Let me say this about that
—By Gene Klare
Presses keep rolling
THERE WILL BE 107 CANDLES on the birthday cake for this newspa-
per, the Labor Press, on the upcoming Labor Day Monday, Sept. 3, 2007. The
first issue was published in time for Labor Day 1900, and the presses are still
rolling 107 years later.
The Portland Labor Press was this paper’s name in 1900. A decade and a
half later our name was changed to Oregon Labor Press at the request of the
Oregon State Federation of Labor, which was affiliated with the American
Federation of Labor. Sam Gompers was the AFL’s president. Two decades ago,
this newspaper’s name was expanded to Northwest Labor Press.
THIS NEWSPAPER was started as a weekly by local unions affiliated
with the Portland Federated Trades Assembly, which was the Rose City’s cen-
tral labor council in 1900. The union founders set it up as a labor-owned non-
profit corporation, which is what it still is 107 years later. Now named the Ore-
gon Labor Press Publishing Company, it publishes the Northwest Labor Press
on a twice-a-month frequency. Today’s Northwest Oregon Labor Council,
AFL-CIO, is the successor to 1900’s Portland Federated Trades Assembly of
the AFL. The city’s central labor council went through name changes that in-
cluded Portland Labor Council and Multnomah County Labor Council before
its geographic expansion to the NOLC two-and-a-half decades ago.
The Labor Press was started to provide unions and their members with a
voice because the commercial papers were biased against the interests of work-
ers and their unions. One newspaper, the Oregonian, was even against a state
Labor Day when it was established by the Oregon Legislature and the gover-
nor in 1887. Today’s commercial media generally perpetuate an anti-labor bias
or a corporate disregard toward workers and their unions.
“THE MOST IMPORTANT single event of the year 1900...” was the as-
sessment of the birth of the Labor Press by historian Jack E. Triplett Jr., author
of “History of the Oregon Labor Movement Prior to the New Deal,” which he
wrote in the late 1950s for his master’s thesis at the University of California at
Berkeley. Triplett, who grew up in the Coos Bay area, was the son of a member
of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union, which is now the Carpenters In-
dustrial Council, headquartered in Portland. After college, Triplett worked for
the Oregon AFL-CIO, then was an economist at the national AFL-CIO before
going on to a career with the U. S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
In spelling out their purpose in starting the Labor Press, the founders in l900
said that “The trade unions of this city have organized the Portland Labor Press
Association ... in order to educate the wage-workers upon the various phases of
the modern labor movement, as well as to strengthen, protect and promote
their interests ... its object is to publish a weekly paper ... and to give the wage-
workers of this city and state reliable information concerning the local as well
as the international labor movement.”
THE LABOR PRESS was published weekly from 1900 until the last part
of 1982 when the Reagan Administration and U.S. Postal Service’s Board of
Governors doubled the postal rates for labor publications. Delegates from
shareholding and subscribing labor organizations held a meeting in September
1982 and decided that the Labor Press’s frequency of publication should be
changed to twice monthly because they could not afford to pay the increased
cost of continuing to publish weekly. Unions and their members at that time
were hard-hit by the Reagan Recession and also by the anti-union policies of
the Republican president.
POSTAL INCREASES, plus higher printing and paper costs caused most
labor papers to reduce their frequency of publication. Weeklies went to twice-
monthly or monthly and many monthly papers switched to either six or four is-
sues a year. As time went by, quite a few union papers died prematurely.
National AFL-CIO holds off
on presidential endorsement
CHICAGO (PAI) — The national
AFL-CIO Executive Council turned its
affiliated unions loose to make presi-
dential primary endorsements, saying
the federation “decided not to proceed
with a decision process that would
lead to support for a single candidate
at this time.”
In a statement approved by the
council on Aug. 8 in Chicago, the day
after it hosted a debate between seven
Democratic hopefuls at Soldier Field,
the federation praised all the con-
tenders and said “trade unionists met
with the next president of the United
Sates and six other candidates.”
But it didn’t say who that “next
president” would be among Senators
Hillary Clinton of New York, Joseph
Biden of Delaware, Barack Obama of
Illinois and Chris Dodd of Connecti-
cut, Gov. Bill Richardson of New
Mexico, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of
Ohio and former Sen. John Edwards
of North Carolina.
“There is no consensus,” federation
Political Director Karen Ackerman
b h
m k
told reporters. She added there may
not be one until after the huge round of
primaries on Feb. 5.
Instead, the council said “the candi-
dates competing for the nomination of
the Democratic Party are far more
likely to advocate positions in support
of working families than are the candi-
dates seeking the nomination of the
Republican Party.”
No Republican candidates were in-
vited to the debate, because none an-
swered the federation’s questionnaire.
“The Democratic candidates are
strong on issues most central to work-
ing people’s lives” but still need “con-
tinued engagement” from unions and
their members “to promote (candi-
dates’) full understanding of workers’
difficulties and dreams,” the council
said.
Though the statement did not say
so, the federation named its policy di-
rector, Thea Lee, as liaison to all the
campaigns, to give them constant and
intensive briefings.
But “it is equally clear that our
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members support a number of the can-
didates. Many of our members told us
all the candidates are impressive,” the
council added.
“For this reason, the AFL-CIO has
decided not to proceed with a decision
process that would lead to support for
a single candidate at this time,” it de-
clared.
After encouraging its 54 member
unions to continue to educate and mo-
bilize their members, it added that
“every national union affiliate may de-
cide for itself if it wishes to support a
candidate in the primaries, and that
different unions will be ready to make
decisions at different times.” That ef-
fectively turns them loose to do so.
Ackerman said she did not know of
looming endorsements.
Portland City
Council mulls
2 ordinances
Portland City Council will consider
two city ordinances Aug. 29 — both
sponsored by Commissioner Sam
Adams and each the product of over a
year of meetings with labor groups.
One resolution would make the City
of Portland “sweat-free” by looking at
city purchases to determine if they were
made in sweatshops — factories that vi-
olate workers’ rights.
The other would require contractors
who do construction work for the City
or the Portland Development Commis-
sion (PDC) to either provide full fam-
ily health insurance to their workers, or
pay into a county-administered fund to
do so. The Aug. 3 Labor Press reported
a hearing on that ordinance was set for
Aug. 8, but it was rescheduled.
Language of both ordinances was
still being finalized as of the time this
issue went to press.
(International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X)
Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon
as a voice of the labor movement.
4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150,
Portland, Ore. 97213
Telephone: (503) 288-3311
Fax Number: (503) 288-3320
Editor: Michael Gutwig
Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice
Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of
each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-
profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the
Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore-
gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union
members.
Group rates available to trade union organizations.
PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID
AT PORTLAND, OREGON.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a
change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old
and new addresses and the name and number of your local union.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS, P.O. BOX 13150-0150,
PORTLAND, OR 97213
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(Turn to Page 27)
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
AUGUST 17, 2007