Let me say this about that
—By Gene Klare
Lefties and laborites
MICHAEL MUNK’S book about Rose City radicals and their right-wing an-
tagonists includes some widely-known people who spent time tilling Portland’s
grass-roots. The just-published book, a decade in the researching and writing, went
on sale this week.
“The Portland Red Guide: Sites & Stories from Our Radical Past” reached the
shelves of The Great Northwest Bookstore on May 1 — May Day. The store’s
corner, 3314 SW First Ave., at Gibbs St., was the
scene of a May Day evening program featuring
comments by Munk and music by General
Strike, a band made up of members and retirees
of various unions who perform at strike rallies
and other union events.
Portland State University’s Ooligan Press
published the book. The illustrated book runs to
256 pages and sells for $16.95. Author Munk is
a retired political science professor who returned
to Portland after a career on the faculty at New
Jersey’s Rutgers University. Upon his graduation
from Portland’s Lincoln High School in 1952,
Munk won a scholarship from the Oregon State
Federation of Labor, which later became the
MICHAEL MUNK
Oregon AFL-CIO. He attended Reed College in
Southeast Portland, where his father, Dr. Frank
Munk, was a faculty member. Mike served in the U.S. Army before beginning his
career in the East.
OF JOE HILL, who became known worldwide as a labor troubadour and mar-
tyr, Munk’s book reported: “In late l910, the Wobbly organizer and songwriter Joe
Hill wrote a letter to The Industrial Worker, the IWW newspaper, identifying him-
self as a member of the Portland Local, signing the first documented use of his
name ... which would later become known throughout the world. He mentioned
traveling through Pendleton, and denounced Portland police attacks on Wobblies
and other workers in the Portland area. Hill rose in the IWW organization and trav-
eled widely, organizing workers under the IWW banner, writing political songs
and satirical poems, and making speeches until he was murdered by the State of
Utah in l915. One of his best-known songs, ‘The Preacher and the Slave,’ was first
introduced in Portland shortly after his letter was published in l910.”
Munk’s research in putting Hill in Portland coincides with much earlier research
by Chicago labor historian William Adelman, who wrote that Hill joined the In-
dustrial Workers of the World in Portland in 1910. Other accounts of Hill’s life
claim that he joined the IWW in 1910 in the waterfront town of San Pedro, near Los
Angeles. This column has long ago said Hill might have joined in both places, that
he could have lost his San Pedro membership card in his boxcar travels and joined
again in Portland to get a new card. He probably was in the audience in Portland on
Oct. 23, 1910 when Wobbly co-founder Eugene Victor Debs of Indiana made a
stirring two-hour speech. Before using the Joe Hill name, the Wobbly organizer
was known as Joseph Hillstrom, but he was born in Sweden as Joel Hagglund in
1879. Hillstrom and Hill were names he used to thwart employer blacklists of the
militant IWW’s members.
ANOTHER NAME in Munk’s book, U.S. Army Colonel Charles Erskine Scott
Wood, better known as C.E.S. Wood, bears mentioning now because he also prob-
ably was in the Portland audience to hear Debs speak. A multi-faceted man, Wood
was a soldier, lawyer, poet, artist and writer.
ALTHOUGH A LEADER in Portland’s civic scene, Wood also had a radical
side. He lawyered for the Wobblies and other unions and was a lawyer and occa-
sional editorial writer for this newspaper, the Labor Press, back in the days when it
was the Portland Labor Press and later the Oregon Labor Press. It became the
Northwest Labor Press two decades ago.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, to whom Joe Hill dedicated “The Rebel Girl,” written
Freightliner cutbacks have ripple effects
at several local manufacturing suppliers
With Freightliner shifting truck
production to Mexico, the company’s
workers aren't the only ones affected.
In Saltillo, Mexico, where Freight-
liner is spending $300 million to build
a new truck plant, the company ex-
pects to hire 1,600 workers. Compa-
nies that supply Freightliner are also
putting $125 million of new invest-
ment into Saltillo, and it’s expected
1,100 workers will be employed indi-
rectly when production begins in
2009.
On this side of the border, when
Freightliner sent 802 Portland union
workers packing March 30, hundreds
of workers at other companies also felt
the sting.
Consolidated Metco, Inc., which
supplies aluminum castings used in
truck hubs, laid off 24 members of
Machinists Lodge 1432 at its North
Portland plant — about two-fifths of
its workforce there. Late last year the
company also laid off 17 union mem-
bers at its Clackamas, Oregon, plant,
which makes aluminum die cast prod-
ucts.
Auto Truck Transport, which ships
b h
m k
finished trucks, laid off about 50 Ma-
chinist Lodge 63 -represented drivers
and shop crew simultaneous to the
Freightliner layoffs at Swan Island.
About 75 workers remain.
Molded Fiber Glass, a 28-employee
nonunion Stevenson, Wash., manufac-
turer, made hoods and roof caps for
Freightliner sleeper cabs. Company
officials wouldn’t comment on the lost
business, but the Daily Columbian re-
ported that it depended on Freightliner
for a large share of its sales.
Other affected nonunion businesses
include Trim Systems, a subsidiary of
Commercial Vehicle Group, which
makes upholstery and plastic trim at a
Vancouver, Washington facility; and
WW Metal Fab in Milwaukie, Oregon,
which makes bumpers and grilles and
zinc phosphate coatings for Freight-
liner military vehicles. WW bought its
machines from Freightliner when the
truck maker closed its parts plant.
Several local Freightliner suppliers
may weather the lost business. Non-
union Paramount Mattress Company
in Tualatin, Oregon, made mattresses
for the Freightliner sleeper cabs.
Bennett Hartman
Morris & Kaplan, llp
Attorneys at Law
Oregon’s Full Service Union Law Firm
Representing Workers Since 1960
Though its business with Freightliner
will drop by 60 percent, company
president Nels Lewis said they haven’t
had to lay off any employees because
they saw it coming and diversified
with other business in the last two
years. Service Steel, which makes
parts for Freightliner, also said it won’t
be negatively impacted by the shift in
production, because it will ship the
parts it makes to Mexico.
The ripple effect also extends to
companies outside manufacturing. The
7-11, Subway and McDonalds down
the street from the Swan Island plant
saw a drop in sales. The vending ma-
chine supplier at the company cafete-
ria, who works on commission, lost
business, as did the food carts that set
up outside the plant gate. Kaiser Per-
manente, Cigna and Blue Cross,
which provided health coverage, will
lose business.
While it may be impossible to
quantify, the ripples are real.
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MAY 4, 2007