Let me say this about that
...Union trailblazer
(From Page 2)
ers and Allied Workers Union, which years later through mergers became today’s
Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union.
IN ADDITION to attending meetings of the various labor organizations with
which Local l 39 was affiliated, Marion also was active in the A. Philip Randolph
Institute, an organization which fosters black membership in labor unions. It is
named for the late president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters who was
the first black to serve on the national AFL-CIO Executive Council. Randolph
also was a prominent civil rights leader.
Willie Marion and his wife, Corrine, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary
last July. They were high school sweethearts back in Mississippi. They have two
daughters, four sons, 17 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Their daugh-
ters are Deborah Moore and Pamela Lewis; their sons are Michael, Jeffery, Ger-
ald and Ramon Marion. Michael and his family live in San Diego, Calif., and the
others live in the Portland-Vancouver area.
THE MARIONS are members of the Vancouver Avenue Baptist Church in
North Portland. Willie was an usher there for a number of years.
Sports play a big role in Willie Marion’s life. He’s been an umpire at high
school baseball games in the Portland area for 30 years, and he’s been a referee at
high school basketball games for seven years. “I have to stay in shape for all that
activity,” he said.
Fishing is another pursuit. He enjoys fishing with his sons on rivers and other
inland waters near the Oregon Coast. Sometimes the Marions are joined by Jim
Rogers, who preceded him as Local 139’s business agent and is now retired from
GMP and lives on the Coast.
Once in while, Willie and Corrine go back to the South to visit relatives and
friends.
★★★
FEBRUARY IS DESIGNATED as “Black History Month,” so let’s look back
on some events taken from the information in “Black Labor” published in “Labor
Firsts in America,” a publication issued in 1977 by the U. S. Department of Labor
when the Secretary of Labor was Ray Mar-
shall. Marshall was appointed to that Cabi-
net-level post by President Jimmy Carter.
In 1763, black chimney sweepers in
Charleston, South Carolina, refused to work
unless their price scale was met. Rather than
being a strike against emp]oyers, this was a
protest against price controls.
BLACK WORKERS in New York City
formed the American League of Colored La-
borers in 1850, which was a “first.”
In 1869, the National Labor Union be-
came the first organization of white workers
to advocate the creation of black labor
unions, and allowed blacks to attend the
A. PHILIP RANDOLPH
NLU’s annual meeting.
ALSO IN 1869, the Colored National Labor Union was formed, making it the
first national black labor organization.
In 1918, the first federal bureau to attempt to ease labor-related racial tensions
caused by blacks leaving the South was the Division of Negro Economics in the
Department of Labor.
In 1941, the first federal activity to promote fair employment practices was the
Fair Employment Practice Commission, which sought to eliminate discrimina-
tion in hiring in the defense industry.
New York became the first state to pass legislation prohibiting discrimination
in employment on the basis of race, creed or color. The year was 1945.
A. PHILIP RANDOLPH in 1957 became the first black vice president of the
national AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Orga-
nizations) and a member of its Executive Council. He was the president of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
The first federal fair employment legislation was the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
passed by Congress at the urging of President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
★★★
SEVENTY YEARS AGO, in 1937, General Motors Corp. agreed to recognize
the United Auto Workers Union of the CIO as the bargaining agent of its members
employed at GM’s Michigan plants. GM also agreed to drop court injunction pro-
ceedings against UAW strikers and to not discriminate against union members
and to establish grievance procedures.
ALSO IN 1937, United States Steel Corp. agreed to recognize the Steel Work-
ers Organizing Committee as the bargaining agent for its members employed at
U.S. Steel mills. A 10 percent raise, an eight-hour work day and a 40-hour work
week were negotiated.
(This information came from a U.S. Department of Labor 1964 booklet.)
FEBRUARY 16, 2007
OSHA safety training grants available
SALEM — The Oregon Occupa-
tional Safety and Health Division (OR-
OSHA) has grant funding available to
assist unions and others in the develop-
ment of workplace safety and health ed-
ucation programs in Oregon.
The Training and Education Grants
Program is accepting applications for
projects until Feb. 28, 2007.
Grants are awarded to help develop
education programs for use by an entire
industry or for a specific work process
to reduce or eliminate hazards. Appli-
cants may be any employer or labor
consortium, association, or other non-
profit organization. Educational institu-
tions may apply if they are affiliated
with any of these groups.
