A state circuit court jury awarded more than $800,000 in damages to AFT-Oregon and the Oregon Education Association in September. The jury found an anti-union taxpayer group guilty on three counts of fraud and racketeering for activities surrounding the 2000 general election.

Specifically, the jury found affiliates of Oregon Taxpayers United (OTU), headed by executive director Bill Sizemore, liable for damages in counts of forgery on statements of sponsorship petitions and filing false tax returns and campaign finance reports. AFT-Oregon was awarded $170,000 and the OEA was awarded $671,658 in damages--the amount the unions respectively spent fighting two Sizemore-sponsored ballot measures in the 2000 election. The ballot measures, numbered 92 and 98, would have limited or banned payroll deduction for union dues. Voters rejected the measures.

"The jury agreed that in the course of qualifying Measures 92 and 98 for the 2000 general election ballot, [Sizemore's group] violated the Oregon anti-racketeering statute by forging signatures on sponsorship petitions, forging signatures on initiative petitions, and filing false reports with Oregon government agencies" regarding money raised and spent in placing the measures on the ballot, says Gene Mechanic, the attorney representing AFT-Oregon. The jury chose not to award damages for the forged petition signatures.

Under the Oregon RICO statute, the damages could be tripled to $2.5 million. At press time, this possibility was pending.

"Oregon's initiative system is a venue for well-meaning, law-abiding citizens to bring their ideas to enhance our great state," says Debbi Covert, president of AFT-Oregon. "With their verdict, jurors sent a message that violation of Oregon's election and tax laws will not be tolerated."

While the verdict marks an important victory for the labor movement nationally and for Oregon unions' efforts to end abuse of the state's initiative process, it also reaffirms the decision by delegates to the national AFT convention last July to set aside a portion of a dues increase for a Solidarity Fund. (See September 2002 AFT On Campus.) The fund was established to boost the union's political action in the states and enable the union to better respond to the growing number of state ballot initiatives and referendums that are designed to weaken, if not eliminate, public services, worker rights and union rights.

For more information about the trial, visit AFT-Oregon's Web site.

[Barbara McKenna / AFT On Campus]

[December 13, 2002]