Oregon Senate labor stalwarts step down
State Senator Diane Rosenbaum, a former union official with Communications Workers of America (CWA)—decided not to run for reelection after 17 years in the Legislature.
Rosenbaum, 66, has a history of successes in raising the minimum wage: In 1989 as a lobbyist for CWA, she helped get the Oregon Legislature to raise it from $3.35 an hour to $4.75. She later was chief petitioner on 1996 Ballot Measure 36, which raised it to $6.50, and 2002 Ballot Measure 25, which raised it to $6.95 with annual adjustments for inflation thereafter. This year, she was on the Senate committee that passed a tiered increase to $12.50 to $14.75.
Besides the minimum wage, Rosenbaum says she’s most proud of Oregon’s sick leave law, the Oregon Family Leave Act, and laws requiring insurance companies to pay for contraceptives and annual breast cancer screenings.
Rosenbaum retired from the phone company in 2004. Before that she was executive vice president of CWA Local 7901, and served on the executive boards of the Oregon AFL-CIO and the Northwest Oregon Labor Council. She served in the Oregon House from 1998 to 2008. In 2001, she helped re-start a labor caucus within the National Conference of State Legislatures, and served for a time as caucus president. In 2008, she ran unopposed for the Senate District 21 representing Southeast Portland, Milwaukie, and Oak Grove. She served as Senate Majority Leader from 2010 to 2015.
State Senator Chip Shields is leaving office after 10 years in the Legislature. Shields, 48, is best known as an advocate of criminal justice reform. He became a member of American Federation of Teachers (AFT) when he taught criminal justice classes at Portland State, and he never forgot the early labor support he got for his first House race in 2004.
It’s not widely known, but Shields also played an important role in raising the minimum wage in 2002. When labor groups were determining whether they had the resources to go forward with the ballot measure, Shields tipped the balance by contributing $50,000 in family money. That earned him the designation “labor hero” at a 2003 AFL-CIO awards dinner.
Over the 10 years he represented House District 43 and Senate District 22, he earned top rankings from the Oregon AFL-CIO as a steadfast labor ally who went above and beyond. He helped win partial unemployment benefits for workers whose hours were cut, and co-sponsored bills calling for single-payer health care and urging Congress to renegotiate trade agreements like NAFTA. He fought for “fusion voting” on behalf of the union-backed Oregon Working Families Party. And outside the Capitol, he came out to support union campaigns; for example, urging Portland State University to agree to a fair union contract for professors.
