Bill Sizemore is at it again...

This has reached me from several sources:



Sizemore's New Ballot Measure

Eliminate All Public Employee Unions, Collective Bargaining



The most complete treatment I have seen is the OEA newsletter sent to me by one of my several teacher acquaintances. That is OEA's internal business, and while it confirmed this story for me, I won't repost it. The part that is consistent across my sources is proposed language for a new ballot measure:

ELIMINATES PUBLIC EMPLOYEES' RIGHT TO FORM UNIONS, ASSOCIATIONS TO COLLECTIVELY BARGAIN, RESOLVE GRIEVANCES WITH EMPLOYERS



RESULT OF "YES" VOTE: "Yes" vote eliminates right of state, local public employees to form unions, associations to represent them in collective bargaining, resolving employment-related grievances with employers.

RESULT OF "NO" VOTE: "No" vote retains law giving public employees the right to form unions, associations to represent them in collective bargaining, resolving employment-related grievances with employers.

The initiative is a statutory change, not a constitutional amendment, which means it requires collection of only 75,630 signatures by July 2nd to qualify for the November 2004 ballot.



I will need a day to decide just which part of this upsets me most, but as a supporter of labor rights, a believer in collective bargaining, a teacher, an Oregonian... I guess I could go on. Tell me please we are in 21st Century Oregon and not 1920s coal mining country...