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July 20, 2007 Volume 108 Number 14 Unions plan next year's ballot measure strategyBy DON McINTOSH, Associate Editor Several Oregon labor organizations are already planning ballot measure strategy for the November 2008 election. In part, that’s because they don’t have a choice: Frequent union foe Bill Sizemore, despite a 2002 jury finding of fraud and racketeering, is more active than he’s been for years. But unions will also consider a proactive strategy — what initiatives can organized labor help get on the ballot to move the agenda forward for working people? On July 10, the Oregon AFL-CIO and several of the state’s larger, more politically active unions (including Change to Win’s Service Employees International Union) met with a handful of big progressive groups to confer over ballot measure plans. Our Oregon, a group that’s tracking ballot measure activity, reported that Sizemore has been busy circulating seven measures. His ballot initiative company, Democracy Direct, is also circulating three crime-related ballot measures sponsored by 2002 Republican gubernatorial nominee Kevin Mannix, plus two measures sponsored by Russ Walker, vice chairman of the Oregon Republican Party. On June 26, Sizemore turned in to the secretary of state’s office about 120,000 signatures each on two of his measures. One would create an unlimited state income tax deduction for federal personal income taxes paid; the other would prohibit teaching public school students in a language other than English for more than two years. Other actively circulating Sizemore measures include:
A 2000 union lawsuit revealed that Sizemore’s ballot measures were motivated in part by a desire to tie up union money. Many of the current crop of proposals seem aimed to do that as well. Voters have rejected several of them before, like the federal tax deduction measure, which went down 55-45 percent in 2000. But getting them back on the ballot will push unions to spend money again to defeat them. “Voters don’t like his ideas, as a rule,” said Patty Wentz, Our Oregon communications director (and former Oregon AFL-CIO communications director.) “They reject his proposals. But it’s the only business at which he’s ever been successful.” In January, Sizemore told The Oregonian that 2008 will be the most interesting initiative year in 20 years. “Bill Sizemore is back in action, and that can only mean bad things for Oregonians,” said Arthur Towers, political director of SEIU Local 503. “Working families have a lot to be concerned about with the ballot.” For its part, Local 503 is weighing whether to go forward with a ballot measure to prevent hospital price gouging of the uninsured. A bill to require hospitals to charge uninsured patients no more than their best rate to insurers failed to pass the Legislature this year. So SEIU filed it as an initiative the day before the Legislature adjourned. It hasn’t yet been approved to circulate. The measure’s chief petitioner is Verna Porter, president of Oregon Alliance for Retired Americans, a union retirees group affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Another measure that might get union support was filed in April by Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner and State Rep. Diane Rosenbaum, a longtime union political leader. Their measure would require overtime pay after eight hours of work, except in workplaces that have an alternative regular 40-hour-a-week schedule, like four 10-hour days a week. Gardner said he planned to test the waters in the coming weeks to see if there is organizational support for getting the measure on the ballot. And the Oregon AFL-CIO is considering four ideas that could be filed as ballot initiatives:
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