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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2006)
...Labor dispute at Portland’s Benson Tower continues (From Page 1) they’re undercutting their own wages, Puckett said. Newway paid Puckett $20 an hour, with no benefits. As a union carpenter, Think Again • he would have made $26 an hour with full family health insurance and pen- sion benefits for the same work. And that’s basically why several unions have been active at the Benson Tower — high-end projects shouldn’t be undercutting area standard wages for the skilled trades, craft union organ- izers say. The developer, Benson Tower LLC, hired Vancouver, Canada,-based general contractor ITC Constructors USA Inc. to manage construction of By Tim Nesbitt Yes, we can ... make higher education affordable again O ne thing we can say about the 12,000 students who received degrees from Oregon’s public univer- sities this year: More than any stu- dents who came before them, they earned their educations. I don’t know if they studied any harder than my generation did when we were in college. But they paid much more. They worked more, bor- rowed more and tapped a lot more of their families’ income and assets to complete their educations — far more than any generation of students who preceded them in our lifetimes. When I went to college 40 years ago, I got a state grant and, after my father’s death, a need-based scholar- ship from the university I attended. Also, thanks to LBJ and his Great So- ciety, I was one of the first college stu- dents to benefit from the expansion of Social Security to the children of de- ceased workers. Even so, if I hadn’t scored well enough on the test that de- livered that state grant or if I didn’t qualify for those Social Security checks, Plan B would have sufficed — I would have worked full-time dur- ing the summer and taken a part-time job on campus to cover my costs. Back then, any student with the in- terest and ability to pursue a college education could always fall back on his or her own Plan B. If all else failed, and even if your parents could- n’t help you, you could work your way through college. A powerful and productive state- federal partnership made this possi- ble. After World War II, the federal government launched the GI Bill, and states expanded their colleges and universities to provide an affordable path to higher education for more of their residents. A generation later, the federal government added grants and loans to provide matching assistance to the baby boomers who became the second great wave of college students after our returning war veterans. In the 1970s, a student with no re- sources could work full-time at a min- imum wage job during the summer and maybe 10 hours a week during the school year and pay for a year at a top-notch public university like the JULY 7, 2006 University of Oregon. Today, that stu- dent would have to work about 45 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, to do the same. Sadly, it is no longer possible to work one’s way through college, be- cause both sides of that state-federal partnership have backed off on their commitments to an affordable higher education for their citizens. States are charging more for an ed- ucation at their colleges and universi- ties and covering less of the costs. In the 1970s and well into the 1980s, for every dollar that a resident student at an Oregon state university paid in tu- ition, the state provided three dollars for the operation of that university. Today, for every dollar that a student pays in tuition, the state provides only 60 cents. Compounding this problem, de- clines in federal support have shifted even more of the costs of college to the student and his/her family, wors- ening the squeeze on the middle class and discouraging many students from low-income families from even at- tempting to pursue a college educa- tion. The default option for getting through college has become a differ- ent Plan B — B as in borrowing. Stu- dents graduating from Oregon State University this year averaged more than $20,000 in student loan debt. Prospective students from low-in- come backgrounds look at that num- ber and say, “No thanks, I’d rather work for a living and stay out of debt.” As a result, we’re losing thousands of students every year whose contri- butions to our economy will be lim- ited and whose prospects for a middle class life style will diminish. It doesn’t have to be this way. Even if we can’t count on any more help from the federal government, we can, as a state, make a higher educa- tion affordable again by restoring the promise made to earlier generations — that if all else fails, you can always work your way through college. As a member of the state’s Board of Higher Education, I have co- chaired a pioneering project that re- searched the costs and benefits of restoring that promise. We looked at what a student could earn working a minimum wage job, reduced the need to borrow, assumed a family contribu- tion in line with the federal financial aid model and added in the federal Pell Grants. We crunched those num- bers and found that about 25 percent of our students would still be short of covering their costs at one of our pub- lic universities. Then we asked ourselves: What if the state became the promise keeper of last resort and pledged to