Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 6
V olume 107
Number 12
J une 16, 2006
P ortland
Portland City Council
takes hard look at PDC
over construction pay
L a b or
Re co g n it i o n
N ig h t
Thirty-two people received awards June 3 at the ninth
annual Labor Appreciation and Recognition Night dinner
sponsored by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council.
In addition to paying tribute to these “friends of labor,”
the event was a fundraiser for the Emergency Fund of La-
bor’s Community Service Agency. This year, $2,000 was
raised on raffle tickets for thousands of dollars worth of
prizes donated by local unions and area businesses. Last
year, the Emergency Fund assisted 851 people from 29 dif-
ferent unions who were facing emergency situations.
Money from the fund can be used to help pay for rent, util-
ity bills, transportation, prescription drugs and more.
United Way of the Columbia-Willamette made a special
presentation to Glenn Shuck, executive director of Labor’s
Community Service Agency, for his work with United Way
during its annual fundraising drive.
Recognized at this year’s dinner (pictured above) were:
Darel Aker, Dave Tully and Bill Elzie of Teamsters Joint
Council 37; Calvin Bissonette and Dana Hoadley of Glass,
Molders, Pottery, Plastic and Allied Workers Local 139-B;
Steve Dzielak of the Alliance for Retired Americans; Bruce
Easley, Dan Froner and Mike Murphy of Laborers Munici-
pal Local 483; Rick Gilmore, Deanna Meyer, Mary Orr and
Marla Rosenberger of Multnomah County Employees Lo-
cal 88 of the American Federation of State, County and Mu-
nicipal Employees; UNITE HERE Local 9 leaders Jeff
Richardson, Gloria Gonzalez, Jonah Kobayashi, Sophie
Welcer, John Pulido, David Brown and Gayle Carnini; gen-
eral managers Ron Gladney of the Benson Hotel, Norman
Wha of the Paramount Hotel, Tracy Marks of the Hilton
Hotel, Brendon Coffey of Aramark at the Oregon Conven-
tion Center, and Michael Bashaw of Coast Hotels; Norman
Leyden of Musicians Local 99; William Lukens of Machin-
ists Lodge 63; Wally Mehrens, retired executive secretary-
treasurer of the Columbia-Pacific Building Trades Council;
Bob Petroff, directing business representative of Machinists
District Lodge 24; Gene Pronovost, president of United
Food and Commercial Workers Local 555; Maureen
Thompson, director of Community Solutions for Clacka-
mas County; and Julie Devlaeminck, office secretary of the
Northwest Oregon Labor Council and a member of Office
and Professional Employees Local 11.
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
After several fruitless years spent
courting favor with the Portland Devel-
opment Commission (PDC), building
trades union leaders are now going
around the agency. They’re taking their
agenda directly to Portland City Coun-
cil. Judging by recent meetings, a
breakthrough may be nearing.
Construction unions have tried
without success to get PDC to require
contractors to pay livable wages and
benefits on its projects. PDC is known
as a funder of big-ticket construction
projects — using public subsidies to
spark private development. PDC
divvies up $200 to $250 million a
year, money it gets from special bonds
that are repaid by a portion of the prop-
erty taxes in “urban renewal” districts.
“We want to ensure that public tax
dollar investment is used in ways that
enrich working people’s lives, not just
line the pockets of a few developers
and contractors,” said Cherry Harris,
organizer with Operating Engineers
Local 701, at a June 7 Portland City
Council meeting.
In meetings with PDC officials over
the last four years, building trades
union leaders have argued that PDC-
funded projects should pay the “pre-
vailing wage” rate. Under state law,
workers on public construction projects
can’t be paid less than the prevailing
wage — the standard rate for the area,
as determined by an annual wage sur-
vey conducted for the Oregon Bureau
of Labor and Industries (BOLI). The
Building trades’ Mohlis interested in PDC post
Organized labor has launched a cam-
paign to get John Mohlis, executive sec-
retary-treasurer of the Columbia-Pacific
Building Trades Council, appointed to
the Portland Development Commission,
the quasi-independent development arm
of the city of Portland.
Two of PDC’s longest serving mem-
bers — Chair Eric Parsons and Secre-
tary Doug Blomgren — will step down
after their terms expire in July.
The five-person commission is ap-
pointed by Portland Mayor Tom Potter
and must be confirmed by the City
Council.
Potter already has appointed three
commissioners since taking office in
2005. The newest commissioners are
Sal Kadri, a business owner, Bertha Fer-
rán, a mortgage consultant, and Mark
Rosenbaum, a partner in a financial
services business.
Potter had indicated during his cam-
paign and after his election in Novem-
ber 2004 that he would consider ap-
pointing someone from organized labor
to the commission. Labor leaders were
disappointed when that didn’t happen.
“The one thing lacking on this board
for a long time has been a voice for the
workers,” said Judy O’Connor, execu-
tive secretary-treasurer of the Northwest
Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
Building trades unions have worked
with PDC in the past designing appren-
ticeship training and women and minor-
ity hiring programs. They have also
fought with the agency over prevailing
wage requirements on public-private
projects that PDC helps fund.
Mohlis was elected to the building
trades post last year. Prior to that he was
business manager of Bricklayers and Al-
lied Craftworkers Local 1.
law is meant to ensure that contractors
compete based on competence and ef-
ficiency, not based on who pays work-
ers the least. It’s also meant to encour-
age contractors to offer training and
benefits to their employees.
But PDC has said that unless a proj-
ect is public infrastructure, it is exempt
from the prevailing wage law, arguing
the law applies only if PDC contracts
directly with a construction contractor
or actually owns the project at its con-
clusion.
BOLI, charged with enforcing the
prevailing wage law, ruled that the law
does apply to PDC on mixed-use, pri-
vate-public projects that the agency
helps fund. But PDC sued in May
2005 to overturn that interpretation,
and won in Multnomah County Circuit
Court. BOLI is appealing that decision.
PDC’s legal action outraged con-
struction union leaders, like Jim
Pauley, president of Iron Workers Lo-
cal 29. Pauley says his blood boils at
the thought of PDC paying lawyers
with tax dollars to sue another govern-
ment agency — all to avoid paying a
decent wage to construction workers.
Pauley wasn’t the only one to react
that way. Portland City Commissioner
Randy Leonard says he’s become in-
creasingly exasperated by the PDC.
The lawsuit shows PDC is out of sync
with the current City Council, Leonard
said; and City Council wasn’t con-
sulted beforehand.
“They introduced this lawsuit basi-
cally on behalf of developers,” Leonard
told the NW Labor Press.
At a June 6 City Council work ses-
sion, Leonard invited Labor Commis-
sioner Dan Gardner and PDC Execu-
tive Director Bruce Warner to explain
to the council how the lawsuit came
about.
Warner deferred questions to his at-
torney.
Gardner told the council PDC
wanted the fight: He tried to resolve the
dispute but his calls went unreturned.
And a task force he appointed to look
at how prevailing wage would apply to
PDC failed to reach consensus.
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