Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 6
V olume 107
Number 1
J anuary 6, 2006
P ortland
Witt ineligible to serve
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain (center) and Labor Commissioner
Dan Gardner (right) applaud Brad Witt as he holds up a plaque in recognition of his
14 years of service as secretary-treasurer of the state labor federation. Witt was
declared ineligible to continue in the elected post because his union, UFCW Local
555, doesn’t plan to sign a Solidarity Charter. A successor won’t be named until the
federation’s next Executive Board meeting in March.
Brad Witt, secretary-treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO
for the past 14 years, was declared ineligible to retain the
position because his union, United Food and Commercial
Workers Local 555, doesn’t plan to sign a Solidarity
Charter with the state labor federation.
The seat was declared vacant by the Oregon AFL-CIO
Executive Board at its quarterly meeting Dec. 16. A suc-
cessor to fill the unexpired term will be named when the
board meets again in March. In the meantime, AFL-CIO
President Tom Chamberlain will serve double-duty as
secretary-treasurer.
UFCW was one of four unions to leave the national
AFL-CIO last July to form the new Change to Win fed-
eration. But because the disaffiliations had such a huge fi-
nancial impact on state and local labor groups, national
leaders worked out a plan — called Solidarity Charters
— allowing the Change to Win unions to maintain their
affiliations with state AFL-CIO bodies and central labor
councils, with full voting rights and eligibility to run for
office.
Both Witt and former Oregon AFL-CIO President
Tim Nesbitt (of the Service Employees International
Union) were members of Change to Win unions. No one
knew if Solidarity Charters would ever come to fruition,
so in the interim, Nesbitt took up membership with the
National Writers Union of the United Auto Workers and
Witt joined a Machinists-Woodworkers local union.
Negotiations dragged on for months. With the out-
come still uncertain, Nesbitt resigned as president of the
Oregon AFL-CIO at the federation’s convention in Oc-
tober. He was succeeded by Chamberlain, a member of
Fire Fighters Local 43. Also at that convention, delegates
unanimously voted a constitutional change making the
secretary-treasurer a part-time, unpaid position.
Witt had agreed to the resolution. Prior to the vote, he
announced that he was returning to UFCW Local 555 as
a full-time union representative. He planned to work for
Local 555, fulfill his duties as the part-time secretary-
treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO, and run for re-elec-
tion as a state representative in the Oregon Legislature.
Witt had taken a leave of absence from his AFL-CIO job
last year to serve as a District 31 representative.
In November, the national AFL-CIO and Change to
Win finalized the Solidarity Charter, which led to the
reaffiliation at the state level of Service Employees Lo-
cals 503 and 49, UNITE HERE Local 9 and UFCW Lo-
cal 1439, a small unit based in Spokane, Wash., but with
members in Umatilla County, Oregon.
Reaffiliation discussions between Chamberlain and
(Turn to Page 3)
It’s official! South Waterfront apprenticeship deal gets signatures
Signatures are finally on the dotted
line on a “project apprenticeship agree-
ment” for the multi-billion-dollar South
Waterfront Central District develop-
ment project.
“This agreement is significant for all
of the partners of the South Waterfront
Central District and will serve as a
model for future private/public partner-
ships,” said Portland Development
Commission Executive Director Bruce
Warner before signing the agreement at
a special ceremony Dec. 14 that in-
cluded project developers, union offi-
cials and commissioners and staff of
PDC.
Partners in the agreement are Ore-
gon Health & Science University, River
Campus Investors, North Macadam
Inc., PDC, most of the affiliates of the
Columbia-Pacific Building Trades
Council, and the Carpenters Union.
“The partners have agreed to be ac-
countable for developing a program to
recruit, train and employ minorities and
women in the construction trades,
which is significant not only to the
South Waterfront, but to the city as a
whole,” Warner said.
“Homer (partner Homer Williams)
and I are pleased to be working with the
unions,” said Dike Dames of Williams
& Dames Development Co. “I’m a
doer. We’re going to try to make some-
thing happen here.”
A Workforce Diversity Strategy was
initially established by PDC and the
City of Portland and agreed to by the
trade unions in June 2004. But some
language in that strategy was not sup-
ported by developers or OHSU, so the
parties returned to the bargaining table.
Last October, a final draft came before
PDC commissioners that was agreeable
to all parties. The commission unani-
mously adopted a resolution authoriz-
ing execution of the project apprentice-
ship agreement.
The goal is to have 35 percent
women and minorities — 20 percent
ethnic minority and 15 percent women
— employed on a project-by-project
basis in South Waterfront by the year
2014. Initially, the ratio is set at 4 per-
cent women and 12 percent minorities,
with incremental increases each year.
The project apprenticeship agree-
ment will apply to all construction work
performed by general contractors under
contracts in excess of $200,000 and by
subcontractors under contracts in excess
of $100,000. Contractors will be re-
quired to have apprenticeship training
programs in order to bid on the work.
“This agreement shows a true part-
nership between the PDC, owners and
PDC Executive Director Bruce Warner signs pact negotiated with Portland
area building trades unions to use more women and minority apprentices on
the multi-billion-dollar South Waterfront development. Also signing the deal
were Mark Williams (center) of Oregon Health & Science University; and
developer Dike Dames (right), a partner with developer Homer Williams.
unions in working towards a common
goal of diversifying the workforce and
ensuring that graduates will have mar-
ketable skills that will benefit their fam-
ilies and communities,” said Nelda Wil-
son, assistant business manager of
Operating Engineers Local 701.
PDC is coordinating the $1.9 billion
South Waterfront project, a 31-acre par-
cel of vacant industrial land on the
Willamette River waterfront south of
downtown that is being developed with
public and private money into a neigh-
borhood with a mix of jobs, housing, re-
tail and recreation.
An oversight committee consisting
of union officials, developers, OHSU
and PDC will meet regularly to review
progress of the project apprenticeship
agreement.
Tentatively, union officials on the
oversight committee are Local 701’s
Wilson; John Mohlis, executive secre-
tary-treasurer of the Columbia-Pacific
Building Trades Council; Randy Knopp
of the District Council of Laborers;
Scott Axness of Electrical Workers Lo-
cal 48, and Jerry Auvil or Pete Savage
representing the Regional Council of
Carpenters.