Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2006)
Let me say this about that ...#1388’s Pankow dies (From Page 2) Local 290, Waits moved to the Portland area and served as a business agent of the new local union until retiring two decades ago. Retirement took Waits to LaPine in Central Oregon’s Deschutes County. SIX YEARS AGO in LaPine, Herb’s wife, Jan, died. She was his third wife. His second wife, Juanita, had died years earlier. Herb married his first wife, Marcea, in 1942; they were divorced later, and she, too, died. Marcea was the mother of his three sons. They are Ronald, of Bend, Herb III, of Beaverton, and Robert, of Medford. Herb III and Robert followed their fa- ther’s footsteps into the pipe trades and are members of the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 290. Ronald owns a repossession com- pany, which operates in various localities and has worked with government agencies. Herb Jr. has nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. One grandson, Drew Waits, of Medford, is the fourth generation of the Waits fam- ily to become a a pipe trades journeyman. Waits likes living in LaPine, which is south of Bend in Deschutes County, a prime Central Oregon area for outdoor recreation He does some fishing in LaPine but prefers going hunting for deer and elk with his sons. They often hunt in the Prairie City area of Grant County in Eastern Oregon REPUBLICANS OUTNUMBER Democrats in Deschutes County, Waits said, so he’s sometimes called “Mr. Democrat” by friends and ac- quaintances because he’s in the political minority. Waits belongs to the American Legion and Moose Lodge in LaPine. He still belongs to the Elks Lodge in Klamath Falls but maintains an associate mem- bership with the Elks Lodge in Bend. When Herb and Jan first relocated to LaPine, they lived in the Newberry Estates District and he was elected as chairman of its board. After she died, he moved to a place in a wooded area. ★★★ JERRY PANKOW, a longtime member of Carpenters Local 1388, died at age 59 on June 8. A remembrance service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 8, at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 10390 SW Canyon Rd. in Beaverton. His family said that he had “a long and distinguished career as a Local 1388 car- penter, progressing through the ranks from apprentice to superintendent. His 35-plus years in construction were filled with all types of structures built in Oregon, Wash- ington, Northern California, Wyoming and Alaska. Among them were the Emanuel Hospital Burn Center, Shriners Hospital Children’s Addition, Tektronix Building 3, Portland Justice Center foundations, St. Vincent Hospital parking structure 2, St. Charles Medical Center additions and Ea- gle River School in Alaska.” IN 1992, he was honored with the Car- JERRY PANKOW penter Guildsman of the Year Award by the Oregon Building Congress, a longtime or- ganization with membership from labor, management, the professions and government. Pankow was a certified instructor at the Willamette Carpenters Training Center in Portland, where, his family said, “he helped many hundreds of as- piring tradespersons to become more successful in their construction careers.” He also took training courses himself, completing all 10 units of the Associ- ated General Contractors supervisory program. He enjoyed scuba diving, especially in the Hawaiian Islands, and loved having dogs around, particularly Dalmations. He was a fun-loving man who entertained friends and family at barbecues, pool parties and at other social events. He made time to help friends and neighbors with household repairs and renovations. JEROME PANKOW was born on Jan. 1, 1947 in Portland to Hugo and Eleanor Pankow. His siblings were Dian, Mark and Darlene. He graduated from the Beaverton School District’s Sunset High School. In 1968 he married Carol Mischel and they had one son, Steven. “Within his own life and with his associates, Jerry exemplified the ability to face adversity with good nature,” his family said. “Some but not all who knew him were aware that from birth Jerry spent his entire life dealing with heart problems. At age 11 he underwent his first heart procedure; performed by the famed Dr. Albert Starr of Portland. And even when Jerry’s failing health would periodically surface, he would smile and ignore it. No matter the cir- cumstances, Jerry faced them with a dignity that was unique to him, never missing an opportunity of living life to the fullest.” JULY 7, 2006 Proud to be union By J ON H UNT President ATU Local 757 Anyone who talks to me for very long will hear me say that I was raised a union kid. My father, Bill Hunt, was an ATU 757 member for 23 years. During the last years of his working life he was an ATU 757 executive board officer. To- day he is a proud member of the ATU 757 retirees’ chapter. I tell you this be- cause I grew up believing that being “union” was a very good thing. The preamble to the ATU Constitu- tion states that the union was established “to promote the general cause of hu- manity and brotherly love, and secure the blessings of friendship, equality and truth.” Those union values brought us the eight-hour work day, five-day work week, the minimum wage, pensions, workers’ compensation, vacations and other benefits we often take for granted. The values in the ATU preamble remain as important today as they were when they were written over 114 years ago. Global corporations are making every attempt to drive working people’s wages, benefits and working conditions down. This fact makes union values more important than ever. The power of union values put into action is why cor- porations attack unionization in every country. And, that is why, as union members, we must speak up about our union values. Four of the most impor- tant of these values are: • Unions fight to have workers treated like assets, not like interchange- able resources or throwaway parts. It is