Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2007)
Let me say this about that Congress should restore ...Don Chandler dies at 63 freedom to choose union (From Page 2) Until his retirement in the early 1970s, Reverend McCullumn was a pastor at the Morning Side Missionary Baptist Church at 106 NE Ivy St. That is the historic church that burned down a month ago, on Feb. 5-6, 2007, in a fire that is still under investigation. HENRY McCARTHY, the executive secretary-treasurer of the Portland and Vicinity Metal Trades Council, introduced me to Rev. McCullumn. The two were discussing Local 1404’s business when I stopped in at McCarthy’s office in the old Portland Labor Temple. The venerable House of Labor, situated at Southwest Fourth Ave. and Jefferson St., diagonally across from City Hall, was the headquarters for the Portland labor movement ftom 1922 until mid-June of 1966 when it gave way to the new Portland Labor Center at 201 SW Arthur St., which was lost in a mortgage foreclosure in 1978. McCullumn had succeeded McCarthy as business agent for Local 1404 in 1958 when Henry was elected as the leader of the Metal Trades Council. After World War II service on U.S. Navy submarines, McCarthy worked as a business agent for several unions — Ship Scalers and Auto Painters Local 1404, Sign Painters Local 428 and the Hardwood Finishers Union. McCARTHY DIED of a heart attack at age 60 in 1976. He had served for many years on the Oregon AFL-CIO Executive Board. There is enough space left to mention another unionist who rates space on the La- bor Honor Roll. He is Bruce Baer, who worked as a member of Portland Newspa- per Guild Local 165 and as a member and Portland Chapter Executive Board mem- ber of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. BRUCE BAER joined Local 165 when he went to work as a reporter for the strike-born Portland Daily Reporter right after he graduated from Portland State University where he was the editor of The Vanguard newspaper. He did not come out of the city’s newspaper strike but enlisted in the strikers’ crusade for a free press in Portland. After a couple of years he accepted the opportunity to become a reporter at KATU-TV, Portland’s Channel 2. He covered politics and the Oregon Legislature with a perception that gained him a host of viewers and listeners. He also wrote editorials for K2, and he was a reg- ular on an OPB Channel 10 news analysis roundtable. BAER DIED of cancer in August 1977 just weeks short of his 41st birthday. Later on, when Bud Clark was mayor of the Rose City, he kept a framed photo of Bruce on his office wall at City Hall. ★★★ DONLEY G. CHANDLER, a former business manager of Portland Boiler- makers Local 72, died Feb. 7, 2007 at age 63. He was afflicted with both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. He was born in Portland on June 11, 1943. He later served in the U. S. Air Force. HE JOINED LOCAL 72 while working as a boilermaker and a welder in the shipyards on Port- land’s Swan Island. Later, he served for 10 years as the business manager and secretary-treasurer of Lo- cal 72. That local has since merged into Boiler- makers Local 500 of Portland. He aso served as executive director of the Am Vets organization for two years. SURVIVORS INCLUDE his wife, Cherie Macknight, whom he married in 2003; a son, Daniel G. Chandler; two stepchildren, Joaquin M. DON CHANDLER Baca and Darcy A. Macknight; three grandchil- dren; and a brother, Harvey D. Chandler. Memorial contributions can be sent to AmVets. Funeral arrangements were han- dled by Rose City Funeral Home and Cemetery in Northeast Portland. ★★★ LOUIS DAY of Portland, a retired school custodian, died on Feb. 5, 2007 at age 69. He worked for the Portland School District from 1990 until the summer of 2002 when he was forced into early retirement because district officials contracted-out custodial services to a private firm. He was an active member of School Employees Local 140 of the Service Employees International Union and was active in SEIU Lo- cal 503 as an associate member after the international merged Local 140 into 503. Day was born on July 7, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois. The family later moved to Portland, where he graduated from Holy Rosary School. HIS HOBBIES included collecting antiques, attending swap meets with other collectors and dining at all-you-can-eat restaurants. Survivors include his daughter, Leasia Day; grandchildren Jenaree Porter and Marisha Day; first cousins Wanda Crawford of San Diego, Calif., Gwendolyn Bow- ers and Marguerite Bowers of Dayton, Ohio. His funeral was conducted on Feb. 10 at Cox & Cox Chapel in Northeast Port- land. MARCH 2, 2007 By RICK BENDER President Washington State Labor Council In America, we are supposed to have the freedom of association. At our jobs, that translates to the freedom to choose whether we want to organize a union and bargain collectively. But the federal labor law that is supposed to guarantee that freedom has been chipped away for decades, and now employers routinely deny workers this freedom of association. Current law says Americans have the right to choose unionization free from intimidation, harassment and co- ercion by their employers. But in real- ity, enforcement is so weak and the penalties so small that employers rou- tinely ignore the law. Some threaten to close plants. Others just fire union sup- porters. Some simply ignore that a union election has taken place and re- fuse to negotiate a first contract. Who’s to stop them? There are no police assigned to stop this type of ille- gal activity. Some, but not all, unions can afford to pursue a legal complaint- and-appeals process that takes years on behalf of