NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Public employee union lands big
wage increases in new contract
taxes and bloat government,”
Withe said, adding with that
bloated government comes
more government jobs and
more money for unions.
With said he’s heard from
members that claim they’d be
better off without collective
bargaining.
Many analyses, including
from the Economic Policy
Institute, has found workers
in labor unions get paid better
than those outside of unions.
Morris said despite that
challenging environment, the
union has remained strong.
While the Freedom Founda-
tion has sent out news releases
claiming SEIU 503 lost mem-
bers in droves, Morris said
they have actually seen a 2.2%
increase in membership over
the past year.
“By and large, public
employees are choosing to
stick with their union, and it
paid off,” he said.
Withe said he is “extremely
skeptical” of that claim, say-
ing it doesn’t match up with
numbers he got from the state.
In addition to pay
increases, the union secured
a deal to allow employees to
cash in up to 40 hours of vaca-
tion time per year, as long as
the balance after is at least 60
hours.
The union also codified
a previously informal agree-
ment that allowed employees
to telecommute if they could
reasonably do so.
Morris said lobbying the
Legislature was a session-long
endeavor that included six
“lobby days” where SEIU
members came to the Capi-
tol to meet with lawmakers.
Then, the union negotiated
with the Oregon Department
of Administrative Services for
two months.
Ten member representa-
tives would meet with DAS
every two weeks, and daily
in the final couple weeks. The
final details weren’t agreed
upon until 2:30 a.m. Friday,
Morris said.
The final step is ratifi-
cation, where a majority of
the 24,000 members have to
approve the contract. That will
take about two months.
“This will be a popular
contract so I don’t expect we’ll
have hiccups there,” Morris
said.
It’s a bright spot for a public
employee union that has faced
challenges recently. About
a year ago, a U.S. Supreme
Court ruling said unions can-
not demand dues from public
employees. All members must
opt in. The court case that led
to the decision was backed by
anti-union group the Freedom
Foundation, which has contin-
ued to go after unions.
Aaron Withe, Freedom
Foundation’s Oregon direc-
tor, said the new contract is
self-serving.
“SEIU and other govern-
ment unions’ goal is to raise
By AUBREY WIEBER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — State employ-
ees got a win unlike anything
they have seen since before
the recession with the Legis-
lature dedicating $200 million
to pay increases.
That money allowed Ser-
vice Employees International
Union Local 503 to negoti-
ate a two-year contract with
the state that gives a 10-15%
automatic pay increase, a 3%
cost-of-living-adjustment and
a freeze on insurance premi-
ums to 24,000 state employ-
ees. The contract was agreed
upon Friday, but is still being
drafted.
“This is the most signif-
icant we’ve seen the wages
increase since 2007 — pre
recession,” said SEIU 503
spokesman Ben Morris.
SEIU represents work-
ers throughout state agencies,
such as the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation, State
Parks and Department of
Forestry.
Step increases, or guar-
anteed raises, had previously
been frozen and cost-of-liv-
ing increases were only 1.5%,
Morris said.
Step increases were frozen
from 2009-11, with a partial
freeze in 2012. Also, in the last
decade the average cost-of-liv-
ing adjustment was 1.4%.
“I think the Legislature
made a statement,” he said.
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Periods of clouds
and sunshine
Mostly sunny;
breezy, pleasant
Mostly sunny and
nice
Pleasant with
plenty of sunshine
Sunshine
83° 58°
81° 51°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
79° 50°
86° 55°
93° 58°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
86° 60°
85° 53°
84° 50°
90° 54°
OREGON FORECAST
98° 62°
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
65/56
Kennewick Walla Walla
82/62
Lewiston
68/57
86/60
Astoria
68/58
75/52
81/52
Longview
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Pullman
Yakima 82/58
66/53
84/62
Portland
Salem
Corvallis
75/57
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
82/56
74/59
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
81/59
81/51
83/56
Ontario
93/65
91/61
84/49
Trace
Trace
0.11"
4.55"
5.10"
5.81"
WINDS (in mph)
Caldwell
Burns
86°
60°
89°
59°
108° (2014) 42° (2000)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
76/58
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
83/58
79/60
Trace
0.02"
0.16"
9.59"
6.49"
7.73"
HERMISTON
Enterprise
Hermiston
Pendleton 78/52
The Dalles 86/60
73/60
84°
60°
89°
59°
111° (1911) 39° (1904)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
67/55
Aberdeen
75/55
75/58
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
66/57
Today
Thu.
Boardman WSW 10-20
Pendleton
W 8-16
Medford
88/64
WSW 10-20
W 10-20
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
82/47
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
5:22 a.m.
8:40 p.m.
9:30 p.m.
5:59 a.m.
Last
New
First
Full
July 24
July 31
Aug 7
Aug 15
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 115° in Needles, Calif. Low 37° in Truckee, Calif.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
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snow
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ice
50s
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Study: Combination of factors
causes bumblebee deaths
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS — Pesti-
cides may kill bees, but not
all bee deaths are caused by
pesticides.
That is the conclusion of
a new study published July
10 by researchers at Ore-
gon State University inves-
tigating bumblebee mortal-
ity beneath flowering linden
trees.
