Safeway, Frito Lay helped fight minimum wage measure

SALEM - Only six of 12 measures on the statewide ballot were approved by voters Nov. 5, including both measures sponsored by the labor movement - Measure 26 (the Initiative Integrity Act), and Measure 25 to raise the minimum wage.)

Measure 25 - to increase the hourly minimum wage to $6.90 starting Jan. 1, 2003 and index future increases with the cost of living - won by 2 percentage points, 51-49 percent.

Opponents of the wage hike spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to defeat it. During the last two weeks of the campaign the group raised $257,750 for a final television and radio blitz to sway voters to vote against it.

Among the contributors to the opposition were a couple of unionized grocers - Roth's and Safeway - with contributions of $10,000 and $9,000, respectively, to the Oregon Grocery Industry political action committee (PAC), which, within a day after the donations, contributed $50,000 to the anti-minimum wage committee.

Another big contributor to the grocers' PAC was Frito-Lay, which donated $22,000 in August. What do Roth's, Safeway and Frito-Lay have in common? All have unionized workers, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 and Bakers 114.

"This is disturbing," said Nesbitt. "You'd think unionized employers would want to raise the floor for their competitors, not lower it."

The bulk of contributions to the committee opposing Measure 25 came from restaurants and the agricultural industry, traditionally low-wage employers. Some of the biggest donors were:

* Oregon Grocery Industry Association (Wilsonville): $85,000 (this PAC received contributions from Roth's, Safeway and WinCo stores.);

* Oregon Restaurant Association (Wilsonville): $76,000;

* Oregon Association of Nurserymen (Wilsonville): $27,500;

* Wendy's International (Dublin, Ohio): $15,000;

* Baja Oregon (Beaverton): $10,000;

* Jubitz Corporation (Portland): $5,000;

* Oregon Food PAC (Portland): $5,000;

* Oregon Lodging Association (Portland): $5,000;

* Outback Steakhouse (Tampa, Florida): $5,000;

* Davidson's Casual Dining (Tigard): $2,500;

* Elmer's Restaurants (Portland): $2,500; and,

"Many of these contributors are large, highly-profitable national corporations," noted State Representative Diane Rosenbaum, a member of Communications Workers Local 7901 and a chief petitioner for Measure 25. "They ought to be sharing some of their profits with their workers by keeping their pay up with the cost of living rather than fighting this modest increase in the minimum wage."

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