What’s
Happening
Union Food Bank
asks for funds to
feed less fortunate
The holiday season is here and
once again the Carpenters Food Bank
is appealing for cash donations to help
feed those in need.
The all-volunteer food bank, now
in its 24th year, is housed in the base-
ment of the union hall at 2205 N.
Lombard, Portland. The food bank
feeds 450 to 500 families the third Fri-
day each month, said Mike Fahey,
who along with his wife Sandy, coor-
dinates the program.
“Regardless of what we hear in the
news, things are not getting better for
everyone, especially our seniors on
fixed income and the unemployed,”
said Mike Fahey, a former executive
secretary-treasurer of the Portland
Metal Trades Council and member of
Pile Drivers, Divers and Shipwrights
Local 2416.
The November food boxes will be
distributed Nov. 17. The Christmas
food box distribution will take place
Friday, Dec. 15.
Fahey is hoping for cash donations
to help purchase food items — includ-
ing meat and turkeys — at bulk rate
prices.
The food bank started in 1983 with
the intent of operating for three or four
months to weather strikes in the com-
munity. It continues to this day. Con-
tributions can be sent to: Food Bank,
P.O. Box 17358, Portland OR 97217.
L ABOR
AND
P OLITICAL
NEWS FR OM AR OUND THE
sellers, publishers and political organi-
zations will participate. All donations
collected will be used to help establish
the Glaberman Memorial Library.
Consisting of over 5,000 books, pam-
phlets and papers, the Glaberman Li-
brary is the largest independent Labor
Library in the United States. Now in
storage, the Glaberman Library will
soon be a resource for activists.
For more information, about Joe
Hill Night, call Jim Cook at 503-703-
1693. For more information about the
book fair, contact Nick Neumann at
503-282-0863.
of all ages to the NOLC office at 1125
SE Madison, Suite 100-D, Portland,
no later than Friday, Dec. 15.
Gifts will be distributed Saturday,
Dec. 16, at 1 p.m. at Genesis Commu-
nity Center, 5425 NE 27th off
Killingsworth.
PDC to decide on
construction wages
at Dec. 6 meeting
The Portland Development Com-
mission held its third and final work
session Nov. 9 to consider whether or
not it should set wage standards on
public-private construction projects
that it helps finance.
The PDC Board has heard testi-
mony from workers, contractors,
union officials, apprenticeship coordi-
nators and bureaucrats over the past
three months.
The board will announce its plans
at its regularly-scheduled board meet-
ing Wednesday, Dec. 6, at 8 a.m. The
wage study will be combined with
regular PDC business, plus a report on
diversity and contracting performance
on PDC projects.
Health care forum
in Portland Nov. 29
The second “Health Care Forum
for Labor Leaders” is scheduled for
Wednesday, Nov. 29, from 2-5 p.m. at
the headquarters of Oregon AFSCME
Council 75, 6025 E. Burnside, Port-
land. Unionists will look at goals for
changing the health care system and
discuss health care reforms they
might pursue in the 2007 Oregon
Legislature. For more information,
contact Laurie or Eliana at 503-236-
5573 or email laurie@jwjpdx.org.
2007 labor history
conference will be
held in Portland
Small explosion stops Macy’s renovation
Construction workers at Macy’s downtown Portland department store were
evacuated from the job Nov. 7 after an electrical switch gear in the basement
exploded, setting off a small fire and cutting electricity to the century-old
building. Formerly the Meier & Frank flagship store, the building was sold
and is undergoing a multi-million-dollar renovation. The first five floors will
be Macy’s. The general contractor is S.D. Deacon. The upper 10 stories will
be a $117 million luxury hotel. The contractor on that portion of the project
is Hoffman Construction. Both projects are a mix of union and nonunion
subcontractors.The Portland Development Commission provided $15.5
million in historic preservation tax credits and a $13.9 million low interest
loan for the project, which later was determined not to fall under state
prevailing wage laws. Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 picketed the Macy’s
portion of the project Nov. 3 for area standard wage violations. The union
was targeting plumbing contractor JRT Mechanical of Battle Ground,
Washington, said Local 290 Organizer Don Kool. Kool was checking on
Macy’s Nov. 7 when workers began pouring out of the building. He grabbed
his camera and took the photo above.
conference or to register, call Oregon
OSHA’s Conference Section at 503-
378-3272 or 888-292-5247 option
one, or visit the Web page at
www.orosha.org/conferences.
Free ‘Holiday Party
for Children’ slated Portland hosts pulp 11th annual labor
and paper industry law conference
Dec. 2 in Salem
scheduled Jan. 19
SALEM — The 66th annual “Holi- safety conference
day Party for Children” will be held at
10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, at the Elsi-
nor Theatre, 170 High St. SE, Salem.
