Vol 2, Issue 22

By Joe DiNicola, President, SEIU Local 503, OPEU

November 16, 2006

Every member knows our victories don't just happen overnight. Sometimes, it can take weeks, months or even years of determined effort to produce results. It might take a steward, a work site, our entire union or our entire state to get involved before we can celebrate victory.

In this issue of President Joe’s Journal, a member at Employment Department returns to work with full back pay and benefits more than a year after an unjust termination. An idea that started out as a legislative proposal in 2005 turns into reality this month when Oregon voters pass Ballot Measure 44 to lower health care costs for everyone. Finally, members look to the future and work to find a way to make Oregon's tax system fairer and stop the destructive "Oregon tax shift."

   In this issue: Measure 44: A Victory for Oregon   Employment Member Back on the Job   End The Great Oregon Tax Shift    eNews Flash:! DAS and Homecare Bargaining Conferences and Great Work Everybody!

Measure 44: A Victory for Oregon

Members of SEIU Local 503, OPEU have fought for health care reform for years, not just for ourselves, but for all Oregonians. On Tuesday November 7, we celebrated the passage of Ballot Measure 44. With over 80% yes votes on Measure 44, voters overwhelmingly agreed to expand the Oregon Prescription Drug program for anyone who does not have prescription drug insurance. More than one million Oregonians are now eligible to reduce the cost of their prescriptions.

The vote on Measure 44 also helps hold the line on insurance premiums. Every time a person has to go to a hospital Emergency Room. because they can't afford essential drugs like insulin or heart medicine, it costs all of us. For the average family, more than $1,100 of an annual insurance premium is used to pay for expensive care for the uninsured. Once Oregon’s new program is up and running, we will all begin to save money.

We didn't pass Measure 44 by ourselves. We joined forces with Oregonians for Health Security, OSPIRG (Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group), the Oregon Business Association, Oregon Nurses Association and a large and diverse group of health care and consumer advocates. We hit the streets and gathered signatures to get the initiative on the ballot. And with each yes vote on Measure 44, voters said every Oregonian should have the same purchasing power big insurance companies have to negotiate lower prices with drug companies.

Oregonians clearly said enough is enough. We won’t sit by and watch seniors and family members have to travel to Canada and Mexico to get their medications. Instead, we're can take care of this problem ourselves by negotiating prices directly with pharmaceutical companies. We can make Oregon a healthier place to live.

The Oregon Prescription Drug program is smart and effective. It doesn't cost taxpayers a dime because it pays for itself. We first proposed this idea to legislators in 2005, and today it's a reality. Thanks again to every member who stepped up during lobby days and at hearings, gathered signatures on petitions and helped voters make sure their ballots counted.

Congratulations! We made a difference for everyone with our victory on Measure 44 last Tuesday.

Employment Member Back on the Job

A member from Employment Department won back her job in a recent arbitration victory. The worker had a spotless 20 year record, but she was terminated by Employment because she allegedly violated confidentiality rules. She was initially charged with giving confidential information about wage records to someone outside the agency based upon a complaint from a third party. However, even after the third party dropped the complaint, Employment management went ahead and discharged the worker because they said she had accessed the records three times in one day.

The worker did not deny that she may have accessed the wage records. She said she might have looked at the records in the regular course of business. When she asked to review the computer records, Employment managers said the relevant data had been destroyed while the investigation was still pending and before they contacted her. They said such data is automatically destroyed after 30 days.

The arbitrator found no just cause for dismissal and ordered the worker reinstated immediately with full back pay and back benefits. The discharge will be completely purged from personnel records. The arbitrator ruled the State had failed to meet its burden and did not establish the worker had accessed wage records outside the scope of her duties. Once the charge of giving information to a third party was dropped, there was no allegation of an improper purpose. Since there was no intent to use the information, the arbitrator concluded that the discharge could not be upheld solely because the worker looked at the data.

This worker's victory tells us several things. First, the employer did not maintain the records. As the arbitrator noted, this was a serious error in judgment. Employment knew or should have known the records would be useful in proving guilt or innocence. Second, the State argued that the worker was not efficiently doing her job if she accessed the wage records. The arbitrator said that inefficiency does not prove the member's guilt, but only shows she had her own way of doing her work and was not closely supervised. Finally, workers do not have the burden of "proving a negative." The worker did not have to prove she didn't engage in misconduct. Instead, it's up to the employer to show by a preponderance of evidence there is just cause for dismissal. Employment failed to meet that test.

Congratulations to Employment Department workers and stewards, and once again, to our outstanding legal department for a job well-done! This is a win for all workers.

End The Great Oregon Tax Shift

Our November election victory for worker-friendly candidates and the switch in leadership at the Oregon Legislature makes many changes possible. One key to building a better future for working families is to make Oregon's tax structure fairer and reverse “the great Oregon tax shift."

In 2006, Oregon's economy is growing, but the economic downturn that began in 2001 still limits our ability to provide the public services Oregonians want. School budgets still don’t meet students' needs; assistance for the elderly or the most vulnerable is often reduced or not available and health care remains out of reach for many. Oregonians still feel the impact of the revenue shortfall. How did we get into this fix?

Over the course of the last 30 years, Oregon shifted income taxes away from large multi-state corporations at the expense of Oregon families and small businesses. Today, large corporations pay about 6 percent of Oregon’s tax load. A generation ago, they paid more than 18 percent. Who picks up the difference? Individuals and small businesses now pay a staggering 94% of income taxes in Oregon.

The bad news is that the problem is still getting worse. In the next budget cycle (2007-09) corporations doing business in Oregon will pay just 4.5 percent of all state income taxes, leaving the other 95.5 percent to be paid by the rest of us. To add insult to injury, about two thirds of the corporations that file tax returns in our state pay only the $10 minimum corporate income tax-The corporate minimum tax has not changed since 1931!

The decline in corporate income taxes is the result of corporate tax breaks and corporate abuse of tax shelters that lawmakers never intended to allow. According to Michael Leachman, policy analyst for the Oregon Center for Public Policy, "Tax breaks and tax shelters are driving the decline in corporate income taxes. Oregon needs to put the 'income' back in the corporate income tax."

In the 2006 November election, SEIU Local 503 members succeeded in changing the power structure at the Oregon Legislature. Now we need to reach out to build a coalition of taxpayers, community leaders and elected officials to hold corporations accountable and restore a fairer balance between the taxes paid by corporations and working families.

You can do your part to help. Get ready for SEIU Local 503, OPEU lobby days during the 2007 Legislative session. Contact your organizer, stewards or any local officer and sign up today.

eNews Flash

Great Work Everybody! November 7, 2006 was a great night for every member. Together, we all won big for working families. Members everywhere stepped up and phoned, walked and talked to voters all over Oregon. Thank you for all your work. Take a look at the results for Local Government races. Review Oregon House results. See Oregon Senate races. And how about those Ballot Measures? DAS and Homecare Bargaining Conferences: DAS (Department of Administrative Services) and OUS (Oregon University System) members and bargaining team delegates meet in Turner Saturday, December 9 to prepare for the upcoming 2007 – 2009 contract negotiations. The following week, Homecare workers and bargaining delegates gather in Portland Saturday, December 16 to review proposals and strategies for the third Homecare contract.