Let me say this about that
—By Gene Klare
Wilkerson welcomed
THE LABOR HALL OF FAME has welcomed Bill Wilkerson, retired busi-
ness manager of Linoleum and Carpet Layers Local l 236. He was selected for
the honor by the sponsoring Northwest Oregon Labor Retirees Council, an affil-
iate of the Portland-based NW Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
The Labor Retirees Council started the Labor Hall of Fame in 1997 to provide
recognition to retired unionists for their contributions to the labor movement.
BILL WILKERSON, 65, retired on June 31, 2000, as financial secretary
and business manager of Linoleum,
Carpet and Soft Tile Applicators Local
1236 after holding the post for 14 years.
Local 1236 is an affiliate of the Inter-
national Union of Painters and Allied
Trades and operates out of a union of-
fice building at 11105 NE Sandy
Boulevard in Portland, which houses
other Painters-affiliated locals and
Painters District Council 5.
Wilkerson and his wife, Karel, are
residents of Vancouver, Washington,
where they’ve lived most of their lives.
He was born as William S. Wilkerson
on June 24, 1941 in the Eastern Wash-
ington city of Pasco. While growing up,
he lived there, and in Wishram, Wash.,
across the Columbia River from The
Dalles, and in Vancouver. His father’s
job caused their moves. John Wilkerson
BILL WILKERSON
worked for the Spokane, Portland and
Seattle Railroad as a brakeman on
freight trains and as a conductor on passenger trains. He was a union man — a
member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.
IN HIGH SCHOOL at Fort Vancouver High and later for two years at
nearby Clark College, Bill Wilkerson competed in the sports of wrestling and
weightlifting. Bill and Karel Wirth met while in high school and were married on
April 7, 1962, a short time after he finished his three-year apprenticeship in the
floor-covering trade, which he had started while still attending college. He re-
ceived his apprenticeship classroom instruction at Beach School in Northeast
Portland.
Wilkerson worked at Burgess Floor Covering in Vancouver for six years un-
til it went out of business. His next employer was Studer Floor Covering in Van-
couver, where he worked for 21 years. Bill’s career at Studer’s took him to many
states where his crew handled floor-covering projects at Albertsons and Safe-
way supermarkets and at motels and condominiums. He left Studer’s to become
the leader of Local 1236.
IN HIS YEARS as financial secretary and business manager of Local 1236,
Wilkerson negotiated collective bargaining contracts with employers in Oregon
and Washington and performed all the other duties involved in running a local
union. He chaired the Western States Floor Covering Pension and Health and
Welfare Trust Funds. He served as vice president of the Columbia-Pacific Build-
ing and Construction Trades Council and was a delegate to conventions of the
Oregon and Washington State Building and Construction Trades Councils, the
Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, the Oregon AFL-CIO and meet-
ings of various central labor councils. He also attended legislative conferences in
Washington, D.C., conducted by the national AFL-CIO Building Trades De-
partment.
Within the Painters and Allied Trades International Union, Wilkerson was a
delegate to its conventions and played a principal role in rewriting apprenticeship
NLRB ruling changes definition of
supervisor, unions will be hit hard
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Re-
publican-dominated National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) voted 3-2
along party lines to slash long-time fed-
eral labor laws protecting workers’free-
dom to form unions, and opened the
door for employers to classify millions
of workers as supervisors. Under fed-
eral labor law, supervisors are prohib-
ited from forming unions.
The decision was voted on Sept. 29
but not released publicly until Oct. 3 (as
this issue of the NW Labor Press was
going to press).
The NLRB ruled on three cases, col-
lectively known as “Kentucky River,”
but it’s the lead case, Oakwood Health-
care Inc. that creates a new definition
of supervisor. The Board ruled 3-2 to
exclude “charge nurses’ who perform
clinical assignment from union rights.
In the other two cases being consid-
ered — Golden Crest and Croft Metals
— the Board ruled against redefining
workers as supervisors.
