Let me say this about that
—By Gene Klare
Hall greets Getman
DON GETMAN of Portland, a retired business agent for Plumbers and
Pipefitters Local 290 who just turned 70, is the newest unionist voted into the
Labor Hall of Fame by the sponsoring Northwest Oregon Labor Retirees
Council.
The Retirees Council, affiliated with the Northwest Oregon Labor Coun-
cil, AFL-CIO, began the Hall of Fame to salute retired workers for their con-
tributions to the labor movement. The re-
tirees hold their monthly meetings on the
second Mondays in the first-floor board-
room of the NOLC in the Scandia Build-
ing at 1125 SE Madison St., Portland. John
Klein, a retired Teamster, is president, and
Harold King, a retired member of the As-
sociation of Western Pulp and Paper Work-
ers, is secretary-treasurer. Judy O’Connor,
of Office and Professional Employees Lo-
cal 11, is executive secretary-treasurer of
NOLC, and the president is Bob Petroff, di-
recting business representative of Machin-
ists District Lodge 24.
DONALD GEORGE GETMAN was
born on May 3, 1936 in Fargo, North
Dakota. It was the era of the Great Depres-
sion and in 1937 the Getman family moved
DON GETMAN
to Portland where a brother of Don’s father
was working in a tire shop that had a job available. Don attended Highland
Grade School in Northeast Portland, which has since been renamed for the
late civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Don graduated in 1954 from
Jefferson High School, where he played baseball. He then joined the U.S.
Navy, where he served aboard ship in the Far East as a diesel engineman
second-class.
Following his Navy service, Getman attended Clark College in Vancouver,
Wash. Don and his wife, Sandy, who is from Minnesota, met at the college
and were married in 1959. They live in Northeast Portland’s Parkrose area,
and have a son, Matt, who is a Local 290 member; a daughter, Heidi, who
lives in California; a daughter, Jill, who lives in Portland; and five grand-
children.
DON GETMAN started his five-year apprenticeship in Steamfitters Lo-
cal 235 in 1960 working for Temp Control Corporation. He later worked for
Lord Brothers and other contractors and became active in his union. “On the
job and in Local 235,” Getman said, “my mentor was Billy McNicholas,”
who was a business agent. McNicholas is also a member of the Labor Hall
of Fame. Getman was elected to the union’s Executive Board and later as
vice president and president. He became a business agent of Local 235 and
was a contract negotiator. He later was elected as financial secretary-treasurer
and he represented the union as a delegate to various labor organizations
with which it was affiliated.
When the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters International
formed Local 290 in 1987 by merging Steamfitters Local 235, Plumbers Lo-
cal 51 and other locals, Getman returned to working at the trade. Later, he
was asked to become a business agent and organizer for Local 290, and he
accepted the job. By the time he retired in 1998, he had spent 14 years work-
ing full-time for Local 235 and Local 290. The latter is based in Tualatin,
south of Portland.
DON AND SANDY GETMAN do volunteer work to help children and
young adults with muscular dystrophy and other disabilities. They both vol-
unteer their services at Camp Arawanna, a summer camp near Welches at-
CTW unions stage rallies protesting
nonunion employers in 40 U.S. cities
The Change To Win (CTW) federa-
tion of unions organized a series of ral-
lies in 40 U.S. cities April 24-28.
CTW press releases said the rallies
were to be the start of a “Make Work
Pay” campaign, characterized as “a new
national movement to restore the Amer-
ican Dream — a paycheck that supports
a family, affordable health care, a secure
retirement, a voice on the job, and a bet-
ter life for their children.”
Portland, Salem, Beaverton and Van-
couver were some of the cities, with five
themed rallies organized by six CTW
unions over a four-day period.
The Change to Win federation in-
cludes the Teamsters, Laborers, Service
Employees International Union (SEIU),
UNITE HERE, Carpenters, United
Food and Commercial Workers
(UFCW) and the United Farm Work-
ers of America (UFW).
Monday, April 24, was designated
by Teamsters Local 162 as a protest of
Ferguson plumbing supply showrooms
in Beaverton and Vancouver because
drivers there have yet to win a first
union contract a year after they voted to
join the Teamsters.
Tuesday, April 25, UFW supporters
announced a picket of the Bank of the
West in Portland for lending money to
Boardman, Oregon-based Threemile
Canyon Farms dairy, which has de-
clined to recognize the union.
Wednesday, April 26, Laborers and
Carpenters sponsored another in a long
series of protests at the downtown Port-
land Benson Tower condominiums,
About 120 members from unions affiliated with the Change to Win labor
federation rallied April 27 at Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square to protest
Wal-Mart’s low pay and lack of health care benefits. CTW staged a weeklong
series of rallies nationwide to launch its “Make Work Pay” campaign.
where one contractor has brought in
nonunion workers from out of state and
fired local union construction workers
who hired on to try to unionize. Some
then marched to Pioneer Courthouse
Square, joining UFCW members who
gathered for an anti-Wal-Mart rally.
UFCW and its affiliated wakeupwal-
mart.com declared April 26 a “national
day of action to help cure the Wal-Mart
health care crisis,” and staged events in
35 cities. UFCW represents grocery
workers, whose employers must com-
pete with low-wage, nonunion Wal-
Mart superstores. Speakers at the rally
promoted a union-backed initiative in
Oregon that would make Wal-Mart pro-
vide health coverage to its employees
— or pay the state to do so.
And Thursday, April 27, was SEIU’s
day. Supporters rallied at the Salem
headquarters of the Oregon Lottery,
where a union election is scheduled
later this month.
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(Turn to Page 11)
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
MAY 5, 2006