Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 6
V olume 107
Number 4
F ebruary 17, 2006
P ortland
Portland School
District continues
to rankle unions
Drawn-out bargaining
and disrespect take a toll
on employee morale.
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Steve Goldschmidt, chief of Human
Resources at Portland Public Schools
(PPS), was regarded by workers as a
union-buster who twice pushed teach-
ers to the brink of strike, and led the out-
sourcing of 300 custodians’ jobs.
So when PPS newly-hired superin-
tendent Vicki Phillips fired him in Feb-
ruary 2005, union leaders celebrated —
and hoped his departure would signify a
new era of goodwill towards the dis-
trict’s unions.
A year later, they’re not sure much
has changed.
Goldschmidt lieutenant Gregg New-
strand continued on as labor relations
manager. And the district continued its
“take-it-or-leave-it” negotiating posture,
union leaders say.
At the school district, a two-year
union contract can take one year to ne-
gotiate. And union workers routinely
work without a contract: The old agree-
ments expire without a new one in
place, freezing wages, benefits and
working conditions.
“The district’s uncertain financial
picture makes settlement of monetary
issues tough,” said PPS spokesperson
Bob Lawrence.
Union leaders understand it’s a tight-
budget era for local government, but
haven’t felt they could trust PPS to treat
them fairly.
The district’s unionized employees
are divided into four bargaining units,
each with its own contract.
• The biggest and best-paid unit con-
sists of the district’s nearly 4,000 teach-
ers, represented by the Portland Asso-
ciation of Teachers, an affiliate of the
Oregon Education Association, the
state’s largest labor union. Their most
recent contract, which expires June 30,
2006, included 3 and 2.75 percent wage
increases. PPS teachers make $32,000
to $64,000 a year, depending on edu-
cation and experience.
• Then there’s the District Council of
(Turn to Page 3)
First Thursday Art Walk features union work
Mark Stenberg (left), assistant training coordinator for Plumbers and Fitters Local 290, shows Portland
City Commissioner Sam Adams a “refrigeration logo” at the First Thursday Art Walk at City Hall. The
monthly event was created by Adams and Commissioner Randy Leonard 13 months ago as a way to open
the doors of government to the public. Each month features different Portland artists. February showcased
an assortment of art and history by members of several Portland area unions. “People don’t realize the
artistic talent that union workers have in their everyday jobs,” Adams said. “It’s functional art.” The
refrigeration logo was built by Local 290 apprentices in 2000. Each of the city commissioners and Mayor
Tom Potter were there mingling with the crowd and enjoying the art, music and food.
Washington taxpayers hit by $25 million in yearly health care cost-shifting
OLYMPIA — In Olympia, Wash., where Paul
Henry receives health care coverage working at a
grocery store, he worries that large employers who
don’t provide sufficient employer health care are
creating a pattern that will undermine his own fam-
ily’s health coverage. Henry also doesn’t like his
tax dollars subsidizing those same companies, in-
cluding Wal-Mart, whose workers are forced to
rely on Medicaid or the state-subsidized Basic
Health Plan.
Speaking last month to a state Senate commit-
tee hearing on a bill that would require the state’s
largest employers to pay a certain percentage of
total payroll on their employees’ health care costs,
Henry said his employer-provided insurance gives
him “peace of mind” in taking care of his family.
A confidential state report obtained last month
by the Seattle Times shows more than 3,100 Wal-
Mart employees in the state — about 20 percent
of its workforce — receive taxpayer-funded health
care for themselves or their families. The 3,100-
plus workers is nearly double the total for any
other company in the state and more than half of
the Wal-Mart employees who received federal
Medicaid benefits were full-time workers.
“When such large companies as Wal-Mart
don’t provide affordable health care for their work-
ers, it puts companies that pay good wages and of-
fer decent benefits at a competitive disadvantage,”
says Robby Stern, special assistant to the president
of the Washington State Labor Council.
“It’s inhumane to let people go without health
insurance,” said Stern, who also testified before the
Washington State committee. Stern and other
Washington activists are seeking to build on recent
success in Maryland, where the State Legislature
on Jan. 12 passed a bill to ensure large employers
pay their fair share.
To ensure the largest corporations stop shifting
health care insurance costs onto workers, taxpayers
and other businesses, the AFL-CIO is spearhead-
ing a Fair Share Health Care campaign with work-
ing families, their unions and community allies
mobilizing around Fair Share legislation in dozens
of states.
Fair Share legislation has been introduced in
Florida, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Oklahoma,
Rhode Island and Wisconsin in the 2006 sessions
and is in the pipeline in more than 20 other states.
On Jan. 23, the Oregon AFL-CIO filed a ballot
initiative to put Fair Share Health Care on Novem-
ber’s ballot.
In Oregon and Washington State, more than 1.5
million children and adults are uninsured.
In Washington State, more than 200 union
members from AFL-CIO unions, the United Food
and Commercial Workers of the Change to Win la-
bor federation, and other unions attended the Fair
Share Health Care hearings and lobbied lawmak-
ers. On Feb. 13 supporters were in Olympia for a
mass lobbying day.
In general, Fair Share Health Care legislation
requires large corporations to spend a certain per-
centage of their payroll to provide health care ben-
efits for their employees or pay into a state health
care fund. Fair Share will reduce the price taxpay-
ers pay to cover employers’ employee expenses,
ease the financial strain states face in growing
Medicaid costs and help level the playing field be-
tween companies that provide good jobs and ben-
efits and those that don’t.
“Most large employers do provide health care.
The idea here is to hold the ones who don’t ac-
countable so they are not undermining the struc-
ture of those who do,” says Rep. Eileen Cody (D),
who sponsored the Fair Share bill in Washington.
Several Washington business owners also testi-
fied in favor of the Fair Share Health Care legisla-
tion, including Craig Cole, chief executive officer
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