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Portland Endorses Employee Free Choice Act
Long known for being progressive, the City Council in Portland, Ore., has unanimously passed a resolution urging Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Introduced by Commissioner Randy Leonard, former head of the city's Fire Fighters union, the resolution also calls on Congress and the Oregon Legislature to grant farm workers the freedom to form unions. Presently, farm workers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act and the Oregon Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act.
In a packed meeting room in early March, the council heard testimony from workers, academics and religious leaders. Maribel Paniagua, a janitor fighting for the right to form a union, said she has trouble supporting her family on her $7.70 hourly wages.
"My co-workers and I started to join together to form a union in order to work more hours with better pay and benefits," she said. "Soon after we started, my co-workers at the Rose Garden ... had to go to meetings in a supervisor's office where they were told they could be fired for talking about or joining the union."
Leonard called the changes "necessary and long overdue" and said that for too long "the current laws have been manipulated by some employers to deter employees from organizing and entering into first contracts. This will preserve the rights of workers to bargaining collectively and achieve first contracts with their employers."
The council's support for rights for farm workers is angering Oregon farm, dairy and nursery owners, who claim the state's largest city has no business getting involved in rural affairs.
On the contrary, supporters told The Oregonian newspaper. They argued that working conditions on the state's farms "should matter to people in Portland, given the population's progressive bent, the city's political influence and its reliance on other parts of the state for produce and plants," the story stated.
"Farm workers in Oregon are often living under a 21st century version of indentured servitude," Leonard told the newspaper. "If you buy a piece of bread, eat a steak, eat a peach or pear or anything grown and raised in this state, then you are part and parcel of the problem that holds farm workers down."
Introduced by Commissioner Randy Leonard, former head of the city's Fire Fighters union, the resolution also calls on Congress and the Oregon Legislature to grant farm workers the freedom to form unions. Presently, farm workers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act and the Oregon Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act.
In a packed meeting room in early March, the council heard testimony from workers, academics and religious leaders. Maribel Paniagua, a janitor fighting for the right to form a union, said she has trouble supporting her family on her $7.70 hourly wages.
"My co-workers and I started to join together to form a union in order to work more hours with better pay and benefits," she said. "Soon after we started, my co-workers at the Rose Garden ... had to go to meetings in a supervisor's office where they were told they could be fired for talking about or joining the union."
Leonard called the changes "necessary and long overdue" and said that for too long "the current laws have been manipulated by some employers to deter employees from organizing and entering into first contracts. This will preserve the rights of workers to bargaining collectively and achieve first contracts with their employers."
The council's support for rights for farm workers is angering Oregon farm, dairy and nursery owners, who claim the state's largest city has no business getting involved in rural affairs.
On the contrary, supporters told The Oregonian newspaper. They argued that working conditions on the state's farms "should matter to people in Portland, given the population's progressive bent, the city's political influence and its reliance on other parts of the state for produce and plants," the story stated.
"Farm workers in Oregon are often living under a 21st century version of indentured servitude," Leonard told the newspaper. "If you buy a piece of bread, eat a steak, eat a peach or pear or anything grown and raised in this state, then you are part and parcel of the problem that holds farm workers down."