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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019
Grocery workers vote to approve
strike if wage negotiations collapse
By REBECCA ELLIS
Oregon Public
Broadcasting
Don Ryan/AP Photo
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, shown here in 2016, told the U.S. Supreme Court
that Oregon’s criminal justice system would be ‘overwhelmed’ if the nation’s highest court
rules that nonunanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional.
Oregon defends previous
nonunanimous jury verdicts
AG cites risk
of new trials
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — Oregon’s
criminal justice system
would be “overwhelmed”
if the U.S. Supreme Court
rules in an upcoming case
that nonunanimous jury ver-
dicts are unconstitutional,
the state’s attorney general
has told the court.
Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum said in an
amicus brief on Friday
that if the Supreme Court
fi nds nonunanimous juries
unconstitutional, it could
invalidate hundreds or even
thousands of convictions in
Oregon.
Oregon is the only state
allowing 11-1 or 10-2 jury
verdicts in criminal trials,
except fi rst-degree murder
convictions.
Critics say Rosenblum
is defending a system that
should be abandoned, as
voters in Louisiana, the only
other state that permitted
nonunanimous verdicts, did
in 2018.
“The state’s brief pres-
ents a parade of horribles
that may or may not come
to pass. However, that is
not a reason to continue
a practice rooted in racial
and ethnic discrimination,”
said Marc Brown, a public
defender in Oregon whose
clients include ones appeal-
ing nonunanimous guilty
verdicts.
The decision by Louisi-
ana voters was not retroac-
tive, and took effect in Jan-
uary. The Supreme Court
this fall will hear a case of
Evangelisto Ramos, a Lou-
isiana man convicted by a
nonunanimous jury in 2016
of second-degree murder
of a woman in New Orle-
ans. Ramos is serving a life
sentence with no chance of
parole.
Michael Kron, special
counsel to Oregon’s attor-
ney general, said that if
the Supreme Court rules in
favor of Ramos, it would be
reversing its 1972 ruling that
the U.S. Constitution does
not bar states from allowing
nonunanimous verdicts.
Rosenblum told the
Supreme Court that if it
overturns that ruling and
decides that nonunanimous
juries are unconstitutional,
Oregon’s criminal justice
system will be glutted.
“Such a ruling would
automatically require retrial
in many hundreds, if not
thousands, of cases on direct
review,” Rosenblum told the
court.
Even convictions that
were unanimous could
be called into question,
because a judge instruct-
ing jurors that they could
reach a nonunanimous deci-
sion could be grounds for an
appeal.
OREGON CAPITAL
INSIDER
Get the inside
scoop on state
government
and politics!
‘THE STATE’S BRIEF PRESENTS A
PARADE OF HORRIBLES THAT
MAY OR MAY NOT COME TO PASS.
HOWEVER, THAT IS NOT A
REASON TO CONTINUE A
PRACTICE ROOTED IN RACIAL
AND ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION.’
Marc Brown | public defender in Oregon
“In many cases, particu-
larly the older cases, retrial
will likely be impossible
because of the impact that
the passage of time will
have on the prosecution’s
case as witnesses disappear,
memories fade, and evi-
dence is lost,” the attorney
general wrote.
Several Oregon lawmak-
ers recently sponsored a res-
olution calling for a bal-
lot measure to repeal an
amendment to the state con-
stitution allowing nonunan-
imous verdicts. The reso-
lution unanimously passed
the state House, but died
in Senate as it dealt with a
walkout by Republicans in
the fi nal days of the legisla-
tive session.
The decision by Ore-
gon voters in 1934 to allow
split-jury verdicts was
fueled by white supremacy
and anti-minority sentiment.
One newspaper said immi-
grants from southern and
eastern Europe had made
the requirement for unan-
imous verdicts “unwieldy
and unsatisfactory.”
Rosenblum said she sup-
ports a repeal, noting the
jury rule’s links to racism
and anti-Semitism. But she
said such a change should
be for cases “going for-
ward,” not retroactively.
Aliza Kaplan, a pro-
fessor at Portland’s Lewis
& Clark Law School who
has campaigned to elim-
inate nonunanimous jury
verdicts, said only doz-
ens — not hundreds — of
cases would be affected by
a Supreme Court ruling in
favor of Ramos.
“The attorney general
has an opportunity to be on
the correct side of history
and champion getting rid
of nonunanimous juries,”
Kaplan said. “Instead, she
chooses to support a policy
that we all know, and that
she acknowledges, comes
from our racist history.”
Brown,
the
public
defender, said he doubts a
Supreme Court ruling would
create a crisis for the state’s
judicial system. Oregon’s
appeals courts would deter-
mine its retroactive appli-
cation “by applying well-
known legal standards.”
“Our courts are certainly
up to that task,” he said.
Grocery workers from
across Oregon and south-
west Washington state have
voted to approve a strike if
negotiations with four of
the region’s largest super-
market chains deadlock.
The United Food and
Commercial Workers Local
555, a union represent-
ing more than 20,000 gro-
cery workers in the region,
has been pushing Albert-
sons, Fred Meyer, QFC and
Safeway to increase work-
ers’ wages as negotiators
hammer out new contracts
for members.
After tallying up the
fi nal batch of votes from
union members in Baker
City over the weekend,
Kelley McAllister, com-
munications director for
the union, said it’s clear
members across the region
“overwhelmingly” support
calling a strike if future
negotiations with employ-
ers fall through. The next
meeting between the two
parties is Thursday .
“It’s possible we reach
a tentative agreement,”
McAllister said. “And it’s
possible they throw the
stuff on the table and say,
‘Our economic conditions
are not their problem,’ and
they walk away. If they do
that, that’s not good. That
feels to me like asking for
a strike.”
McAllister added it’s
also possible no resolution
Grocery workers are in contract negotiations with Fred
Meyer and other stores.
is reached and the negotia-
tions spill over into future
meetings.
Jeffery Temple, director
of corporate affairs for Fred
Meyer Stores, Inc., said the
company will come to the
table with offers of larger
wage increases than those
approved in the last two
contracts, as well as a pen-
sion and benefi ts package
that allows most employees
to pay $30 a month or less
for health care. The com-
pany hopes the bargain-
ing items, which Temple
calls “pretty aggressive,”
will avert picketing outside
Fred Meyer stores.
“A strike doesn’t help
anybody, and it certainly
doesn’t help the negotia-
tion process,” Temple said.
“We’re really just focused
on avoiding a strike.”
What a strike would
look like remains up in the
air. McAllister said noth-
ing’s been ruled out: All of
the union’s 20,000 grocery
workers could walk out
at the same time, leaving
some of the region’s big-
gest supermarkets virtually
unstaffed; the strike might
start with suburban stores
and then move into the cit-
ies; or they might choose to
target just one employer.
“I think that will depend
where our bargaining leads
us on Thursday,” McAllis-
ter said.
To avoid a strike, McAl-
lister said the bargaining
team would need to see an
offer of a “notable” wage
increase on the table. Union
negotiators are also asking
for a big bump in pay for
workers in the bakery, deli
and cheese departments,
positions they believe
are traditionally fi lled by
females.
A new study, com-
missioned by the union,
found a median wage gap
of $3.70 per hour between
men and women work-
ing under the grocery con-
tract at Portland-area Fred
Meyer stores. The study’s
author attributed the wage
gap to the low-paying posi-
tions for which women
were hired.
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