Davison lets Baska know
how he feels: “Years ago they didn’t
give public workers a raise like every
one else got. They told them, we’ll
give you this instead; now they want to
take it away and that’s not right.”
CITIZENS, PUBLIC EM
PLOYEES TALK FROM THE
HEART - Firefighters, like every
other public worker, would be hurt if
Ballot Measure 8 passes. Portland
firefighters talk about their work.
“I took one of the residents
over my back, literally threw her over
my shoulder, she was unconscious,
and took her down five flights of stairs,
and gave her to a firefighter on the
ground and went right back up,” said
Portland Firefighters Association
member Tim Brusse about the
Marshall Union Manor Home fire
where 22 residents were rescued ear
lier this year.
Sutton Hillman-Gouche’r
said that when firefighters rescued her
children froiiiherbuminghome,“They
were dead. They weren’t breathing.
They were blue. Theireyes were wide
open and they were not alive. And, to
see them come back alive, there isn’t
any way you can repay that. None.”
When Multnomah County
community health nurse and Oregon
Nurses Association member Kathy
Prall works with a new mother fol
lowing a high-risk pregnancy she says,
“If I can help her care for this infant, if
I can give her the positive reinforce
ment that she needs to show her she
- “The initiative has no guaran
tees that the money that is saved,
taken from the 6% from em
ployees, is going to be spent
helping my clients with their
special needs,” she said. “Ithink
this measure is so confusing and
so complicated that nobody re
ally knows how it is going to
affect the people.”
VOTERS ASKED
TO VOTE “NO” -Toward the
end of the video, voters are asked
not to pass Measure 8.
“It’s public employees this
time,” says Dunn, explaining how
Measure 8’s proponents won’t stop
with attacks on public workers. “Next
time it’ll be somebody else; It might
not be happening to you now, but it
might someday.”
Businessman Davison echoes
that theme: “If the State of Oregon is
going to do that, what are they going to
do next. Who knows?”
The video closes with Port
land Public Schools Superintendent
Jack Bierworth saying, “I would be
ashamed if the people approved it. It’s
a level of mean-spiritedness that I
would be embarrassed about. There
are other ways of doing things and this
is not the right way.”
Interim Financial Report
Temporary Dues Assessment to Defeat the Tieman Initiative
and ail Attacks on Public Employee Pay and Retirement Benefits.
As of July 25, 1994
Income...................................... ................ ...
$151,004
Dues Assessment Received
Expenses
COPS......................................
Citizens for Oregon Pension Security
No on Measure 8 Campaign
$223,204
Miscellaneous Expenses .. /.«.........
Gard-Strang Public Relations..............
Video Production..................
Total Expenses Incurred.....................
>
$2,527
$8,500
$5,000
$239,231
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