in the news
Project Grant Award from the Wayne Morse Center! "Equity and Green Jobs: Paving the Way for Worker Participation in Oregon's Emerging Green Economy" LERC will conduct organizing, training, and technical assistance to create a new network of low-income and worker advocates who can pursue a "green jobs agenda" in their communities.
Lafer to Spend Year in Washington D.C. with House Education and Labor Committee
LERC associate professor Gordon Lafer is taking a one-year leave of absence to work as senior labor policy adviser for the Committee on Education and Labor at the US. House of Representatives in Washington, D. C.
Lafer’s responsibilities will revolve around several pieces of legislation of particular interest to workers and unions. These include the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation to restore union eligibility to quasi-supervisory workers who lost union status under a National Labor Relations board decision during the Bush administration, and comprehensive immigration reform, with an emphasis on proposed guest workers provisions. His portfolio will also include developing labor standards that would apply to federal green jobs initiatives and new stimulus spending.
Lafer’s leave will extend from September 2009-September 2010. Although his absence will be felt, his time in Washington will enable him to make an important contribution in helping achieve greater protections and enhanced rights for American workers.
Eugene Weekly Viewpoint 8/6/09
Health Care vs. Wages: Don't blame public employee unions for impasse
http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2009/08/06/views1.html
STAR Fund Awards Musicians and Nurses Outreach Efforts to Young Workers
The Labor Education and Research Center at the University of Oregon is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2009 Strategic Training and Action Research (STAR) Fund awards. This year’s awards will support projects aimed at reaching out to young workers.
American Federation of Musicians Local 99 in Portland has received a grant to support its campaign to establish a fair minimum wage scale for musicians playing in Portland area clubs. Currently, clubs take advantage of the large numbers of available musicians to foster competition that has resulted in reduced wages and lowered standards. Local 99’s will focus its attention on a younger generation of musicians, encourage their involvement in the union, and also seek to enlist public support for the creation of a fair pay scale for Portland musicians.
The Oregon Nurses Association has been granted $4,800 to fund a leadership development project called “Yes We Are.” This project is aimed at acquainting young nurses with the values and mission of the union and recruiting them to assume positions of leadership and authority within the organization. Nurses in the “Yes, We Are” program will identify a particular goal or project to carry out within the union, focusing on projects that will enable them to reach out to other nurses under age 30.
The committee that selected the 2009 STAR Fund recipients included Victor Musial (OSEA), Faye Guenther (UFCW Local 21), Meg Niemi (SEIU Local 49), and Graham Trainor (Oregon AFL-CIO), assisted by Lynn Feekin of LERC.
LERC’s STAR Fund was launched in 2008, seeded by a donation from Robert and Cloydene Uhrbrand, and funds raised at LERC’s 30th anniversary celebration. The STAR Fund supports special projects outside of LERC’s regular programs and seeks to encourage new activities and fresh thinking aimed that addresses the needs and interests of workers in Oregon.
For more information, contact: Lynn Feekin: feekin@uoregon.edu