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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DECEMBER 7, 2007