The issue was thrust
into the national spotlight
in 2013, when 50,000 bees
died at a Target parking lot
in Wilsonville, after land-
scapers sprayed 55 trees
with the pesticide dinote-
furan to control aphids.
Dinotefuran is one of a
class of pesticides known
as neonicotinoids that are
highly toxic to bees.
“It was really dramatic,”
said Sujaya Rao, a professor
of entomology and one of
the study’s lead researchers.
“They were literally fall-
ing dead in front of people’s
eyes as they came to shop.”
While that incident —
the largest single loss of
native bees ever recorded
— was undoubtedly due
to the pesticide, Rao said it
prompted OSU researchers
to take a closer look at bum-
blebee health.
Rao has spent 17 years
at OSU working on native
bees in agricultural crops.
She left in 2017 to become
the department head for
entomology at the Univer-
sity of Minnesota.
According to the study,
the phenomenon of bee
deaths around linden trees
dates back to the 1970s in
Europe and North America.
Neonicotinoids were not
introduced until the 1990s
and are considered to be
safer for farmworkers.
Rao said people are
quick to blame pesticides
for every bee death, but the
study determined a rare
combination of factors is
also likely to blame. These
include low temperatures,
nectar volume and “tree
loyalty” among certain
bees that ultimately leads to
starvation.
Linden trees are a pop-
ular choice for planting in
cities and urban areas. Rao
said they flower profusely,
and provide lots of pollen
and nectar for bees.
The problem is that some
bees are drawn to the same
trees over and over again,
ignoring other flowering
plants nearby and failing to
get enough nutrition.
“When you have some-
thing that attractive to bees,
lots of bees come to it and
everybody is foraging,” Rao
said. “It’s like a whole bunch
of us trying to drink punch
from a bowl. There won’t be
enough to go around.”
That is especially trou-
blesome during cool North-
west mornings, when tem-
peratures drop below 86
degrees Fahrenheit. When
ambient temperature is low,
bees need more energy in
their thorax to fly. If they
are already experiencing an
energy deficit, they might
simply fall to the ground.
“They keep trying to fly,
and they’re just not able to
do that,” Rao said. “When
they cannot fly, they cannot
get to food. They cannot get
to the nest, so they just die.
It’s very sad.”
Not every linden tree
causes bee mortality, and
not every bee that forages in
lindens dies, Rao said. Lin-
dens are still great trees, she
added, and cities should not
stop planting them.
But under the right con-
ditions, Rao said it is pos-
sible for some bees to die
around lindens, even in the
absence of pesticides.
“It does happen in
western
Oregon
year
after year after year,” she
said. “You cannot control
the temperature.”
BRIEFLY
Portland sued over Superfund
site cleanup efforts
PORTLAND (AP) — The city of Port-
land is being sued over its plan to use up to
$12 million from a surcharge on customers’
sewer bills to help pay to plan the Portland
Harbor Superfund cleanup.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reports it’s
the second lawsuit challenging the use of
funds collected by the city’s sewer utility, the
Bureau of Environmental Services, to pay
for the city’s share of the Superfund work.
Attorney John DiLorenzo and his cli-
ents contend that despite rulings in a pre-
vious lawsuit, the city has continued to use
restricted sewer money as a piggybank for
projects that should be paid for by unre-
stricted tax dollars in the city’s general funds.
“They’re using the sewer fund as a bank,”
DiLorenzo said.
City leaders and environmentalists say
the sewer utility’s spending on the Portland
Harbor project was clearly upheld by a judge
in 2017 — and the new lawsuit is the latest in
a series of tactics to delay the federally man-
dated cleanup of the river.
“We’re operating squarely within the rul-
ing that the court has already given,” said
Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees the
Bureau of Environmental Services. “Since
this lawsuit essentially raises the same issues,
we believe it’s frivolous.”
The cleanup is expected to take up to 13
years and cost approximately $1 billion, and
the city is one among many parties legally
liable for the pollution.
Patient accused of killing
patient at mental health center
PORTLAND (AP) — A man was
arrested after authorities say he fatally
choked a woman at a Southeast Portland
mental health treatment facility in May while
they both were patients.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports
Roger J. Jones was arrested Friday.
Court documents say that surveillance
video shows Jones twice go into the room
of Huyen Cao on May 17, where he at some
point strangled her off camera.
A probable cause affidavit says he goes
into her room around 3:40 a.m., stays for 17
minutes, leaves and returns briefly about 10
minutes later.
Cao was later found unresponsive in her
bed by employees at the Cameron Care Cen-
ter and pronounced dead.
Cameron Care officials didn’t immedi-
ately respond to requests for comment while
a worker who answered the phone there
said the company declines comment on the
killing.
It wasn’t immediately known if Jones has
a lawyer.
CLARIFICATION: The 1A story “Milton-Freewater Ambulance Service Area
Health District proposes formation of ambulance district,” from July 11, misstated
the annual funding of the district. Currently, Milton-Freewater EMS receives
$137,700 in annual funding from the ambulance district. With 1,045 calls last year,
this equals $131.77 per response rather than the previously reported $883.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
Capital Press Photo, File
Researchers have found that a combination of factors is responsible for bumblebee deaths.
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