Let me say this about that
—By Gene Klare
John Klein dies at 67
JOHN JAMES KLEIN, a retired business agent of Portland Teamsters Local
305 who devoted decades to public service, died of leukemia on Feb. 8, 2007. He
was 67. Klein was the current president of the Northwest Oregon Labor Retirees
Council, which is affiliated with the NW Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He
also held the presidency of the Teamster Retirees and was a trustee of the Oregon
Chapter of the labor-backed Alliance for Retired Americans.
A Funeral Mass was conducted for him on
Feb. 13 at the Our Lady of the Lake Catholic
Church in Lake Oswego, where he was a mem-
ber for decades.
KLEIN WAS BORN on Aug. 6, 1939 in
Anamoose, North Dakota, the youngest of 11
children. The family moved to Portland in 1941.
He graduated from Lincoln High School in 1957
and the next year married Helen Smith. After
their marriage they made their home in Lake Os-
wego. Mrs. Klein worked for 38 years at Con-
solidated Freightways as a member of Office and
Professional Employees Local 11.
Klein was a member of several locals in the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
JOHN KLEIN
before joining Local 305 while driving a trans-
port truck for Franz Bakery. He was elected as
Local 305’s business agent when Frank Kies retired, and held that post for 20 years
until retiring in l996.
HE REPRESENTED the IBT as a volunteer with the Portland Police Bureau’s
Sunshine Division, which helps the needy, for nearly 30 years. He served for 11
years with the Lake Oswego Police Reserves, earning the rank of lieutenant. He was
longest-tenured member of the Clackamas County Water Commission, with 30
years on that board representing the Rivergrove Water District. He spent eight years
on the governor-appointed Oregon State Mortuary and Cemetery Board. He repre-
sented the IBT for many years on the Portland Rose Festival’s Board of Directors.
He was a volunteer in the Teamsters Credit Union for years; and raised funds for the
Elks Lodge Children’s Eye Clinic while holding leadership posts in the lodge. He’s
a past president of Oregon State University’s Dads Club.
Survivors include his wife, Helen; two daughters, Chris Taylor of Beaverton, and
Lori Weed of Snohomish, Wash.; six grandchildren, Erica, Anna, Matthew David,
Tony, Nolan and Matthew Wesley; two sisters, Katherine Zurcher of Portland; and
Loretta Marovich of Lake Oswego; three brothers, William Klein of Portland, Al
Klein of Prineville and Lawrence Klein of Bend; and numerous nieces and
nephews.
Memorial contributions can be sent to the Children’s Eye Clinic, c/o Oregon
State Elks Association, P.O. Box 189, Salem OR 97308.
Arrangements were by the Riverview Abbey Funeral Home.
★★★
THE LABOR HONOR ROLL was started by the Northwest Labor Press to
give posthumous recognition to union members of yesteryear. The Labor Hall of
Fame sponsored by the Northwest Oregon Labor Retirees Council honors retired
union activists while they are still living.
In this issue, the Labor Honor Roll will spotlight two unionists who were active
in the 1950s, ’60s and into the ’70s.
SYLVESTER McCULLUMN was both a union leader and a church leader.
He was a business representative of Ship Scalers and Auto Painters Local 1404, one
of the few black union activists at that time. I met him in late 1962 shortly after I
started working full-time for the Labor Press, for which Jim Goodsell was the edi-
tor. I had started doing free-lance writing for Jim in 1960, a few months after the
start of the strike against the Newhouse-owned Oregonian and the then-locally-
owned Oregon Journal.
Unions want to bargain safety issues for
corrections guards, police, firefighters
SALEM — Labor unions are lob-
bying lawmakers to pass a bill that
would make workplace safety issues a
subject of contract negotiations for
corrections officers, police and fire-
fighters.
Senate Bill 400 and House Bill
2404 are identical bills working their
way through their respective cham-
bers.
In 1995, the Republican-controlled
Legislature made changes to the public
employee collective bargaining law,
stripping unions’ right to make safety a
mandatory subject of bargaining. Now
that Democrats are in control, union
leaders are trying to restore that right.
“Employees who deal with flames,
criminals or convicts as part of their
daily work environment surely deserve
to talk about safety issues in bargain-
ing,” said Oregon AFL-CIO Political
Director Duke Shepard in testimony
before the Senate Commerce Com-
mittee last month.
Management is opposing both bills,
claiming that the potential cost of bar-
gaining staffing issues could bankrupt
some districts.
b h
m k
Public safety employees are forbid-
den to strike and instead contract dis-
putes go to binding arbitration.
“The costs of SB 400 won’t be
known for years, depending on arbitra-
tor rulings,” said Tillamook County
Commissioner Tim Josi, a former De-
mocratic state legislator.
Oregon State Fire Fighters lobbyist
Bob Livingston discounted those
claims in earlier testimony, reminding
committee members that allowing the
subject of safety and staffing to be
brought to the bargaining table doesn’t
mean the union automatically gets its
way. “It just opens an important dis-
cussion,” he said.
Randy Ridderbusch, an AFSCME
staff rep and former Food Service co-
ordinator for the Department of Cor-
rections, said it’s always more costly
to take corrective safety action after
the fact than it is to pro-actively ad-
dress safety concerns ahead of time.
“Years ago, one of our members
had to be beaten with a free weight bar
before the Legislature stepped in and
passed our bill to ban free weights in
the prisons,” Ridderbusch told law-
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
makers. “Numerous officers had to be
stabbed before we passed a bill provid-
ing for safety vests. These were issues
we could have talked about in bargain-
ing if we were allowed to do so.”
To illustrate how heated this issue
has become, the Portland City Council
on Feb. 21 postponed voting on a reso-
lution supporting the rights of safety
employees to bargain safety issues be-
cause the council, in a highly-charged
discussion, was divided on the word-
ing.
The resolution — co-sponsored by
Randy Leonard, a former Fire Fighters
Union president, and Erik Sten —
sought to change the city’s position of
opposition to SB 400 and HB 2404 to
that of supporting the legislation.
The proposed resolution would “re-
flect the City’s high regard for the
safety of police and fire personnel, as
well as the City’s high regard for the
collective bargaining rights of its
workers.”
Mayor Tom Potter opposed the res-
olution and the bills in the Legislature.
Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer also
testified at City Hall against the resolu-
tion. “I want to make clear, I’m not
anti-union,” Sizer said. “I’ve been a
union member all my adult working
life.”
However, she told commissioners
that a labor leader told her that “de-
mand to bargain letters would be fly-
ing” if the bills are passed in Salem
“Senate Bill 400 is too broad. I don’t
support it,” she said.
Leonard and Sten emphasized that
their resolution didn’t focus on any
specific bill before the Legislature, but
merely for the council to support a
safety officers’ right to talk about job
safety issues with management.
“I’m disappointed to hear what I’m
hearing today,” Leonard said.
Leonard and Sten agreed to re-
write the resolution and bring it back
to the council.
(Editor’s Note: Don Loving, public
affairs director of Oregon AFSCME
Council 75, contributed to this report.)
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
MARCH 2, 2007