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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 2007)
Inside MEETING NO TICES See Page 6 V olume 108 Number 9 May 4, 2007 P ortland ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ May 15, 2007 Special Election Recommendations From The NW Oregon Labor Council C I T Y O F P O R T L A N D B A L L O T M E A S U R E S Oppose Measure 26-89 — Amends City Charter: Requires City to appoint a Charter Review Commission and periodically review City Charter . Oppose Measure 26-90 — Amends Charter: Revises Civil Service provisions. Oppose Measure 26-91 — Amends Charter: Changes government from a “commission form” to “strong mayor.” Support Measure 26-92 — Amends Charter: In- creases oversight of Portland Development Commission. ≈ P O R T L A N D S C H O O L B O A R D Ruth Adkins, Zone 1 Michele Schultz, Zone 2 M U L T N O M A H E D U C A T I O N S E R V I C E D I S T R I C T Zak Johnson, At-Large, Position 2 S A L E M - K E I Z E R S C H O O L B O A R D Chuck Lee C L A C K A M A S F I R E D I S T R I C T Marilyn Wall, Position 1 James Doane, Position 3 Dave McTeague, Position 5 Fired Portland school custodians settle Mike Towner, Position 1 Brian Wolfe, Position 2 T U A L A T I N V A L L E Y F I R E & R E S C U E Sandi Jabs, Position 4 W O O D B U R N F I R E & R E S C U E Aaron Baker, Position 3 O F S T . H E L E N S Earl Fisher, Position 4 Authorized and paid for by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council ★ ★ ★ 1125 SE Madison St., Portland, OR 97214 ★ ★ ★ ★ Vernon Brazzle leads a crowd of about 150 letter carriers and their allies in a rendition of “We Shall Not Be Moved” during informational picketing April 16 at Portland’s Main Post Office downtown. The National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82 is protesting U.S. Postal Service efforts to contract out more delivery routes. “Low-wage, no- benefit, non-career mail delivery is not our idea of how to provide customer service and protect the mail,” said L.C. Hansen, president of Branch 82. In solidarity with same-day picketing at the U.S. Postal Service headquarters in Washington, D.C., local letter carriers urged Congress to pass House Resolution 282, which calls on the USPS to discontinue contracting out mail delivery services. Pressure to privatize mail delivery is coming from the national Postal Board of Governors, appointed by President Bush. (Photo courtesy of Jamie Partridge) For $14.5 million M O L A L L A R U R A L F I R E D I S T R I C T P O R T Letter Carriers protest outsourcing ★ By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor Portland Public Schools (PPS) will pay about $37,000 each to 280 custo- dians it fired in summer of 2002, as part of a $14.5 million settlement to a class-action lawsuit. The out-of-court settlement was negotiated by lawyers for the two sides and approved by the School Board at a special April 23 meeting. The firings came about when the district outsourced its custodial jobs to a lower-wage, lower-benefit private janitorial contractor. The union representing the custodi- ans — Service Employees Interna- tional Union (SEIU)—challenged the firings in court, and in October 2005 the Oregon Supreme Court agreed that the outsourcing violated a 1937 law requiring PPS custodians to be hired through civil service procedures. The ruling in that case, known as Walter v. Scherzinger, meant the dis- trict would be liable for back pay in the class-action lawsuit, known as McWilliams v. Public School District. PPS’ liability continued to grow until October 2006 — when the district re- hired 124 custodians who accepted an offer of recall. At that point, custodians’ attorneys met with over 200 individuals to tally up damages, which came to $25.5 million. The figure included four-plus years of the wages and benefits they would have made at the district, minus whatever they had earned elsewhere during that period, plus whatever health care costs they’d had to pay be- cause they weren’t on the district’s health plan. In January, PPS hired Resolution Counsel, a law firm specializing in out-of-court settlements. On the other side, Mark Griffin, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, brought in Portland class-action specialist Robert Stoll to lead settlement negotiations. When the two sides sat down to bargain a settlement, the district had its own estimate of the damages — (Turn to Page 4)