the working people who create the profit and provide the service. They deserve their fair share of the value they create in addition to recognition and respect. • Unions fight for families. It is hard to balance the demands of work and family, so unions fight for family leave laws and child care. They fight for fair- ness and justice in the workplace so that a family’s welfare cannot be threatened by capricious management action, fa- voritism or bullying. • Unions fight for the entire commu- nity. Unions brought America the mid- dle class, and now unions are on the front lines fighting to keep the middle Open Forum class. They know a healthy country must invest in the future, and so unions fight for family wage jobs, universal educa- tion and health care for everyone. They know that families who are thriving con- tribute to the community by giving both their time and money. • Unions provide an opportunity for people to practice democracy in their daily lives. Union members vote on who leads them, on their wages, benefits, and working conditions, on who they are go- ing to defend and how their money is spent. No other organization in Ameri- can life provides so many opportunities for meaningful democratic action. So yes, like many of you, I am proud to be union. I am grateful for the ac- complishments of organized labor. More importantly, I am looking forward to the future as organized labor continues its fight for the union values of economic morality, social justice and social re- sponsibility. Raising the minimum wage: Poverty is your problem By PAUL PETILLO For most of us, the poverty level looks like some far-off place we are not likely to visit. We enjoy our pay pack- ages and the benefits supplied by union contracts negotiated with our employ- ers. But for far too many Americans, the reality of living with a low income is a daily challenge. In 2006, the Census Bureau describes a family of four with an income of less than $20,000 as one living in poverty. With the average income in the U.S. at $44,473, should it matter to workers on the West Coast with an elevated min- imum wage (California - $6.75, Oregon - $7.50, Washington - $7.63) whether the federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is adequate? Try to imagine if you will the costs of raising a family of four on the mini- mum wage set by Oregon. At $15,600, you would find it difficult to provide ad- equate housing, reliable transportation, and still have enough to provide your family with health benefits. Forget about funding your retirement. Now imagine that same life on the current national minimum wage of $10,700. Once again, in a nod to the busi- nesses that lobby so heavily in an effort to influence Congress, elected officials have deemed any increases in the mini- mum wage as counterproductive to eco- nomic growth. When David Card and Alan Krueger of Princeton University offered their study on the subject of wages versus growth of business in 1995, they were faced with the daunting task of con- vincing a Congress that believed any in- creases in the minimum wage would eliminate jobs, not create them. While their study was criticized for its narrow NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS time frame, what these two economists found was quite the opposite. Congress is convinced that America is one big company town; a place where wage increases are directly offset by corporations with higher prices to the general public. What Card and Krueger found was an upward moving trend of pay raises for low-wage workers acted as an economic force to not only stay competitive but to retain better workers. In other words, companies are price-set- ters not price-takers. In the short run, retaining workers with better than average pay is far more cost-effective than hiring wave after wave of low-wage help. In the long run, it raises everyone’s standard of living. Partisan support of raising minimum standards has fallen by the wayside. Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and Bush (H.W.) all agreed with the efforts to raise the wages during their terms as a reward for those who play by the rules. The logic of repeatedly nixing any further increases over the last 10 years seems counterintuitive. The sim- ple reality of those wages increases would result in higher tax revenues without raising taxes. With over 37 million people in poverty in the U.S., among them 13 mil- lion children, the chances are you know someone living below acceptable stan- dards. Come November, you can change this and how America treats its lowest- paid workers with the cast of a vote. (Paul Petillo is a member of UFCW Local 555. He is the author of Building Wealth in a Paycheck-to-Paycheck World, McGraw-Hill, and editor of BlueCollarDollar.com.) Workers Memorial Committee thanks labor for donations; goal is $75,000 To The Editor: We want to thank those who have donated to the Oregon AFL-CIO’s pro- posed Workers Memorial at the State Capitol in Salem. We have set a goal of $75,000 to make this memorial become a reality. So far we have collected $7,500. Groups that have donated to the worker memorial are: Steelworkers Lo- cal 6163; Steelworkers L&E Commit- tee; the Lane,Coos,Curry Counties and Salem Building Trades Councils; Ma- chinists Local Lodges 63 and 1005; Woodworkers W-536; B. Curtis Wilcox; IBEW Locals 48, 280 and 659; the Southern Oregon and the Marion, Polk, Yamhill Counties Labor Councils; Longshore and Warehouse Union Lo- cal 40; IFTPE Local 97; Eugene Fire Fighters Local 851; United Auto Work- ers Local 492; Service Employees Lo- cal 503; American Federation of Teach- ers-Oregon convention donations; Bakers Local 114; Columbia River Council of the ILWU, and Office and Professional Employees Local 11. Please make all donations to the Workers Memorial Fund. through the Oregon AFL-CIO, 2110 State St., Salem OR 97301. Al Dorgan Oregon AFL-CIO Health & Safety Committee Salem PAGE 11