Oregon’s House of Representatives passed a bill April 25 outlawing public sector union-busting. One of dozens of bills labor unions are following in the State Capitol this year, HB 3342 prohibits public employers from using public funds to deter (or assist) union organizing, or from using public property to hold meetings whose purpose is to deter (or assist) union organizing. The bill, sponsored by State Rep. Michael Dembrow (D-Portland) passed 34-26 along party lines, and now goes to the Senate for consideration.
Since the 2013 legislative session began in February, three labor-backed bills have passed:
- HB 2800 — authorizing $450 million for an I-5 replacement bridge over the Columbia River — was signed by the governor March 12.
- HB 2787 — which lets students who graduate from Oregon high schools pay in-state tuition at public universities, regardless of legal residency status, was signed into law April 12.
- SB 833 — which authorizes drivers licenses to Oregon residents regardless of legal status — passed the Senate 20-7 April 23 and the House 47-7 April 29.
Other labor-backed bills have made it through at least one chamber thus far:
- HB 2657 — which makes it harder to rezone land that is set aside for industrial use — passed the House 31-24 April 29.
- HB 2820 — making it easier to site utility-scale solar development on non-arable land in Eastern Oregon — passed the House 43-12 April 29.
- HB 2950 — which allows workers to take up to two weeks unpaid leave to deal with the death of family member, passed the House April 12 by 40-18. The bill is the long-time dream of Bakers Local 114 member Robin Zimmerman, whose wife died of cancer in May 2008.
- HB 2646 — to require prevailing wage on all construction projects on public university land, even if it’s donor-funded — is in the Senate Business and Transportation committee after passing the House March 21 by 47-10.
- SJM 5 — a non-binding resolution urging the U.S. government to investigate Chinese subsidies to paper manufacturers — passed the Senate unanimously March 18 and is now in the House Business and Labor Committee.
Other bills of note to labor were still in committee as of press time, including HB 3390, which would mandate seven days of paid sick leave per year at employers with six or more employees.
Democrats occupy the governor’s office and have a 16-14 majority in the Oregon Senate and 34-26 in the Oregon House. But that doesn’t mean the session is a cakewalk for labor.
Unions opposed SB 822 — a plan to trim cost-of-living increases for public employee retirees — but the bill passed the Senate April 11 by 16-13 and the House April 24 by 33-27, with Democrats making up the yes votes in both cases, and Republicans saying the bill didn’t go far enough in cutting the costs of the Oregon Public Employee Retirement System (PERS). It had not been signed by the governor as of press time, but it was his own proposal, so that seems assured. A coalition of public sector unions plans to challenge it in court the moment it is signed.
And Democrats were unable to come up with the three-fifths supermajority required to approve a new tax measure in the case of HB 2456, which would have raised $150 million a year in additional revenue, mostly by raising taxes on the 2.4 percent highest-income Oregonians and on a small percentage of very large corporations. Instead, the House unanimously passed a watered down version of the bill on April 24, raising an estimated $18 million a year by cracking down on corporations attributing income to operations in countries where they have little, if any, economic presence. The revenue raised is dedicated to the Mental Health Services Fund.
Two days later, the union-backed non-profit Our Oregon filed six initiative petitions aimed at the November 2014 ballot. With titles like “Large Corporations Should Pay Their Fair Share” and “If Corporations Are People, Let’s Tax Them Like It,” the prospective ballot initiatives would be available for signature gathering once official ballot titles are approved.
Meanwhile, the Oregon AFL-CIO took a stand against a symbolic bill, SJM 7, that tells the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) not to use its strongest sanction, known as the “hot goods” provision, when farm employers violate the Fair Labor Standards Act. DOL is cracking down nationwide on child farm labor and minimum wage law violations in the blueberry industry, both of which are often disguised by the use of workers who are not on the books. The resolution declares that using the hot goods provision was, “coercive and extortive.” The measure passed the Senate April 2 by 26-3, with only Jackie Dingfelder, Diane Rosenbaum, and Elizabeth Steiner Hayward voting no. It’s now in the House Business and Labor Committee, and the AFL-CIO says it’s working with other groups to prevent it from reaching the governor’s desk.
The Legislature is expected to wrap up the session by June 21, and self-imposed deadlines have ostensibly killed several bills. To be considered for further action, bills were supposed to have had at least one committee work session by April 18. Bills can be resurrected, however, either as amendments to other bills, or because the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate choose to move a bill through their chamber’s Rules Committee.
A union-opposed bill requested by TriMet — to restore transit workers’ right to strike (and thus get rid of their right to binding arbitration) — was one that died without a hearing.