“But that reflects management not
crafting the facts in the case to the
Board’s satisfaction,” said Paul Bigman,
Western Region field organizer for Jobs
b h
m k
with Justice. “It is clear that, in the fu-
ture, management will sculpt ‘supervi-
sory’ responsibilities to meet the Oak-
wood standard; and it is equally clear
that the anti-worker Board majority will
look to apply that standard in other in-
dustries, as well.”
In Oakwood, the Board agreed with
the employer that charge nurses are su-
pervisors. But the ruling also sets broad
definitions for determining who is a su-
pervisor that invites employers to clas-
sify nurses and many low-level em-
ployees with minor authority as
supervisors, the national AFL-CIO
warned.
According to the labor federation,
the Board’s new definition essentially
enables employers to make a supervi-
sor out of any worker who has the au-
thority to assign or direct another, and
uses independent judgment.
“Amazingly, the Board also ruled
that a worker can be classified as a su-
pervisor if he or she spends as little as
10 percent to 15 percent of his or her
time overseeing the work of others,” the
AFL-CIO said.
In their dissent, NLRB members
Bennett Hartman
Morris & Kaplan, llp
Attorneys at Law
Oregon’s Full Service Union Law Firm
Representing Workers Since 1960
Serious Injury and Death Cases
• Construction Injuries
• Automobile Accidents
• Medical, Dental, and Legal Malpractice
• Bicycle and Motorcycle Accidents
• Pedestrian Accidents
• Premises Liability (injuries on premises)
• Workers’ Compensation Injuries
• Social Security Claims
Wilma Liebman and Dennis Walsh,
both Democrats, say the decision
“threatens to create a new class of
workers under federal labor law —
workers who have neither the genuine
prerogatives of management, nor the
statutory rights of ordinary employees.”
Liebman and Walsh wrote that most
professionals and other workers could
fall under the new definition of supervi-
sor, “who by 2012 could number almost
34 million, accounting for 23.3 percent
of the workforce.” They go on to say that
the Republican majority did not follow
what Congress intended in applying the
National Labor Relations Act:
“Congress cared about the precise
scope of the Act’s definition of ‘super-
visor,’and so should the Board. Instead,
the majority’s decision reflects an un-
fortunate failure to engage in the sort of
reasoned decision-making that Con-
gress expected from the Board, which
has the primary responsibility for de-
veloping and applying national labor
policy.”
Currently, the NLRB is holding up
dozens of cases that address the defini-
tion of supervisor, and 60 of those are
union election cases. These cases have
been sent back to the various regional
boards. In some of these cases, work-
ers who voted several years ago to form
a union still are waiting for their ballots
to be counted.
“The ramifications of this case are
extremely serious; the decision could
have a significant impact on the quality
of patient care and workers’rights,” the
American Federation of Teachers
Healthcare said in a press release.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
called the decisions “outrageous and
unjustified. The NLRB should protect
workers’rights, not eliminate them,” he
said. “If the Administration expects us
to take this quietly, they’re mistaken.”
Over the past five years, three of
President Bush’s appointees to the five-
person NLRB have been recess ap-
pointments that did not require Senate
confirmation.
(International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X)
Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon
as a voice of the labor movement.
4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150,
Portland, Ore. 97213
Telephone: (503) 288-3311
Fax Number: (503) 288-3320
We Work Hard for Hard-Working People!
Editor: Michael Gutwig
Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice
Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of
each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-
profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the
Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore-
gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union
members.
Group rates available to trade union organizations.
111 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 1650
Portland, Oregon 97204
(503) 227-4600
www.bennetthartman.com
CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a
change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old
and new addresses and the name and number of your local union.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS, P.O. BOX 13150-0150,
PORTLAND, OR 97213
Our Legal Staff are Proud Members of UFCW Local 555
PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID
AT PORTLAND, OREGON.
Member Press Associates Inc.
WESTERN LABOR
PRESS ASSOCIATION
(Turn to Page 11)
PAGE 2
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
OCTOBER 6, 2006