Applicants may apply for up to
$40,000 per grant project without a re-
quirement for any matching dollars or
in-kind contributions. Funding for the
grant program comes from the Work-
ers’ Benefit Fund established by the
Oregon Legislature.
All workplace safety topics are eli-
Bush pushes for Korean free trade pact
as trade deficit balloons to $763.6B
WASHINGTON, D.C. — More
than 100 union members from the
United States and Korea gathered here
Feb. 12 to protest KORUS, the pro-
posed free trade agreement between the
two countries.
The Bush Administration is pushing
for passage of KORUS before “fast-
track” authority, also known as trade-
promotion authority, expires June 30.
TPA allows the Administration to bar-
gain trade pacts and then subject legis-
lation implementing them to up-or-
down votes in both houses of Congress,
with no amendments.Without fast-
track, such trade deals will have a
harder time passing in Congress.
Based on more than 13 years’ expe-
rience with the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA), unionists
worry that trade agreements do nothing
to protect the very people they claim to
help: workers. Since 1998, more than 3
million good-paying U.S. manufactur-
ing jobs have been lost.
The AFL-CIO, Change to Win and
their affiliated unions, and Korean
unions oppose the trade deal unless it
includes enforceable provisions on
workers’ rights and environmental pro-
tections.
On Feb. 13, the Commerce Depart-
ment reported that the U.S. trade deficit
(the gap between what America sells
abroad and what it imports) rose to a
record $763.6 billion last year — a 6.5
percent increase from the previous
record set in 2005.
...Unlikely allies partner
(From Page 1)
benefits for employees — both current
and retired — and their families. It
forces many businesses to compete not
on the quality of their products, serv-
ices and performance, but instead on
the cost of health care benefits. It is
long past time to move health care —
a public good — from the corporate
balance sheet to the public balance
sheet.”
The crisis is solvable, the group de-
clared, only if “business, government,
labor, the health care delivery system
and the nonprofit sector work to-
gether” around four principles of
health care: quality affordable health
insurance for all; individual responsi-
bility “to maintain and protect their
health;” dramatically more efficient
health care spending; and that “busi-
nesses, governments, and individuals
all should contribute to managing and
financing a new health care system.”
Stern said the “partnership of un-
likely allies offers even greater hope
that we can finally stop talking about
health care and do something about it.”
gible for consideration; however, pref-
erence is given to programs that support
two goals listed in the OR-OSHA
Strategic Plan:
• Change the workplace culture in
Oregon by increasing employer and
worker awareness.
• Improve workplace safety and
health for all workers, as evidenced by
fewer hazards, reduced exposures, and
fewer injuries, illnesses and fatalities.
Materials produced by grant recipi-
ents become the property of OR-
OSHA, and are housed in the OR-
OSHA Resource Center for public use.
Application packets for the OR-
OSHA Training and Education Grants
Program are available for download
from the OR-OSHA Web site at:
www.orosha.org, on the “Education”
page. For more information, call Clau-
dia Marthaller at 1-800-922-2689.
Tickets on sale to
win motorcycle and
help sick children
Tickets are on sale to win a new
Harley-Davidson motorcycle and raise
funds for Doernbecher Children’s Hos-
pital in Portland.
It’s all part of the fifth annual Mo-
torcycle Poker Run and Chili Cook-Off,
to be held Saturday, June 9. The event is
sponsored by “Unions for Kids,” a non-
profit organization comprised of mem-
bers of various unions in Portland and
Southwest Washington.
Tickets to win the motorcycle — a
2007 suede blue and black Dyna Low-
Rider FXDL — are $10 each. Only
3,500 tickets will be sold, with the win-
ner drawn following the poker run on
June 9. The motorcycle is on display at
the IBEW United Workers Federal
Credit Union, 9955 SE Washington, St.,
Portland.
For more information, go to
www.unionsforkids.org or call Lee
Duncan at 503-260-5905.
IRS PROBLEMS?
•Haven’t filed for...years?
• Lost records?
•Liens-Levies-Garnishments?
•Fees are affordable
• Appointments available
evenings & weekends
• Working with union members
for over 20 years
Call Nancy D. Anderson
Enrolled Agent/Tax Practitioner
503-697-7757
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 11