Longshore Workers Celebrate Lockout Bill Signing

Signing of HB 3339, also known as the lockout bill.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski said he was "leveling the playing field" yesterday ( June 26, 2007) when he signed HB 3339, which will provide unemployment benefits to employees that are prevented from working, even when their labor unit is not involved in the dispute.

"Working people should not be excluded from help during a dispute when they are not involved," State Sen. Vicki Walker (D-Eugene) said when the bill passed in the Senate. "This is about fairness for working people."

Currently, employees locked out by employers in a single-employer bargaining unit are allowed to receive unemployment benefits during a lockout. However, in multi-employer units, employees in those units affiliated with those in a dispute can be locked out even if they are not directly a part of the dispute. HB 3339 will simply allow them to get unemployment benefits like those in a single-employer bargaining unit.

In 2002, Longshore Workers along the entire West Coast were locked out when the multi-employer group representing approximately 70 employer groups locked out 25,000 Longshore workers in Oregon, Washington and California. Locked-out workers in Washington and California received benefits, but Oregon workers did not. At least 30 states do not preclude locked out workers from receiving unemployment benefits.

HB 3339 was the No. 1 priority bill for State Rep. Brad Witt (D-Clatskanie), the former Secretary-Treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO. Jeff Smith, President of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 8, lobbied the State Legislature for the bill and credited Oregon AFL-CIO Political Director Duke Shepard for working tirelessly to pass it. "Duke did amazing work for our members," said Smith.

Taken from the Oregon AFL-CIO's weekly update, June 27, 2007

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