illegally fired workers who technically aren’t even their members. If they succeed, maybe the employer will have to pay some back wages. Too many employers are willing to pay that price to prevent their workers from getting a union contract. It’s got- ten so bad that about one of every five union supporters can expect to be ille- gally fired as a result of their union ac- tivity, according to the Center for Eco- nomic and Policy Research. “Aggressive actions by employers — often including illegal firings — have significantly undermined the abil- ity of U.S. workers to unionize their workplaces,” says the study released this year. “With the legal penalties for such actions being so slight, employ- ers can break the law to head-off or- ganizing efforts and face almost no real repercussions.” It’s time for us to stand up and say, enough is enough! We are Americans, and we will not have our freedoms and our right to collective bargaining taken away by union-busting corporate attor- neys, nor by a government that turns a blind eye to their illegal activities. The new Congress aims to level the playing field and restore the freedom to choose unionization through the Em- ployee Free Choice Act. The EFCA would establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and it would provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract dis- putes. But most importantly, it would allow workers to form unions by sign- ing cards authorizing union representa- tion. This would help avoid worksite elections where employees are rou- tinely pressured, harassed and manipu- lated by their employers. Corporate lobbyists who oppose the EFCA say they want to preserve “secret ballot elections.” Of course they do. These “elections,” which are scheduled by the government after a majority of workers have already indi- cated they want a union, give employ- Open Forum ers several months to harass and intim- idate captive employees into voting “no.” Imagine an election where a politi- cal candidate could force you to attend meetings bashing his or her opponent and could also threaten your family’s livelihood, and you begin to get the idea. These elections are a joke, and the deck is severely stacked against work- ers. More than half of all Americans say they would like to organize a union at their workplace, according to a new survey by Peter D. Hart Research As- sociates. Why wouldn’t they? Union members make more money, are more likely to get health and retirement ben- efits, and have better job security. And yet, the overall U.S. unioniza- tion rate continued its decades-long de- cline in 2006 to 12.0 percent, as union membership dropped 326,000 to about 15.4 million. The EFCA, which was introduced earlier this month, is co-sponsored by 234 U.S. Representatives, including Washington Reps. Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith. “The Employee Free Choice Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation we will address,” says Rep. Smith (D-Tacoma). “Our worker pro- tections have slowly deteriorated as the National Labor Relations Board fails time and again to preserve workers’ right to organize. We are long overdue in strengthening our federal labor laws and the Employee Free Choice Act is a monumental step in the right direc- tion.” It’s time to take that step. It’s time for our bosses to butt out of union elec- tions, so working people have a real opportunity to make up their own minds. ...Bush budget hits Oregonians hard (From Page 10) significantly. Under the budget, these funds nationally would be 40 percent smaller in 2008 than in 2001. • Cut Oregon’s community devel- opment funding by $7.5 million next year and by $44.5 million over the next five years. The Community De- velopment Block Grant (CDBG) helps fund a range of community develop- ment projects in Oregon including housing and homeless programs, im- provements to public facilities such as senior and youth centers, and eco- nomic development. Although CDBG already has seen substantial funding cuts in recent years, the Administra- tion’s budget would slash it by an ad- ditional 21 percent nationally in 2008 and more in later years. • Eliminate grants that assist state NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS and local law enforcement in Oregon, costing Oregon $11 million in funding next year and $58 million over the next five years. The budget would re- place a program that supports crime prevention and corrections activities, and a program which helps offset the cost of incarcerating undocumented immigrants, with two much smaller competitive grant programs. The new programs would receive only about half the funding of the programs they replace. While some states would qualify for funding under the new competitive programs, there is no way to know how the funds would be dis- tributed. In addition to the proposals in the president’s budget, Congress faces other budget and program decisions important to Oregon. The Food Stamp Program and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, known by its initials SCHIP, are both up for re- newal in 2007. “Congress must take this opportu- nity to strengthen these highly suc- cessful programs so they can help more of those who need assistance,” Bauer said. “Oregon’s success in re- ducing its hunger rate has hinged pri- marily on an expansion of the state’s food stamp program. These gains are now threatened by the proposed cuts,” she added. The SCHIP program has helped re- duce the share of low-income children in Oregon who are uninsured. “Oregon will need additional funds in coming years to reach the goal of insuring all of the state’s children so they get the health care they need,” Bauer said. PAGE 11
