...Custodian reactions are mixed
(From Page 1)
$3 million — based on a model
worked up by economists hired by the
district’s lawyers.
“Their position was that everybody
should have gotten a job after about
100 days,” Stoll said, “and that the
pay would have been $1.50 an hour
less. That’s only $3,000 a year per
person.”
The final amount, $14.5 million,
was a compromise between the two
sides’ figures. Out of that sum:
• About $3.3 million — 25 percent
— will pay plaintiffs’ attorney fees.
[25 percent is standard in class-action
lawsuits, where lawyers work for
years and only get paid if they win an
award for their clients.]
• Up to $140,000, subject to court
approval, will reimburse plaintiffs’ at-
torneys for out-of-pocket legal costs,
including $7,400 to each of the four
lead plaintiffs for their services.
• A $370,000 “Extraordinary
Health Care Claim Fund” will reim-
burse a handful of custodians for any
amount over $15,000 that they paid
for health care costs or insurance pre-
miums.
The remainder will be divided up
among the 280 custodians, amounting
to about $37,000 each. After payroll
taxes, income tax withholding and
employee retirement plan contribu-
tions are taken out, custodians can ex-
pect a check of about $26,000, to be
issued sometime before September
2007. A handful of custodians died
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Real Estate Broker
Member of CWA
Local 7901
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7886 SE 13th Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97202
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before the suit was resolved, and in
their cases, the district will make the
payment to their estates.
Under the terms of the settlement,
the amount of the district’s offer de-
creases $50,000 for every custodian
who chooses to “opt out,” and if more
than 20 of the 280 opt out, the district
can back out of the settlement alto-
gether.
Among custodians, reactions were
mixed at an April 23 meeting to dis-
cuss the settlement.
“Some people were really happy
and some were really unhappy,” said
Steve Armony, former custodian
union leader and one of the four lead
plaintiffs who sat through the settle-
ment negotiations. Still, Armony says,
he doesn’t expect many custodians
will choose to opt out of the settle-
ment — which would mean they’d
have to find a new attorney and fight
on alone.
“You gotta ask yourself, ‘Do I still
want to be dealing with this five years
from now?’” Armony said. “The dis-
trict has unlimited funds — our tax
dollars — to fight this and drag it out.”
Stoll, who is also one of the lead
attorneys in the Exxon Valdez class
action lawsuit, agreed, and gave cus-
todians some sobering perspective —
the Prince William Sound, Alaska,
fishermen he represents have yet to
get a settlement check 18 years after
the oil spill cost them their liveli-
hoods.
While it might seem custodians’
right to back pay is cut and dried,
Stoll said they could face an unsym-
pathetic judge if they went to trial;
thus far, only the Oregon Supreme
Court ruled in custodians’ favor, and
that by a split 3-2 majority. And it
could take three years or more to get a
decision if the two sides go to trial.
“Given everything,” Armony said,
“this is probably the best deal we
could get.”
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Retiree gets
76-year pin
from Glass
Workers #740
Kenneth Smith received a 76-
year pin from Portland Glass
Workers Local 740.
Smith, who will turn 102 on
June 10, joined the union on Nov.
19, 1930. He worked as a sash
glazier for W.P. Fuller until his re-
tirement in 1970.
Smith lives in an assisted liv-
ing facility in Southeast Portland,
where he keeps tabs on new con-
struction work in the area. He also
keeps up on current events, read-
ing his union newspapers and
KENNETH SMITH
magazines.
Smith said window installation — from wood to aluminum to vinyl —
has really changed the industry. He said as a sash glazier he ran “lots and lots
of putty.”
“Kenneth Smith is a remarkable glazier and union member,” said
William Vonderohe, chair of the Painters and Allied Trades District Coun-
cil 5 Retiree’s Club and recording secretary of Local 740.
Steelworkers, two British
unions consider merger
OTTAWA, Ont. (PAI) — Saying
multi-national unions are needed to
combat multi-national corporations, the
United Steelworkers (USW) announced
April 18 they will work on a merger
with Great Britain’s two largest unions
— Amicus and the Transport & General
Workers.
Merger talks, which leaders of both
USW and Amicus expect will take a
year, aim to create the first trans-Atlantic
union and could provide a model for
other unions worldwide, said USW
President Leo Gerard and Amicus Gen-
eral Secretary Derek Simpson.
In the meantime, the Steelworkers
and the British unions will work to-
gether on coordinated campaigns and
“common approaches to collective bar-
gaining with multi-nationals,” they said.
If the merger succeeds, it would join
the USW, which has 850,000 active
members and 350,000 retirees in the
U.S. and Canada, with the two British
unions — who themselves merged May
1 into a new union called Unite. Com-
bined, the British unions have 1.78 mil-
lion active members and over 200,000
retirees.
“Primarily in our existence, we dealt
with North American capitalists. But
now, with the World Trade Organization
and other trade agreements, we’re deal-
ing with industry and capital that has be-
come globalized,” Gerard explained.
“As global corporations have tried to
force their will on job security, health
care and pensions, we’ve found we have
to get together” to combat them, he
added.
The merger is also needed, he
pointed out, because the USW, its Cana-
dian arm, and the British unions each
represent workers not just in steel and
allied enterprises, but at least 12 sectors
of the economy.
The USW-British merger plans, an-
nounced at USW’s Canadian National
Policy Congress in Ottawa, Ont., come
just after the Independent Steel Union,
representing 1,150 workers in Weirton,
W. Va., merged with USW on April 13.
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