Let me say this about that
—By Gene Klare
Sid Stoddard dies
SID STODDARD, a retired Northwest union and government official, died
Sept. 2 at his home in Tucson, Arizona. He was 83. A family member said he
died while taking a nap after returning home from kidney dialysis treatment.
He had retired in 1987 as a Seattle-based general organizer for the Interna-
tional Association of Bridge, Structural
and Ornamental Iron Workers. Prior to
taking that job in late 1980, he had been
U.S. Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall’s
personal representative at the Labor De-
partment’s regional office in Seattle. Be-
fore accepting the post in the Carter Ad-
ministration, he had been the business
agent and financial secretary of Portland-
based Iron Workers Shopmen’s Local
516 from 1963 to 1978.
SIDNEY SMITH STODDARD JR.
was born on March 24,1923 in Provi-
dence, Rhode Island. The family’s line-
age dates back to 1636 England. After
graduating from high school, he worked
in several steel fabrication plants. With
World War II in progress, Stoddard
joined the U.S. Merchant Marine, fol-
SID STODDARD
lowing his family’s long maritime tradi-
tion.
He worked on freighters throughout the war and beyond. He was an active
member of the National Maritime Union, serving as a deck delegate and a
ship’s delegate and attending NMU conventions.
AFTER A DOZEN YEARS at sea, Stoddard found himself beached in
California when his ship was taken out of service in 1955. He decided to look
for another line of work and picked Portland as the place to do it. Because of
his experience in steel fabrication in Providence, a job-finder at the Oregon
Employment Service referred him to a job opportunity at a Portland metal fab-
rication factory. After being hired there, he joined Iron Workers Shopmen’s Lo-
cal 516 which represented the factory’s workers. He soon was a member of the
union’s apprenticeship and training committee. Next came election to the Lo-
cal 516 Executive Board in 1961, and two years later he was elected to the
union’s top job as financial secretary/business agent.
WHILE THE LEADER of Local 516, Stoddard was active in labor or-
ganizations with which the union was affiliated. He held the presidency of the
Portland Metal Trades Council; served as secretary-treasurer and president of
the Iron Workers District Council of the Pacific Northwest; and was a delegate
to Iron Workers International Conventions from 1964 to 1986. He was a del-
egate to the Multnomah County Labor Council, the Oregon AFL-CIO and the
Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council, and served on the
board of directors of the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Company, the non-
profit entity that publishes the NW Labor Press.
IN HIS ROLE as an executive with the U.S. Department of Labor, Stod-
dard encouraged women to apply for apprenticeships in various trades that
were non-traditional places of employment for them. His efforts produced suc-
cess in Portland and Seattle and elsewhere.
UPON HIS RETIREMENT from the Iron Workers, Sid and his wife,
Molly, whom he married in 1974, moved from Seattle to Depoe Bay on the
Oregon Coast, but spent winters in Arizona. Ten years ago they decided to live
in Tucson the year-around.
After becoming a dialysis patient, Stoddard traveled to Washington, D.C.,
to lobby U.S. representatives and senators for funding to provide dialysis treat-
(Turn to Page 11)
PAGE 2
Bush appoints Wal-Mart lawyer to
lead federal Wage and Hour office
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Presi-
dent Bush made another backdoor ap-
pointment to his administration just
before Labor Day, using a recess ap-
pointment Aug. 31 to install a lawyer
for Wal-Mart to head up the U.S. De-
partment of Labor’s Wage and Hour
Division.
Paul DeCamp, who was grilled at
an Aug. 1 Senate confirmation hear-
ing, backed the Bush Administration’s
move in 2003 to gut overtime pay pro-
tections as defined in the Fair Labor
Standard Act. He also drew criticism
for having represented Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. in a class-action lawsuit by
1.6 million low-wage female workers
over alleged sex discrimination.
As head of the Wage and Hour Di-
vision, DeCamp will be in charge of
enforcing rules governing minimum
wages, overtime and other workplace
issues affecting 130 million American
workers.
Congress was on summer recess
when Bush appointed DeCamp.
Article II of the Constitution allows
presidents to make temporary appoint-
ments without Senate approval; those
appointed can serve until the next
Congressional elections.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.)
was expected to use Senate rules to
block DeCamp’s nomination. At the
Aug. 1 hearing Kennedy said De-
Camp’s work for Wal-Mart “raises
troubling questions. His record clearly
demonstrates that he does not have the
commitment to workers’ rights that is
necessary to fulfill the goals of these
important laws.”
Kennedy also raised questions
about DeCamp’s work as a senior pol-
icy adviser to the Labor Department’s
Employment Standards Division and
the division’s failure to “stop rampant
wage theft” involving wage and hour
violations by employers engaged in
Gulf Coast recovery work following
Hurricanes Katrina.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Wash-
ington asked DeCamp: “Have you
ever defended a worker in a lawsuit
against an employer?”.
“I have not,” DeCamp replied.
U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.),
ranking Democrat on the House Work-
force and Education Committee, said
as a lawyer, DeCamp “has never repre-
sented American workers in a single
case. He has worked on behalf of Wal-
Mart — a company with an abhorrent
record of labor relations — and other
companies against the interests of
American workers and consumers in
numerous cases. Yet he is the man that
President Bush has chosen as one of
the nation’s top enforcers of workplace
rights. It’s no surprise that President
Bush would appoint a corporate
lawyer to a position intended to safe-
guard workers against corporate
abuses. This recess appointment is one
more reminder that the president does
not care about making sure that work-
ers are treated fairly on the job or en-
forcing laws that he doesn’t happen to
like.”
Bush has made numerous contro-
versial appointments while Congress
was in recess, including two to the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board. Bush
also bypassed the Senate in August
2005 with the controversial appoint-
ment of John Bolton as ambassador to
the U.N., and in July 2004, when he
named Deborah Majoras of Virginia to
replace Timothy J. Muris as chair of
the Federal Trade Commission. Majo-
ras’ nomination had been blocked in
the Senate by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-
Ore., who said there was no evidence
she would change FTC policies that
benefit oil companies and hurt con-
sumers.
In a statement, Wyden said he
hoped “that this undemocratic process
for naming a new chair won’t result in
consumers being hammered with high
gas prices again and again.”
Bush made 113 recess appoint-
ments from January 2001 through
April 2005. President Clinton issued
140 recess appointments during his
two terms in office. Bush’s father
made 77 recess appointments during
his administration. In eight years as
president, Ronald Reagan made 240
such appointments. President Carter
made 68 recess appointments during
his four years in office.
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SEPTEMBER 15, 2006