The free event sponsored by the
Marion, Polk, Yamhill Counties Labor
Council will feature Santa Claus, holi-
day songs with the Patrick Lamb
Band, a showing of “Garfield, A Tail
of Two Kitties,” and goody bags.
Doors open at 9:45 a.m.
Labor’s Yuletide
toy drive needs
gifts by Dec. 15
Labor’s Community Service
Agency and the Northwest Oregon
Labor Council, AFL-CIO, will hold
their 10th annual Presents from Part-
ners Holiday Toy Drive for underprivi-
leged children.
Bring unwrapped gifts for children
PAGE 4
P A C I F I C N O R T H W E S T
The 16th annual Western Pulp and
Paper Workers Safety and Health Con-
ference will be held Tuesday, Nov. 28
through Friday, Dec. 1 at the Red Lion
Hotel on the River-Jantzen Beach in
Portland.
Leadership consultant and safety
professional Steve Williams will give
the keynote speech on Nov. 28. In his
address, “Keeping Negative Emotion
and Poor Morale from Damaging Your
Safety Process,” Williams will explain
how negative emotion and poor
morale have a direct impact on safety.
Registration for the conference is
$185. The single day rate is $75 or at
tend the Friday general session meet-
ing for $15. An awards banquet on
Wednesday, Nov. 29, will honor sig-
nificant contributions to safety and
health in the pulp, paper, and convert-
ing industries. Tickets are $20.
For more information about the
Mark your calendars for the 11th
annual Oregon Labor Law Conference
Friday, Jan. 19, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. A
location has not yet been determined.
The conference is sponsored by the
Oregon AFL-CIO, Electrical Workers
Local 48 and the Columbia-Pacific
Building Trades Council and is de-
signed for business managers, business
agents, organizers and union officers to
get the latest information to avoid legal
liability and to better serve members,
said organizer Norman Malbin, general
counsel for Local 48.
This year’s conference will feature a
panel on the recent Kentucky River de-
cision by the National Labor Relations
Board. On that panel will be Richard
Ahearn, regional director of the NLRB
in Seattle. Ahearn was one of the board
members who ruled initially that
nurses are employees and not supervi-
sors. That ruling was appealed to the
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
U.S. Supreme Court and remanded
back to the NLRB, which last month
ruled that nurses can be supervisors.
For more information about the
conference or to register, call Donna
Marshall at 503-889-3660 .
The 2007 Pacific Northwest Labor
History Association conference will be
held in Portland May 4-5 at the Electri-
cal Workers Local 48 Hall, 15937 NE
Airport Way.
The theme will be “A New Look at
Solidarity: International Connections.”
The organization is looking for pro-
posals for academic research, panels,
individual presentations, interactive
workshops, drama, music, video, art
and memorabilia related to the confer-
ence theme.
“We prefer interactive sessions and
discourage the reading of papers,” said
Ross Rieder, president. “We encourage
proposals that link history with current
issues, and especially welcome sub-
missions that address immigrant work-
ers, organizing strategies, contributions
to the advancement of labor through
the arts, broadcast media, and journal-
ism, and more,” he said.
Proposals should include a short
summary and a list of all presenters
and be sent to Rieder by Jan. 13, 2007,
at the abovementioned e-mail address.
Joe Hill Night, book Union delegation
on mission in
fair Nov. 19 in
South America
North Portland
The 17th annual Joe Hill Night will
be held at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19, at
Liberty Hall, 311 N. Ivy, Portland (one
block South of Fremont, two blocks
West of Vancouver St.). The suggested
donation is $3 to $10.
Local bands “General Strike” and
“The Joe Hillbillies” will perform rab-
ble-rousing songs interspersed with
dramatic readings of action inspiring
stories of Joe Hill and the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW).
A Portland tradition since 1990,
Joe Hill Night celebrates the world-fa-
mous IWW organizer and songwriter.
Hill, well known for his many labor
songs, was organizing miners in Utah
when bosses had him framed for mur-
der. He was executed by firing squad
on Nov. 19, 1915.
IWW also is hosting a Radical
Book Fair at Liberty Hall starting at 2
p.m. Twenty new and used book-
A delegation of eight union ac-
tivists from Oregon and Washington is
traveling in Venezuela and Colombia
Nov. 9-20, meeting with workers, ac-
tivists and government officials to hear
about the lethal threats Colombian
union organizers face, and find out
how Venezuelan workers and the labor
movement have fared since the 1998
election of President Hugo Chavez.
The mission is sponsored by the
Portland Central America Solidarity
Committee. The delegation — which
includes members of the Interna-
tional Longshore and Warehouse
Union Locals 4 and 8, AFSCME Lo-
cal 88, Service Employees Local 503,
Carpenters Local 1065, the Oregon
Education Association and the Associ-
ation of Western Pulp and Paper
Workers — will report its findings at 7
p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 5 at Carpenters
Local 247, 2215 N. Lombard St., Port-
land.
NOVEMBER 17, 2006