Labor
Gary Gillespie, Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network
The Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network is a coalition of labor, environmental, educational and faith-based groups in Lane County working to educate, activate, and agitate for social and economic justice. ESSN is also a national Jobs With Justice Chapter.
In 2005, ESSN will continue our work in a couple of areas as well as add an additional cause or two. We will continue to educate and inform with regards to the struggle of workers to organize and maintain a voice in the workplace through union representation. At this very time, members of Amalgamated Transit Union are on the verge of striking in order to retain current benefits and stop the implementation of unfavorable work rules. Their employer, Lane Transit District, appears willing to cripple the County transportation system in order to implement their last best offer.
We are recruiting community leaders for a Workers Rights Board, which will serve as a public forum for workers to air their grievances, and will facilitate community support to seek redress of those grievances. A Workers Rights Board is the union's counter response to the pro-corporate actions of the National Labor Rights Board. In light of George Bush's efforts to stack the NLRB with anti-worker members, we in the labor movement now refer to the NLRB as the "No Labor Rights Board."
The near total ineffectiveness of this organization in protecting the rights of workers was never more evident that during the prolonged contract negotiations by the members of the Newspaper Guild and the Teamsters in their 3+ year negotiations with the Baker family and the Register-Guard. In view of repeated violations by the R-G and their lead negotiator, the contract campaign more resembled a war of attrition than a protected labor-rights negotiation.
Portland Jobs with Justice established a WRB a little more than 5 years ago.
In 2004, we organized two demonstrations at WAL-MART opposing the expansion of the West 11th store to a Super Center. The AFL-CIO stated intensions to organize WAL-MART workers. And ESSN anticipates participating in that effort. WAL-MART is expanding at an annual rate of 15% and is the largest private non-union employer in the country. Their workers earn nearly 30% less than other grocery workers. They are the first company to report more than a quarter trillion dollars in sales, thereby exceeding the combined sales of IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Microsoft, and Cisco - with a couple billion left over to cover the tip.
In the course of one week, 100 million customers shop at WAL-MART. According to a California economic impact study, it is estimated that a typical Wal-Mart store with 200 employees would cost taxpayers $420,750 per year in taxpayer subsidized services such as free school lunches, medical care, housing assistance and other welfare services.
ESSN was pleased to hear Mayor Piercy call economically-sustainable-business support and development a key part of her administration's goals. Educating our community as to the importance of community standards was a cornerstone of our work in 2004. Criteria for the use of public funds in economic development must be defined and enforced. Only establishing such criteria will regain the support of taxpayers in the Eugene-Springfield area.
For the last 15 years, public employees have been held to very high standards when using public funds. The time is long past due when private enterprise should be accountable to the same standards.
Promoting tax justice through educational workshops will be another key element of ESSN's 2005 activities. In cooperation with the Oregon AFL-CIO and the Oregon Center for Public Policy, ESSN is shining a bright light on the tax credits, exemptions, and deductions offered by the State of Oregon to special-interest groups.
In September 2004, ESSN, along with the Wayne Morse Chair at the U of O Law School, co-sponsored a talk and discussion by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston, the author of "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich- and Cheat Everybody Else." Mr. Johnston highlighted the negative financial effects of shifting the tax burden from the rich to the middle-class taxpayer.
Since 1995, Oregon income-tax revenues have grown by 58%, while income-tax breaks have grown by 108%. In 1995, Oregon gave away in tax breaks 39 cents on the dollar. Today that figure has risen to 46 cents on the dollar. And sadly, those increased tax breaks have gone to the wealthy, rather than to those in need of assistance. Total revenue given up in the form of tax breaks for the next biennium is expected to equal $8.8 billion.
If Oregon just reverted to the tax break levels of 1995-97, it would collect another $1.3 billion in addition to the $10.5 in the projected 2005-07 period. This additional $1.3 billion would more than provide funding for a full school year, without increasing K-12 class sizes. It would also allow for tuition freezes at our community colleges and public universities; keep Project Independence for seniors; and restore the Oregon Health Plan. Worthy efforts, all.
And those of you who have followed the efforts of ESSN in establishing a Living-Wage Ordinance, related to the expenditure of public funds for private contractors, may be asking yourselves: "What gives with that?"
I'll simply update (in more politically-correct terminology) an old phrase originally attributed to basketball coach Dick Motta, and say that the Plus-sized sister isn't about to sing, yet.