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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2007)
Let me say this about that —By Gene Klare Fame for Diamond NORM DIAMOND, 63, of Portland, enters the Labor Hall of Fame this week with the hall’s door being opened by the sponsoring Northwest Oregon Labor Retirees Council, an affiliate of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Diamond’s career includes making steel at age 17 in a South Chicago mill; earning higher education degrees at the University of Chicago and Harvard; teach- ing at Princeton, Antioch and a labor college in Portland; educating workers in Ohio, Oregon and elsewhere; consulting on workers’compensation with the Hun- garian government; conducting labor programs on KBOO radio in Portland, and being a labor playwright and historian. NORMAN WILLIAM DIAMOND was born on July 26, 1944 in Detroit, Michigan. For a time in his boyhood his family lived in Chicago, Illinois, before re- turning to Detroit, where he attended Cass Technical High School. While in high school, he did some work for the United Auto Workers, appearing before commu- nity groups to explain labor’s opposition to the anti-union Landrum-Griffin bill which was passed by a Republican-controlled Congress. AT AGE 15, Diamond left Detroit be- fore his senior year at Cass Tech and went to Chicago. He worked at several jobs, in- cluding pumping gas, until he turned 17 and then got a job in a steel mill and joined the Steelworkers. He was the first white NORM DIAMOND worker assigned to an all-black crew on a blast furnace. His fellow workers helped him learn the skills he needed for the hazardous job. He left the mill after a crane accident killed his work partner. He decided to resume his education and entered the University of Chicago, which accepted him without a high school diploma. He paid his college expenses and supported himself by doing household chores for several families. While at the University of Chicago, Diamond played shortstop and second base on the University’s baseball team, of which he was captain. He led the team in home runs and stolen bases. He turned down signing bonus offers from the major league Chicago White Sox and the then-Milwaukee Braves be- cause he had a chance to continue his education at Harvard. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in political science at Chicago, he traveled to Germany and was a guest worker with a group of Sicilians at a lumber mill in Stuttgart. This job gave him an opportunity to save money for attending Harvard. DIAMOND’S NEXT MOVE was to return to the United States and pursue a doctorate in political science at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachu- setts. Next, he obtained a job teaching political science at Antioch Collage in Yel- low Springs, Ohio. He was on the Antioch faculty from 1969 to 1979. While at Antioch, he was given a leave to teach at Princeton University in New Jersey. Diamond said one of the attractions for him at Antioch was its policy of hav- ing students intersperse their studies with periods of work. Diamond arranged for his students to work for labor unions in Ohio and nationally. He also conducted worker education classes at Antioch for members of the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE). He helped the American Federation of Teachers or- ganize Antioch faculty members and assisted another union, an electrical indus- try union known as the UE, in organizing non-teaching workers at the college. The state of Ohio honored Diamond by naming him the State Humanist. HIS MOVE to Portland came about because an Antioch student from Oregon told him that the Pacific Northwest Labor College was looking for teachers. PNLC had been started in 1977 by the Portland-headquartered International (Turn to Page 11) PAGE 2 Auto Workers end two-day walk-out at General Motors DETROIT — Some 73,000 active members of the United Auto Workers Union at 80 General Motors plants na- tionwide will vote on a new four-year contract offer this month, ending a two- day strike. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and union officials from across the U.S. are recommending ratification of the pact. If approved, it would then set a pattern with the other two of Detroit’s “Big Three” automakers — Ford and Chrysler. Auto workers walked off the job Sept. 24 after negotiations broke down over job security issues. The old contract expired Sept. 14. The last strike in the auto industry was in 1970, when the UAW won a 67- day strike at GM. Local union leaders are meeting with members to discuss terms of the agree- ment. Voting should be wrapped up by Oct. 10. Gettelfinger declined to release de- tails of the proposed four-year pact, but news reports said it included a $3,000- per-member signing bonus, a freeze in base wages all four years — but with bonuses every year — elimination of cost-of-living increases, and a two-tier wage system where new hires would earn just over half of what present work- ers get for the same jobs. Associated Press reported that under the new agreement, hourly workers will get economic gains totaling $13,056 over the life of the four-year contract, based on a 2,080-hour year and 10 per- cent overtime. That includes a $3,000 bonus in the first year followed by a 3 percent bonus in the second year, 4 per- cent in the third and 3 percent in the fourth. An assembly worker’s hourly rate will rise to $28.85 at the end of the fourth year from $28.12. AP also reported that some 3,000 temporary workers would get perma- nent jobs at the full-time wage rate and that GM agreed to a moratorium on out- sourcing. And some workers will be earning less than before. New hires who aren’t doing direct manufacturing jobs, such as groundskeepers, will make between $14 and $16 an hour. There are 16,000 peo- ple doing non-core work in U.S. plants. The tentative agreement also creates a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary As- sociation (VEBA) trust. GM sought to create the retiree-health trust to take about $50 billion of future obligations off its books. GM has around 340,000 retirees and spouses. GM reportedly will put $24.1 billion into the VEBA in January 2008, al- though the fund won’t start covering re- tiree health care until 2010. GM will make up to 20 additional $165 million payments to the VEBA anytime the fund’s level is insufficient to provide benefits for at least 25 years. GM’s active workers also will be re- quired to contribute 4 cents per quarter NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS for the VEBA. “I think our retirees will be excep- tionally pleased with this contract,” Get- telfinger said. “For active members, there will be some changes. I think over- all they will be very, very pleased with the outcome of these negotiations and the job security associated with it.” Only active members vote on ratifi- cation of the contract. In return, GM promises to invest more money in plants in the U.S., not overseas, and to promote job security for the remaining UAW members. Tens of thousands of workers have taken buy- outs over the last year, after bargaining over buyout details by GM and UAW. But not everyone is happy with the deal. Former UAW Vice Presidents/board members Paul Schrade, Warren Davis and Jerry Tucker, who previously sent an open letter to Gettelfinger against the VEBA, also urged a vote against the contract. “We regret the decision by the UAW negotiators to tentatively agree to place b h m k future health care protection of hundreds of thousands of UAW retired members under a union-run VEBA. We believe it irresponsible ... to shift the burden of risk to the retired workers and their families and release General Motors from its commitment to the full and perpetual coverage of health care for the workers who built the wealth of the corporation in the first place,” the three wrote. “Springing a new and potentially hazardous economic concept on an un- suspecting membership, either active or retired, is alien to the democratic princi- ples in our governing constitution. That a VEBA can be dangerous is well docu- mented. UAW retired members covered by a VEBA at Caterpillar can painfully vouch for that. Their VEBA went bust and they now have thousands of dollars in unanticipated out-of-pocket costs per year for reduced health care protection,” the three warned. (This article was compiled from Web sites and newspaper reports, including Press Associates Inc.) 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 We Work Hard for Hard-Working People! 111 SW Fifth Avenue, Suite 1650 Portland, Oregon 97204 (503) 227-4600 www.bennetthartman.com Our Legal Staff are Proud Members of UFCW Local 555 OCTOBER 5, 2007
