Working Family Candidate Wins Special Election in Oregon
Oregon working families helped propel former state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici (D) to victory yesterday in a special election for the U.S. House in the state’s northwestern First Congressional District. Bonamici, who defeated Republican businessman Rob Cornilles, replaces David Wu who resigned last year.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain says not only did union volunteers make more than 10,000 phone calls and 5,000 home visits to union families in support of Bonamici, but turned out to vote at a higher rate than the general public.
During the campaign, Bonamici called for the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes, job creation through infrastructure investment and protection of Social Security and Medicare. She will fill out Wu’s remaining term and be on the ballot for a full two-year term in November.
Buy a Book, Help a Laid-Off Union Member
This from Alfonso Nevarez in the AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department.
Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore., is in the process of laying off 7 percent of its workers due to declining sales. International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 5 units at Powell’s Burnside and Beaverton stores, as well as the Hoyt Street and Northwest industrial warehouses, will be affected by the layoffs. Local 5 President Ryan Van Winkle said that Powell’s was proactive in notifying workers of their bumping and separation rights.
Local 5 has coordinated with Powell’s to establish a shop-in, which will send 7.5 percent of each purchase to a fund to assist displaced workers.
Now’s the time to stock up on books for friends, family and yourself. Each purchase you make will assist a laid-off sister or brother. To make sure the funds are directed appropriately, follow the link at the ILWU Local 5 website.
At Roundtables, Workers Demand Health Care Reform
This week, the grassroots movement for health care reform centered on working family roundtables where dozens of participants in key states testified about the need to fix the nation’s broken health care system.
In Gary, Ind., more than 50 attendees, including union members, faith leaders and civil right activists, came together last night to discuss the changes we need to make health care accessible and affordable.
Roundtables also took place in Wisconsin and Nebraska this week, with many more scheduled in the days ahead.
Working families say their big concern about the current Senate health care reform bill is that it would tax health benefits. The Senate bill includes a tax on health plans that cost more than $8,500 a year for individuals or $23,000 a year for families—but that’s not the right way to fund reform.
Shuler in Oregon: The Sharks We Defeated Are Still Circling
At the Oregon AFL-CIO convention, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, who got her start organizing in Oregon, spoke yesterday to hundreds of delegates from across the state and encouraged them to start now on educating and mobilizing union members. Shuler told delegates:
Last year, you helped transform our country. And everything you did in 2008, we must do from now to 2010—and here’s why. The sharks you defeated last November are still circling out there. They’ve never given up. They’re just as vicious now, and they want to destroy everything you won. Don’t let them do it.
You have a big job next year: electing a governor who’s pro-working family, pro-union, pro-us; making sure we re-elect the representatives who stand up for what’s right; and beating back the two initiatives that our right-wing pals have dreamed up for 2010….So it’s not too early to get ready.
2,500 UAW Members Say ‘No’ to Health Cuts and Outsourcing—and More Bargaining News
Some 2,500 UAW members in Texas authorize a strike—and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND JOB ACTIONS
UAW, Bell Helicopter: Some 2,500 workers at Bell Helicopter plants in the Fort Worth, Texas, area, represented by UAW Local 218, went on strike today after rejecting contract proposals that would have increased medical costs and outsourced the work of janitors.
New Study: You Won’t Face Coercion if You Sign up for a Union
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If you sign up to join a union, you won’t face coercion or intimidation from your co-workers—or employers. Despite dire warnings by corporations against the majority sign-up process, a new study shows majority sign-up (card-check) protects workers and gives them the chance they need to form a union. It’s another critical point in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would give workers across the country the choice about how to form a union and bargain for a better life.
The study, “Majority Authorizations and Union Organizing in the Public Sector: A Four-State Perspective,” written by top labor policy scholars under the direction of Robert Bruno of the University of Illinois, looks at the experience of four states (New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Oregon) where public-sector workers have the freedom to form unions through majority sign-up. If passed, the Employee Free Choice Act would give millions of workers the option of using either majority sign-up or a National Labor Relations Board election to form a union.
