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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 2007)
Portlander Davidson to head NLRB’s Subregion 36 Linda Davidson, longtime agent in the Portland office of the National Labor Relations Board, has been promoted to head Subregion 36, which in- cludes all of Oregon and Southwest Washington. As officer-in-charge, Davidson, 46, oversees a staff of eight, including three attorneys, two field ex- aminers, and three support staff. A Portland native, Davidson took the federal civil service exam the year she graduated from Franklin High School — 1979. Before she was hired as a clerk typist at the NLRB Portland office, Davidson had never heard of the NLRB. Since then, it’s the only employer she has had. The NLRB administers and enforces the National Labor Relations Act, conducting workplace elections to determine whether private-sector employees want a union, and investigating, prosecuting and remedy- ing unfair labor practices by employers and unions. In the 1980s, Davidson enrolled in the agency’s “upward mobility” program. The agency paid for her to take college coursework at Portland State Univer- sity, Portland Community College and Mt. Hood Community College to satisfy the requirements to become a field examiner. She made the cut in 1990. As a field examiner, she visited all kinds of work- places investigating unfair labor practices and over- seeing union elections. Meeting people and hearing their stories, Davidson said, was what she enjoyed most. There will be little of that in the new job, which she started Nov. 5. Instead, she’ll direct the work of the other staff. Davidson replaces Cathy Callahan, who left a year ago to take a job heading the Wash- ington State Public Employment Relations Commis- sion. Davidson lives with her husband in Tigard, where she is an active member of Hall Boulevard Baptist Church. They have three grown children. LINDA DAVIDSON Report says more middle-class Americans are ‘hanging by a thread’ WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fewer than one-in-three middle-class fami- lies in America is financially secure, and the remaining majority are either borderline or at high risk of falling out of the middle class altogether, accord- ing to a new study published by Demos and the Institute for Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis Uni- versity. Demos is a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organi- zation headquartered in New York. “By a Thread: The New Experi- ence of America’s Middle Class” measures economic stability across the American middle class. Based on federal government data, “By a Thread” utilizes a new “Middle-Class Security Index” developed by the two organizations. This index measures the financial security of the middle class by rating household stability across five core economic factors: as- sets, educational achievement, hous- ing costs, budget and health care. Based on how a family ranked in each of these factors, they were defined as financially “secure,” “borderline” or “at risk.” ...MESD hires security guards (From Page 1) Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Facility in Portland. Loving said MESD spent $100,000 to hire a security firm to monitor pick- eting. “They say our members could be ‘prone to violence,’ to use their phrase,” Loving said. “In other words, they trust our members to handle Port- land’s special needs students six hours a day in the classroom, but God forbid we walk a sidewalk with a picket sign in hand.” Employees nearly struck last year after working under terms of a con- tract that had expired in 2005. An 11th hour mediation averted a walkout, but it left many hard feelings. MESD is governed by an elected seven-person Board of Directors. The directors serve four-year terms and are not compensated for their services. “Much like a common cholesterol test that shows whether someone’s cardiovascular health is at risk, the Middle- Class Security Index shows that financial health eludes the major- ity of the American middle class,” said Thomas M. Shapiro, director of the IASP/ Brandeis and one of the co-au- thors of the report. “It also points to specific areas — like lack of assets — that inhibit financial security.” The Middle-Class Security Index shows worrying trends: • Only 31 percent of families who would be considered middle-class by income are financially secure. • One in four middle-class families match the profile for being at high risk. • One in four middle-class families match the profile for being at high risk of slipping out of the middle class al- together. • More than half of middle-class families have no net financial assets whatsoever. • Middle-class families have me- dian debt of $3,500 and at least half of them have no assets. • Only 13 percent of middle-class families are secure in their asset lev- els, meaning that they have enough to cover most of their living expenses for nine months should their regular in- come cease; 79 percent are “at risk” in thiscategory, meaning they could not cover the majority of their expenses for eventhree months. Another 9 per- cent are “borderline.” • Twenty-one percent of middle- class families have less than $100 per week — ($5,000 per year) remaining after meeting essential living ex- penses. These families are living from paycheck to paycheck with very little margin of security. Former Housing and Urban Devel- opment Secretary Henry Cisneros at a press conference announcing the re- port noted that over the past century, America’s strength depended on a thriving middle class. The post-World War II middle-class boom was no ac- cident, Cisneros said, listing such cru- cial government programs as the G.I. Bill that opened access to higher edu- cation for veterans, home loan guaran- tees by the Federal Housing Adminis- tration and affordable housing for war veterans. The “Middle Class Security Index” will be updated biennially as new na- tional data become available. A PDF version of “By a Thread” is available for download at www.demos.org or iasp.brandeis.edu. 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