Let me say this about that
—By Gene Klare
Labor Honor Roll
THE LABOR HALL OF FAME, sponsored by the Northwest Oregon
Labor Retirees Council, honors living union retirees for the work they did on
behalf of their unions and the rest of the labor movement. In this issue of the
Northwest Labor Press and now and then in future issues, we’ll look back to
the past at women and men who deserve being listed on a Labor Honor Roll.
We’ll start by recalling the work of Caroline Gleason, once described in the
Labor Press as “one of the great heroines of the Oregon labor movement.” She
earned that accolade because she was responsible for passage of the first state
wage and hour law in the United States of America. She was a 1910 graduate
of the University of Minnesota.
IN 1912, Miss Gleason, a Portland social worker, undertook a survey of
working conditions in factories and stores. In pursuing her quest for informa-
tion, she took a job in a Portland paper box factory where she pasted labels on
the ends of shoe boxes. Four decades later in the 1950s, she told the Labor
Press in an interview:
“AFTER TWO OR THREE labels, our hands were covered with glue
and had to be washed, but there was no hot water. We carried five-gallon pails
to another part of the plant where live steam was pouring from a pipe. We
held our pails under the pipe until the steam had heated the water. You must re-
member that this was piecework and all these preparations took time. In three
days I earned $1.52.”
After quoting her, the Labor Press went on to say: “Miss Gleason also took
careful note of the appalling sanitary and safety deficiencies in this and other
plants. Her survey, published late in 1912, had such an impact that a wage-
hour bill was introduced on the opening day of the 1913 legislative session.”
NOT LONG AFTER compiling her survey, Caroline Gleason became a
Catholic nun with the name Sister Miriam Theresa and worked as a faculty
member at Marylhurst College, a Catholic institution near Lake Oswego. It
later attained university status. Sister Miriam Theresa headed the school’s so-
ciology department and inspired young women students to become social ac-
tivists.
MAY DARLING, another pioneer, was a Portland school teacher who in
1919 was one of the founders of Teachers Local 111, which today also repre-
sents other school employees.
May, once termed in a Labor Press headline as
“Oregon labor’s Darling,” campaigned for passage
of school levies throughout her career. In 1934,
Darling was elected a second vice president of the
Oregon State Federation of Labor, which was an
affiliate of the American Federation of Labor. At
the time, she was one of only 20 women in the U.S.
who were officers of state labor federations. Dar-
ling was a founder of the Oregon State Labor Fed-
eration’s college scholarship program in 1947. It
was continued by the Oregon AFL-CIO, which
MAY DARLING
was formed in 1956 in a merger of the state coun-
cils of the American Federation of Labor and the
Congress of Industrial Organizations, and still exists today.
IN 1916, ELIZABETH GEE of the Garment Workers Union in Portland
ran for a state representative post in the Oregon Legislature. Although en-
dorsed by labor, she lost.
MRS. C.C. GUNDEN was president of the Portland Carpenters Ladies
Auxiliary Union No. 15 when the Auxiliary won second prize for its float in
the 1919 Portland Rose Festival Parade. ‘’
GERTRUDE SWEET joined Portland Waitresses Local 305 in 1920, be-
came one of its leaders and went on to hold the office of vice president in the
Hotel & Restaurant Employees & Bartenders International Union. (That
(Turn to Page 11)
PAGE 2
Nurses at Roseburg’s Mercy
Medical Center vote for ONA
ROSEBURG — Registered nurses
at Mercy Medical Center voted Jan.
11 to join the Oregon Nurses Associa-
tion. The vote, conducted at the hospi-
tal in Douglas County by the National
Labor Relations Board, was 178 to 97
in a bargaining unit of 310.
The election is one of Oregon’s
largest union election victories in the
last five years, and it represents the
certification of the largest collective
bargaining unit of registered nurses in
Oregon by any union in more than 25
years, the ONA said.
The victory didn’t come without
some roadblocks.
In November, the hospital chal-
lenged the rights of 16 charge nurses
to vote in the election by defining
them as supervisors. The nurses with-
drew their first petition for an election,
and five of the 16 challenged nurses
resigned their positions on the Orga-
nizing Committee to remove any sug-
gestion of undue supervisor influence.
Organizers quickly collected a suffi-
cient number of authorization cards to
submit a new petition.
Last month, hospital chief execu-
tive Victor Fresolone apologized in a
letter to his nurses for an “inappropri-
ate remark” he made to a physician in
August. In the letter, he acknowledged
“referring to some nurses as ‘BMWs,’
which, I regret, stands for ‘bitchers,
moaners and whiners.’ ”
Registered nurses at Roseburg’s
only community hospital had been
publicly voicing their concerns about
compromised patient care due to inad-
equate staffing levels and deteriorating
working conditions.
The hospital’s nursing turnover rate
was 17 percent a year, compared with
a statewide average of 9 percent, ac-
cording to a 2004 survey by the Ore-
gon Center for Nursing.
The nurses said they sought repre-
sentation with the ONA so that they
could have greater control over their
work setting to act as advocates on be-
half of their patients.
“This confirms our commitment to
provide the best possible care to our
patients,” said Laura Garren, a 20-year
Mercy employee who is a registered
nurse in Mercy’s Family Birth Place.
The next step for the nurses is to
negotiate a contract with the hospital.
“Mercy nurses trust that the hospital
will respect their decision to be repre-
sented by the Oregon Nurses Associa-
tion and that the hospital will agree to
sit down and negotiate a contract with
them in good faith,” said ONA Assis-
tant executive director of labor rela-
tions Paul Goldberg.
ONA represents 10,000 nurses.
More Cingular Wireless
workers sign up with CWA
Employees at Cingular Wireless continue to show what happens when workers
have a free choice to form a union: Nearly 16,000 Cingular employees who once
worked for AT&T before the Cingular/AT&T merger have joined Communica-
tions Workers of America since August under a neutrality agreement in which Cin-
gular agreed to honor the workers’ freedom to form a union when a majority signs
authorization cards.
More than 2,400 Cingular Wireless workers became the most recent to join
CWA in late December and early January. The new CWA members include 1,288
Orlando, Fla., call center workers; 400 retail sales workers at several Pennsylvania
locations; 158 sales and customer service workers in Hawaii; 151 retail sales reps
in Colorado; 51 retail sales workers in Iowa; and 14 New Mexico sales workers.
Last year, 400 Cingular call center employees joined Portland-based CWA Lo-
cal 7901.
Including the newly organized units, CWA now represents 32,000 Cingular
Wireless employees. Prior to the merger, CWA represented over 20,000 Cingular
employees, but none at the non-union AT&T Wireless.
Protecting Union Members’ Smiles and Wallets
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Grace Park, D.M.D.
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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Bright Now! Dental
831 Lancaster Mall Dr. NE
Salem, OR 97301
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Salmon Creek
2101 NE 129th St.
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360-574-4574
Clinton Harrell, D.M.D.
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We know the value of a beautiful smile!
JANUARY 20, 2006