A Washington Co. attorney pursues measure that would cut revenue for public-sector unions.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
A Washington Co. attorney pursues measure that would cut revenue for public-sector unions.
Oregon could be the site of the next “Right to Work” fight, OregonLive.com reports.
Currently, Oregon public employees don’t have to join a union that bargains for them, but they still have to pay “fair-share” fees aimed at covering their costs of representation. Gibson first introduced a right-to-work initiative in 2013 that quickly attracted the ire of the state’s powerful public employee unions.
Under pressure from then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, Gibson and her backers agreed to drop her initiative. As part of the deal, the unions also withdrew their own initiatives to raise taxes on wealthier individuals and corporations. Kitzhaber said he wanted to avoid a ballot fight while he worked on tax reform. But he never got far with that and both sides started working on 2016 initiatives even before his sudden resignation in mid-February.
Gibson’s measure addresses the “free rider” problem by saying public workers who are not in the union would deal directly with employers on wages, benefits and conditions. (A “free rider” is someone who reaps the benefits of union representation without paying dues.)
“In the end, I think it winds up being a total mess that is unworkable,” University of Oregon Labor Education and Research Center professor Gordon Lafter said in Jeff Mapes’ story.
Seventeen percent of Oregon workers belong to a union.
