Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 6
V olume 107
Number 5
Mar c h 3, 2006
P ortland
Six building trades unions form Construction Alliance
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two unions — the Laborers and
Operating Engineers left the AFL-CIO Building and Construc-
tion Trades Department on March 1 to establish the National Con-
struction Alliance with the Carpenters, Teamsters, Bricklayers and
Iron Workers. The new alliance will represent roughly 2 million
construction workers nationwide.
[At press time, it was not known if the Iron Workers, Brick-
layers and Teamsters would leave the BTD, which is part of the
national AFL-CIO. The Carpenters disaffiliated four years ago.]
Formation of the National Construction Alliance was an-
nounced at a press conference Feb. 14 by Operating Engineers
President Vincent Giblin and Laborers President Terry O’Sulli-
van. At that time, the union officials said they would disaffiliate
from the Building Trades Department, effective March 1. The de-
parture, according to Giblin and O’Sullivan, was due to dissatis-
faction with the AFL-CIO department’s political structure and be-
cause it sometimes did not concentrate on bread-and-butter issues
of interest to rank-and-file construction workers.
The impact of the National Construction Alliance on statewide
and local building trades councils is unclear. Some Laborers and
Operating Engineers locals “will selectively remain” in local
building trades councils, Giblin said, assuming the councils are ef-
fective. “When the Carpenters and the Teamsters withdrew from
the AFL-CIO, a whole host of local building trades councils let
them stay to participate, and our speculation is that they would
continue to do so,” O’Sullivan added.
However, the two international presidents told Workday Min-
nesota it was likely the National Construction Alliance would be
creating its own local structure. O’Sullivan said he had talked with
about 25 unionized contractor associations and they all welcomed
the changes and the creation of a new organization. He also said
Change to Win — the new labor federation — had no role in their
decision to leave the building trades. “There is no association be-
tween the National Construction Alliance and Change to Win,”
he said.
The Laborers, Carpenters and Teamsters joined four other
unions last year to create the Change to Win Labor federation.
The Laborers have maintained their affiliation with the AFL-CIO,
but O’Sullivan reiterated that “it is only a matter of when, not if”
they leave. Giblin said “the jury is still out” on whether or not
the Operating Engineers will leave the AFL-CIO.
Edward Sullivan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades
Department and general president of the Elevator Constructors
Union, said in a correspondence to state and local building trades
councils that “working members (of the departing unions) should
not be punished for the decisions of their leaders. Therefore, we
ask you to continue your diligence and your patience as our affil-
iated unions determine a better path to the future.” He said the
BTD governing board of presidents will meet soon “to map a de-
finitive course for the building trades.”
Bob Shiprack, executive director of the Oregon State Building
and Construction Trades Council, told the NW Labor Press that he
will continue “doing business as we have always done business.
None of this stuff has made any sense to me from Day One. We
cannot allow the distractions we get from Washington, D.C., to
impact our workers and contractors here in Oregon.”
John Mohlis, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbia-
Pacific Building Trades Council — and a member of the Brick-
layers Union — has talked to business managers from several of
the affected crafts and they all say they do not intend to leave.
Storm Warning
Merger madness in utility
industry threatens reliability
By ERIC WOLFE
Shortly after making landfall along
the Gulf Coast of Florida last October,
Wilma was downgraded to a Category
2 hurricane with top winds around 100
mph. Nevertheless, power outages were
unprecedented. Over 3 million Florida
Power and Light customers lost power,
including 98 percent of Miami-Dade
and Broward counties. Ten thousand
utility poles that were supposed to with-
stand winds of 119 mph crumpled, 240
substations were knocked out, and
Florida regulators launched an investi-
gation to find out why.
But you don’t have to be Sherlock
Holmes to figure this one out. Since
1991, Florida Power and Light has cut
operating and maintenance costs per
customer by over 35 percent. Between
1995 and 2002 the Florida Power &
Light workforce was slashed from
14,500 to 9,800. Between 2002 and
2004 the utility decreased per-customer
tree trimming costs by 5 percent, ac-
companied by a sharp increase in tree-
related outages.
State regulators say that it would take
the utility 60 years, at its current pace,
to inspect all of its poles.
You might think that Florida Power
& Light, chastened by Wilma and under
investigation, would embark on a crash
program to rehabilitate its infrastructure.
The utility has the cash — its stock price
has performed almost 20 percent better
than the average electric company over
the past five years. But Florida Power &
Light has found a better use for its
money. Recently, the utility announced
that its holding company, FPL Group,
will purchase Constellation Energy
Group — familiar to Californians as one
of the out-of-state energy pirates forced
to settle with the state’s attorney general
for gaming California’s electricity mar-
ket in 2000-2001.
The FPL-Constellation marriage was
made possible by the repeal last August
of the Public Utility Holding Company
Act. But their merger is little more than
the advance winds of a monster storm
of utility consolidation now gathering on
the horizon. For the utility customer
who expects reliable service, for the util-
ity employee who depends on a stable
employer, for the retiree who relies on a
regular dividend from a “safe” utility
stock, there may be no safe harbor when
the storm arrives.
A World Without PUHCA
For generations, Americans have re-
ceived electric service from utility com-
panies close to home. The mission of
these companies has been to provide
everyone with safe, reliable service at
the cheapest possible price. State regu-
lators, answerable to the public’s elected
representatives, have provided the over-
sight needed to make sure that utility
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Goodbye, Dubai
Oregon labor unions joined a widening outcry over the Bush Administration-
approved sale of major port operations in six U.S. cities to the United Arab
Emirates-owned Dubai Ports World. The ports of New York/New Jersey,
Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia are currently managed by
the P&O Company of Britain. P&O has union contracts with the International
Longshoremen’s Association at those ports. More than 150 unionists rallied at
Terminal 6 in North Portland on Feb. 24 — part of a nationwide event called
by the Teamsters, which represents thousands of drivers who work in and
around America’s ports. “We will not stand by and allow our homeland
security to be compromised,” General President James Hoffa said in a
statement. “This is a bad deal for workers and a bad deal for the security of
America’s ports.” In a statement read at the Portland rally, Oregon U.S. Rep.
David Wu, said, “The U.S. prohibits foreign ownership of our airlines and good
farmland. We should consider applying such laws to our nation’s ports.”