Let me say this about that
...Legislation stalled
(From Page 2)
member of Bakers Local 364 upon going to work for Nabisco in October 1950.
He quickly became a shop steward. In 1967 he was appointed to the contract ne-
gotiating team. A year later he was elected president and in 1969 he became the
union’s assistant secretary-treasurer. Four years later, in 1973, Vokos was elected
to succeed Don Weil as Local 364’s secretary-treasurer when Weil retired.
AS THE LEADER of Local 364, Vokos negotiated collective bargaining
contracts with employers, handled grievances, organized new members, served
on medical and pension trust funds and represented the union at meetings of the
Multnomah County Labor Council (now part of NOLC), and was delegate to
conventions of the Bakers International and the Oregon AFL-CIO.
Vokos is proud of the fact that, like his father he’s always worked at union
jobs.
CHRIST AND KATY VOKOS were married in July 1951. They have two
daughters, Tina and Eleni; a son, George; and four grandchildren. Eleni’s hus-
band, Gene Marschman, is a member of Electrical Workers Local 125. Christ and
Katy are longtime members of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Northeast
Portland. Eleni is president of the church’s Parish Council. Christ cooked and
baked for the church’s popular Greek Festival for 40 years but retired from that
volunteer endeavor three years ago. Christ is a member and former officer of a
Greek lodge, the American-Hellenic Educational and Progressive Association,
which was formed in 1922 to help Greek immigrants adjust to life in the U.S.
Christ grows vegetables in a garden at home and also picks fruit from his own
trees. Christ makes periodic trips to a Greek island on which one of the homes was
bequeathed to him by his parents. He enjoys fishing in the Aegean Sea.
★★★
LEGISLATION to provide a $1,000 monthly federal pension to United
States Merchant Marine veterans of World War II, after passing by a big margin
in the House of Representatives, is now stalled in the Senate.
Christ Vokos, president of the Columbia-Willamette League of Merchant Ma-
rine Veterans of World War II, said the legislation, Senate Bill 961, is stalled in the
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii.
Vokos said three more votes are needed to pry the bill out of the committee and
on to the floor of the Senate. He said that committee senators who are not in fa-
vor of the bill are Barack Obama, D-Illinois; Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia;
Jon Tester, D-Montana; James Wood, D-Virginia; Richard Burr, R-North Car-
olina; John Ensign, R-Nevada; Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina; Larry Craig,
R-Idaho; John Isakson, R-Georgia and Akaka. Vokos said pressure is needed to
get three of them to vote in favor of SB 961.
VOKOS said Oregon and Washington Senators Ron Wyden, Gordon Smith,
Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell are all in favor of the pension bill.
★★★
ROBERT F. SCARRIOFFINI, a retired leader of the former Portland
School Employees Local 140, died of a
heart ailment on Sept. 28 at age 74. His
funeral was held on Oct. 5 in St.Therese
Catholic Church in Portland.
He was born on Aug. 3, 1933 in Tor-
rington, Connecticut. He served in the
U.S Navy in the Korean War and lived in
Los Angeles for a time before moving to
Portland in 1957. He worked as a chef
and a bartender at the old Monte Carlo
restaurant, and was a member of the Bar-
tenders Local 496. In 1964, he began a
30-year career as a head custodian for the
Portland School District and an activist in
Local 140 of the Service Employees In-
BOB SCARRIOFFINI
ternational Union, Local 140 later was
merged into SEIU Local 503.
He was a head custodian at Grout, Jason Lee and Irvington Elementary
Schools and Roosevelt High School. Because many students did not have a father
at home, Bob taught them the rudiments of fishing and took them angling in
rivers and ponds.
SCARRIOFFINI served Local 140 as sergeant-at-arms, trustee, Executive
Board member, vice president, president and secretary-treasurer. He continued in
the latter post for five years after his retirement from the district.
Survivors include his wife, Jackie, a former member of the Waitresses Local
305; a daughter, Cheryl A. Bonner, and a son-in-law, Brian I. Bonner; grand-
daughter, Alexandria B. Bonner; stepsons, Edward James and the late William A.
Height; and sister, Sandee Hodges.
Bob was elected to the Labor Hall of Fame in 2001 by the sponsoring North-
west Oregon Labor Retirees Council.
Interment was in Willamette National Cemetery.
OCTOBER 19, 2007
Open
Forum
Limousine liberals at Metro
To The Editor:
I must comment on the Oct. 5 front
page article regarding the Metro
Council voting themselves 16 percent
pay raises while telling their employ-
ees they could not afford fair contract
improvements.
I am not surprised. Last legislative
session, Metro led the fight to attempt
to defeat HB 2140, which required
payment of prevailing area standard
wages on construction projects subsi-
dized by public funds.
Metro gives developers millions of
dollars for projects that would be built
by the private sector anyway. Their
actions show disdain for the voters
who supported their election, for the
taxpayers who fund their operations,
and for their own employees.
We deserve better than this, and I
hope the entire Tri-County labor
movement will remember these lim-
ousine liberals at Metro come election
time.
Bob Shiprack
Executive Secretary
Oregon State Building &
Construction Trades Council
Portland
Some disabled workers can operate machinery
To The Editor:
I enjoyed the article about disabled
worker programs. As a union member,
I can see labor’s point.
I also have a son who is profoundly
deaf. He is 39 years old and neither
hears nor speaks, but he is intelligent
enough to operate expensive machin-
ery. So Jerry Eggers needs to know that
there are profoundly disabled persons
who can operate machinery.
Just try getting a job when you can’t
K
speak.
Mary Vaillancourt
Association of
Flight Attendants, CWA
Lake Oswego
ramers/metro
mailing service
3201 N.W. YEON
PORTLAND, OREGON 97210
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