Visibility Day Spotlights Care Providers at Capitol
SEIU members made Oregon's care providers very visible in the Capitol in March. Member activism helped defeat legislative proposals to dramatically reduce the care provider workforce.
The SEIU 503 Care Provider Division took over the
lobby in the Oregon State Capitol on
"Care Provider Visibility Day," May 4, to focus
attention on the important and crucial services
we provide for Oregonians every day.
The timing could not have been better, because
legislators were considering a series of potentially
devastating service cuts that were eventually
turned aside.
From nursing home care and home health care
to employment-related day care for children
to adult foster home care, the impact SEIU 503
members who provide such services make in our
communities was evident everywhere you looked
in the Capitol lobby. Members, staff and supporters
created interesting and informative displays,
distributed pamphlets, screened a video they had
produced featuring interviews with members, and
engaged passers-by in conversations to create a
better understanding of what care providers do
and the impact they have all across Oregon.
Members outlined the services they provide and
the importance of maintaining funding for valuable
programs that treat seniors and people with
disabilities with dignity and afford them care in their
own communities, and allow parents to head off to
work knowing that their young children are properly
cared for.
Worker-friendly legislators who stopped by
commended us on the services we provide and
our dedication to the clients we serve. Others were
able to see and hear how program cuts would
compromise the health, safety and peace of mind
of many of their constituents.
One highlight was the delivery of hundreds of
member testimonials to the Governor's office,
reinforcing the importance of these programs.
SEIU 503 Outpouring
Makes a Big Difference
in Legislative Victories
With the stakes very high on issue after issue, SEIU
503 activists flocked to the State Capitol in record
numbers during the 2009 legislative session and
helped to win some very significant victories for
union members, our clients and working families
across Oregon.
About 350 members lobbied in Salem and in
regional hearings—some participating several
times—during the session and hundreds more
wrote letters, made calls and sent emails at key
points. We engaged legislators on designated lobby
days, focused on issues affecting specific sectors
and agencies, and testified to committees about the
need to pass new laws and restore budget cuts.
And we made a big difference preserving front-line
jobs and services and promoting positive outcomes
on a range of issues from tax reform to health care
expansion to contractor accountability.
The legislature increased the corporate income tax
and the personal income tax on families making
more than $250,000.
These two measures will raise about $770 million
in this biennium if they withstand an anticipated
referral vote in January.That revenue became part of
the solution to a $4.2 billion budget gap, preserving
jobs and health care for homecare providers, saving
employment-related child care from massive cuts,
sparing the Blue Mountain Recovery Center in
Pendleton, and creating needed new positions
to cover added workload at the Departments
of Revenue, Human Services, Employment, and
Oregon State Hospital.
When our lobbying helped turn the tide on a late-
session vote delaying implementation of parts of
Measure 57, jobs at the Oregon Youth Authority
were saved as well. With some prodding from SEIU
Local 503, both houses of the legislature mustered
the two-thirds vote required to restore funding for
the Burns and Hillcrest OYA facilities.
Here are some
other key gains:
Health Care:
The legislature
expanded the
Oregon Health
Plan to cover 80,000
SEIU 503 members are briefed before heading off to meet legislators on a Capitol Lobby Day.
more children and
30,000 more adults.
This is paid for by a tax on hospitals and health
insurance companies that will be matched $2.64 to
Bargaining Act passed the House, but fell short
$1 by federal funds.
in the Senate. It would have allowed temporary
Workers' Rights: The Worker Freedom Act will
ban employers from requiring workers to attend
mandatory meetings urging workers not to form
a union.
Quality Public Services: In response to problems
that first surfaced at OYA, the legislature passed a
bill to sunshine the findings of internal auditors at all
state agencies.
Contractor Accountability: Passage of House Bill
2867 was "a great victory spawned from front-line
workers at ODOT speaking out against irresponsible
contracting in their agency,"says SEIU political
director Arthur Towers. "We took their ideas and
worked with members and local and national allies
to draft top-notch legislation. To get it passed, we
had to compromise in certain places, but the bill
that passed has produced of the best contractor
accountability standards in the country." Key
provisions established much tougher standards for
feasibility studies and cost analysis of outsourcing
proposals; set stringent standards for bidders that
take into account poor past performance, delays, and
cost overruns; and separated oversight, inspections,
and monitoring from the contractors who too often
were assigned the task of appraising their own work.
As in every session, some aspirations were unfulfilled.
An effort to improve the Public Employee Collective
workers to join a bargaining unit after 90 days on the
job, protected public employees from permanent
replacement if they go on strike, and clarified the
definition of supervisory employees.
We also failed to extend bargaining rights to 6,400
homecare workers in DHS-run programs who are
currently excluded from the union in the face of
state claims that it would incur large administrative
costs, and to improve working conditions for motor
carrier enforcement officers and campus public
safety officers. However, we did successfully promote
legislation to allow homecare providers to have
union representation at administrative hearings
at which they might lose their right to provide
homecare.
Making our case to DHS Director Bruce Goldberg at the Capitol.