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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2008)
At Oregon Convention Center LERC to celebrate 30th anniversary March 7 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 E-mail: Michael492@comcast.net 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 fessor at the university, was LERC’s in- terim director in 1977 as a labor advi- sory committee searched for a director. He wasted no time establishing courses on stewards’ training, contract negotia- tions and contract administration. In 1978, Emory Via was hired as the first permanent director. It was his ties to national labor leadership that raised LERC’s profile nationally. Within a year of Via’s hiring the George Meany Center for Labor Studies selected the labor center to lead the development of a national program in grievance han- dling for transit industry unions. Via retired in 1988 and Margaret Hallock, a state economist and former director of research of the Oregon Pub- lic Employees Union, was hired. Under her leadership, LERC broadened its re- search and programming and began to emphasize strategic approaches to workplace change, labor-management relations and union operations. The new focus included an aggressive out- reach to workers, unionists and scholars worldwide. Hallock left in 2001 to take over as founding director of the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics at UO. She was succeeded by Bob Bussel, a former union rep for the Amalgamated Cloth- ing and Textile Workers Union (now UNITE-HERE) and Service Employ- ees International Union. Bussel taught in the labor education program at Penn State University for seven years before coming to Eugene. Under Bussel’s leadership, LERC has continued in its tradition of provid- ing direct, hands-on education, training and consultation to workers and unions. Faculty also provide technical assis- tance to legislators, community ac- tivists and government agencies, and frequently furnish background infor- mation on labor and employment issues to the news media. Bussel said LERC is continually de- veloping its course content to reflect changes in the workplace and job mar- kets. The decline in manufacturing and growth in service sector, governmental and alternative energy jobs — plus the influx of immigrants and women into the workforce — requires it. “I’d say there’s more emphasis on research in support of organizing and the right to organize, immigrant work- ers and sustainable business develop- ment,” Bussel said. Today, LERC reaches more than 3,000 workers each year on a biennial budget of about $1.2 million. It has five full-time and three part-time faculty, plus a staff of five. Faculty includes as- sociate professors Gordon Lafer and Marcus Widenor; instructors Barbara Byrd, Lynn Feekin and Helen Moss; and research associates Jennifer Hess, Laurel Kincl and Marc Weinstein. Lafer has taken his research on union election procedures before Con- gress, testifying last year on the right of workers to organize. Byrd coordinates the Portland Center. Her research has included apprenticeship training in the building trades and women in non-tra- ditional jobs. She also serves as secre- tary-treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO, a part-time post. Moss coordinates the U-LEAD (Union-Leadership Educa- tion and Development), a non-credit certificate program. The March 7 celebration starts with a reception at 6 p.m. at the Oregon Con- vention Center. Keynote speakers at the dinner will be Gov. Kulongoski, UO President Dave Frohnmayer and Ruth Milkman, director of the UCLA Insti- tute for Research on Labor and Em- ployment. From 2 to 5 p.m. LERC will hold a symposium entitled, “Creating Labor- Community Alliances That Work.” At the dinner LERC also will launch a new Strategic Training and Action Re- search (STAR) Fund. Net proceeds from the celebration will benefit the fund, which will be used in part to pro- vide more training programs and to bring visiting union leaders to Oregon. Carpenters, Electricians, Laborers, Glaziers, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofers, Asbestos Workers, Family, Millwrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers Electricians, Carpenters, Laborers, Glaziers, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofer, Asbestos Workers, Family, Millwrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) The bill was signed by Gov. Bob Straub on July 15, 1977, at a dinner in Springfield celebrating the 20th an- niversary of the merger in Lane County of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). “This is one of the major pieces of legislation labor has gotten passed in years. It will have a long-lasting effect,” Pat Randall, then secretary-treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO, said at the time. Randall and retired Oregon AFL- CIO President Irv Fletcher were lauded for their efforts lobbying for LERC. At the time, Fletcher was secretary-treas- urer of the Lane County Labor Council. The labor center was the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, but was modeled after similar education pro- grams at public universities, including Cornell, Rutgers, Indiana, UC Berke- ley and Wisconsin (which was the first to be established in 1924). LERC caught on quickly. Recogni- tion and demand were so great that the Legislature nearly doubled it’s budget in 1979. By 1986, a Portland Center had been established and a full-time faculty position was created for it. “The visions of decades ago were on the mark,” Steven Deutsch, professor emeritus of LERC, wrote last April in a retrospective. Deutsch, a sociology pro- Interest rates have fallen again, now’s the perfect time to refinance with a fixed rate mortgage. Or take advantage of the equity that you have already built for those projects you have in mind. Contact IBEW & United Workers FCU, your Union Credit Union today for all your mortgage needs. 800-356-6507 ext 340 9955 SE Washington St PO Box 16877 Portland, Oregon 97292 www.ibewuwfcu.com Electricians, Carpenters, Laborers, Glaziers, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofer, Asbestos Workers, Family, Millwrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers EUGENE — The Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) at the University of Oregon will celebrate its 30th anniversary Friday, March 7, with a dinner at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. Over the last three decades, LERC has opened the university’s door to rank-and-file workers, union officials and community leaders, providing them access to the resources and ex- pertise of the higher education system. As was noted in UO’s “Oregon Quarterly, Autumn 2007” newsletter: “Each year, thousands of union mem- bers attend LERC classes to address an array of issues from how to handle workplace bullying to public speaking. Its collective bargaining institutes have achieved statewide renown. Summer schools bring together groups such as organizers and labor relations profes- sionals to catch up on current develop- ments, learn new strategies, and net- work.” The vision for LERC was an ob- scure one that began in 1971 in the form of a resolution adopted at the an- nual convention of the Oregon AFL- CIO. “Creation of a labor education center at the University of Oregon” was one of among 63 resolutions passed that year — a time when the focus of the country was on the Nixon Adminis- tration’s wage-price freeze. Labor wanted President Nixon out of office and the Oregon convention revolved around ways to rally the troops to elect a new president. Still, with that resolution in hand, union officials began lobbying law- makers and administrators on the im- portance of a labor center for Oregon’s workforce. In 1975, then-State Rep. Ted Kulon- goski of Eugene (now governor, and a keynote speaker March 7) introduced a bill to create a center at UO. It failed. Two years later another measure was introduced. This time lawmakers were convinced. They passed the bill along with nearly $250,000 in funding. Glaziers, Carpenters, Laborers, Electricians, Sheetmetal Workers, Floorcoverers, Bricklayers, Cement Masons, Roofers, Asbestos Workers, Family, Millwrights, Painters, Elevators, Plasterers FEBRUARY 15, 2008 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 3
