Working Families

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I. Reform Our Broken Financial System: Both the financial crisis and the bailouts that followed were the result of an egregiously broken financial system.

Will you commit to the strongest possible financial regulatory reform, including, but not limited to, substantial increases in capital requirements for large financial institutions, whatever they may call themselves; full disclosure and regulation of all trades in derivatives and other complex financial instruments; a strong and independent consumer financial protection agency with the power to crack down on abuses; an independent resolution authority, funded by a tax on large financial institutions, that would enable the federal government to ensure the orderly dismantling of any “too-big-to-fail” institutions which threaten to bring down the economy?

If not, why not? *

II. Healthcare for All: Though we are troubled by many aspects of the recent health care overhaul, the OWFP strongly supports the principle that all Americans should have affordable health care. We believe that until the profit-motive is removed from the provision of health care in America, our system will remain one that mainly benefits insurance and pharmaceutical companies, while charging consumers too much for too little care.

As a member of Congress, will you commit to supporting all efforts to move our country in the direction of a single-payer, not-for-profit system of universal health care?

If not, why not? *

III. Good Jobs for a Sustainable Economy: The Oregon Working Families Party strongly supports investment in “sustainable jobs,” which support families and communities as well as the environment. The OWFP believes that public dollars should never be used to subsidize poverty wages or to further the outsourcing of good jobs from our state.

Would you insist on the inclusion of family sustaining wages and high labor standards in any legislation that uses federal funds to stimulate investment in the economy (whether that be in the form of direct investment, subsidies, tax credits, or any other fiscal mechanism)?

IV. Fair Trade: For too long, the United States has negotiated trade deals that have undermined our economy, our environment, and our quality of life, all to the benefit of the largest multinational corporations who flaunt our laws, evade our taxes, and create ever greater levels of insecurity here and abroad. The Oregon Working Families Party strongly supports passage of the “TRADE” Act, which was introduced in 2008 with 50 original co-sponsors. As a state that has seen the way that outsourcing can ravage communities, the OWFP believes that all of Oregon’s congressional delegation should co-sponsor the TRADE Act and work to see its passage.

Will you commit to co-sponsoring and actively supporting the TRADE Act?

If not, why not? *

V. Right to Organize: The right to organize a union free of intimidation or coercion is guaranteed by the 1935 Wagner Act, but after decades of attack, workers who try to organize can be threatened, harassed, and fired with impunity. The consequences of this attack on the right to organize reached tragic heights when 29 miners in a non-union coal mine in West Virginia recently lost their lives. Massey Energy’s abysmal safety record and aggressive anti-union stance went hand in hand. The Oregon Working Families Party supports efforts such as the Employee Free Choice Act, which if passed would solve many of the current problems in trying to organize and reach a first contract. It would strengthen penalties for companies that illegally coerce or intimidate employees in an effort to prevent them from forming a union, it would bring in a neutral third party to settle a contract when a company and a newly certified union cannot agree on a contract after three months, and it would establish majority signup, meaning that if a majority of the employees sign union authorization cards, validated by the NLRB, a company must recognize the union.

Given the inability to date of the Democratic majority to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, what are you going to do to make it easier and safer to organize a union and get a first contract? *