{"id":179972,"date":"2022-05-03T15:53:36","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eugeneweekly.com\/?p=186562"},"modified":"2022-05-03T15:53:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T22:53:36","slug":"working-class-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/03\/working-class-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Working Class Champion\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

On April 27, the Lane, Coos, Curry, Douglas Building Trades Council announced that its first-ever \u201cWorking Class Champion\u201d award was given to Lane County Commissioner Joe Berney.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The building trades council that represents unions \u2014 including electrical workers, carpenters and plumbers \u2014 wanted to present such an award but struggled to find the right recipient for it, said Kail Zuschlag, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith Joe Berney coming around, we decided now was the time because we haven\u2019t had a champion like this before,\u201d Zuschlag says. \u201cThis guy is the people\u2019s champion, the working class champion.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The council highlighted Berney\u2019s work as a commissioner in having Lane County adopt the community benefits agreement (CBA) framework. A CBA is language that prioritizes public project bids from construction companies that not only pay prevailing wages but also offer full time health benefits for all workers and apprenticeship programs for diverse demographics. <\/span>Berney and state Sen. James Manning introduced a bill that was approved in 2021<\/span><\/a> that makes it easier for other public entities to adopt a CBA framework.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During his acceptance speech, Berney said that any Lane County public project that costs more than $1 million must abide by the community benefits agreement, and on April 19, he added, the Lane County Board of County Commissioners voted to decrease the cost of construction to $500,000.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Berney also <\/span>joked that <\/span>EW<\/span><\/i> asked him in 2018<\/span><\/a> when he was running against then-Commissioner Sid Leiken about the presence of union contributions to his campaign and whether it may appear that he\u2019ll be influenced by organized labor. \u201cLabor is for living wages, and employer-paid health insurance for all workers and retiring with dignity and trying to recruit a diverse workforce \u2014 no, I don\u2019t have a problem with that,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Berney is in the midst of a re-election campaign for his seat on the board against David Loveall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether he wins or loses on May 17, Berney said his goal is to work to establish community benefits agreements at public agencies throughout the state. \u201cWe need to have a plan in four years to secure over 70 percent of the just-south of $10 billion annually spent in this state on public construction projects,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want to work on in the next four years of my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 27, the Lane, Coos, Curry, Douglas Building Trades Council announced that its first-ever \u201cWorking Class Champion\u201d award was given to Lane County Commissioner \u2026 Continue reading\u00a0\u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,101,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-ew-extra","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}