make up the difference if a student’s work ef- fort, family resources and federal grants fell short of covering the cost of tuition, fees, books, room and board? The answers were eye-open- ing. Making and keeping that promise would cost another $75 million a bi- ennium on top of the $78 million now budgeted for the Oregon Opportunity Grant program — an amount equiva- lent to 5 percent of new revenues that the state is expected to receive from a recovering economy over the next four years. Fulfilling that promise would make college truly affordable for 43,000 Oregon students in our col- leges and universities, 23,000 of whom are now struggling to get by with no help from the state. Most importantly, promoting that promise — telling Oregonians that we’re going to make a higher educa- tion in Oregon truly affordable again by the time next year’s eighth graders graduate from high school — can help stir the aspirations of future gen- erations of students whose education will be critical to our state’s prosperity and their personal success. We’re not sure whether to call this our “Earned Opportunity Program” or “Shared Responsibility Model.” But with Gov. Ted Kulongoski encourag- ing our efforts and key legislative leaders signaling support, we’re hop- ing to call it a success story for Ore- gon’s future. Tim Nesbitt is a former president of the Oregon AFL-CIO. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS the $30 million luxury condo project located at SW 11th and Clay. Portland landowner Joe Weston, owner of American Property Manage- ment, is a development partner in the venture. ITC hired several nonunion sub- contractors, including Newway, which brought in some workers from Canada. For Newway to pay less than union contractors could give them an advan- tage, costing union members work and driving down wages in the industry. In response, Carpenters and Labor- ers — two unions cut out of the Ben- son Tower project — launched a re- lentless pressure campaign. In July 2005, Puckett was the first Carpenters salt to work for Newway. Four others hired on over the summer: Jason Sheckler, Jeremy Kidwell, Je- remy Larson and John Svob. Union organizers began leafletting and serving lunch at the site. Puckett talked openly about the union to co- workers. He, Sheckler, and Kidwell started wearing union shirts to work. On Sept. 9, Newway fired Puckett, saying he talked too much. Maybe they singled him out as the ringleader. In any case, a week later, the other salts went on strike to protest Puckett’s fir- ing; their picket lines were honored by union workers from other trades, and work on the project ground to a halt. Five days later, they offered to go back to work. Two were rehired but then laid off. Others were told their po- sitions were no longer available. The group filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, which was al- ready investigating the charge of Puck- ett’s firing. It’s illegal to fire or dis- criminate against a worker for engaging in lawful union activity. In mid-January, the two sides reached a settlement out of court. Without admitting guilt, Newway of- fered reinstatement to Puckett, and back pay to the others. But the developer intervened. Ben- son Tower LLC didn’t want Puckett back on the job, and directed Newway not to rehire him. Puckett and the union filed yet another charge, which the NLRB investigated and found to have merit. Now, the union could go after Ben- son Tower itself. Federal labor law has detailed restrictions about who and how construction unions can picket. When the NLRB found Benson in vio- lation of labor law, it meant the Car- penters could picket Benson Tower LLC at any of its locations. Puckett, Sheckler, and three others began an “ambulatory picket” of project man- ager Andy Krebs himself. For three days during business hours they fol- lowed him with bullhorns and picket signs wherever he went. Meanwhile, union pickets, drums, and bullhorns outside the Benson Tower condo sales office were discouraging buyers. Benson Tower LLC agreed to settle the charge — allowing Puckett to re- turn, and posting notices about work- ers rights all over the site. “Ultimately, we want all these guys working on this site to be paid and treated decently,” Puckett says. Back on the job, Puckett was deter- mined to press the letter of the law — equal treatment. Newway’s decision to keep him isolated was grounds for an- other unfair labor practice strike. When the pickets went up on Friday, June 30, Sheckler said several groups of workers — painters and structural iron workers — walked off the job. As of press time, the strike was still under way. L EGAL P ROBLEMS ?? For $16 a month coverage includes: ❖ Unlimited toll-free phone consultation with attorneys. ❖ A comprehensive will with yearly updates is included. ❖ Representation for traffic tickets, accidents, criminal, and civil suits. ❖ Coverage on IRS tax audits. ❖ Divorce, child custody, bank- ruptcy and many more benefits.* THESE LEGAL SERVICES ARE PROVIDED BY THE VERY BEST LAW FIRMS IN OREGON & WASHINGTON. * Some services not 100% covered For more information, call 503-760-2456 or toll-free at (888) 252-7930 www.prepaidlegal.com/info/randallnix HEMORRHOIDS The Non-Surgical Treatment We specialize in the non-surgical treatment of hemorrhoids. 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