Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 4
V olume 109
Number 6
Mar c h 21, 2008
P ortland
Gardner resigns as
labor commissioner
AFL-CIO appeals for peace in Iraq
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain, flanked by union members opposed to the war in Iraq, spoke at a
March 15 peace rally in Portland to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the current war in Iraq. “Billions of
dollars that should have funded health care for all, that should have rebuilt this country and provided good jobs for
working families, have instead gone for war,” Chamberlain said. Most U.S. labor organizations have taken stands
against the war or calling for speedy troop withdrawal. In a statement adopted last March, the national AFL-CIO
Executive Council declared: “The men and women risking their lives in Iraq come from America’s working families.
They are our sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers, our husbands and wives. They have answered their call
to duty with the utmost courage and dedication. And the best way now to recognize and honor their service is to take
them out of harm’s way.”
Machinists to lobby
lawmakers on Air
Force tanker deal
The Machinists Union is lobbying lawmakers to overturn a $35
billion multi-year contract the Air Force awarded a European con-
sortium to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers.
Boeing, a union company based in the U.S., was favored to win
the contract based on its 50-year history of supplying the Air Force
with refueling tankers. Company and union officials, and political
leaders were stunned when it went to a consortium consisting of the
government-subsidized European Aeronautic Defense and Space
Co. (Airbus) and Northrop-Grumman.
“Every U.S. citizen should be outraged. They are using our tax
dollars to boost the European economy when ours is in a critical tail
spin now,” said Tom Buffenbarger, general president of the Interna-
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Oregon Labor Commissioner Dan
Gardner announced March 12 that he
will resign effective April 7 —15
months into his second four-year term
of office. A day later, Oregon Gov.
Ted Kulongoski announced he will
appoint State Sen. Brad Avakian (D-
Bethany) to fill the vacancy.
Labor commissioner, one of six of-
fices in Oregon that are elected
statewide, serves as chief executive of
Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Indus-
tries (BOLI), a 106-employee $10-
million-a-year agency. BOLI enforces
state civil rights and wage and hour
laws, administers the state’s prevailing
wage law for public construction proj-
ects, and promotes apprenticeship
training. So who’s in charge of the
agency matters a good deal to the
state’s unions.
Gardner gave the governor a short
list of recommendations for his re-
placement, but Kulongoski, after scant
consultation with labor leaders, swift-
ly settled on the choice of Avakian, a
fellow attorney.
Avakian was in the middle of a
four-way race for the Democratic
nomination for Secretary of State. But
he didn’t hesitate when offered the job
tional Association of Machinists.
The Machinists Union represents about 35,000 Boeing workers
in Washington, Kansas, Oregon and other locations across the coun-
try. The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aero-
space (SPEEA) represents another 24,000 engineers and technical
workers. SPEEA members were instrumental in the design and en-
gineering of Boeing’s KC-767AT (advanced tanker) that was in
competition for the contract. Airbus will base the tankers on its
A380.
“I’m surprised the Air Force chose an unproven technology and
an inferior product for this important program that supports the men
and women in our armed forces,” said SPEEA President Cynthia
Cole.
Union officials said the 179 tankers called for in the contract
would be built with over 85 percent domestic U.S. content and
would support more than 44,000 U.S. jobs and 300 contractors in
over 40 states.
It was expected to create 9,000 jobs in Washington and about
225 jobs in Oregon. Machinists Lodge 63 represents 1,200 workers
at Boeing of Portland, where they produce key components for the
767.
Airbus says it will create 2,000 jobs in the U.S. by building a new
of labor com-
missioner. An
employee-side
civil rights and
workers’ com-
pensation attor-
ney, Avakian
says at one time
he knew every
BOLI civil
DAN
rights investiga-
GARDNER
tor by name.
In the 2007 legislative session,
Avakian was one of four state senators
to get the Oregon AFL-CIO’s highest
ranking, and he was named an “all-
star” by the Oregon Building and
Construction Trades Council.
Avakian’s appointment stands until
the November election, and he says he
intends to run for election.
Gardner said he loves the job of la-
bor commissioner, but is resigning in
order to take a legislative and policy
job for the International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers (IBEW) in
Washington, D.C. Gardner is a third-
generation journeyman electrician and
longtime IBEW member, and was
vice president of Portland-headquar-
tered IBEW Local 48 before he was
(Turn to Page 6)
factory for the tankers in Mobile, Ala. Parts for the tanker, however,
will be assembled by 40,000 unionized French workers at the Airbus
plant in Toulouse, Buffenbarger said.
Boeing filed a formal protest March 11 with the Government Ac-
countability Office, the federal government’s non-partisan auditing
arm. The GAO has 100 days to make a ruling.
“How we could turn over the crown jewel of support for our na-
tion’s Air Force to foreign manufacturers is beyond me,” Buffen-
barger said. “We’re going to take this on tooth and nail and get this
decision overturned. We’re going to see that America gets what it de-
serves in the form of economic justice and fairness for American
workers.”
The AFL-CIO Executive Council called on Congress to “defund”
the contract, as well as conduct a full investigation about how the
contract was awarded to a foreign contractor.
Since the announcement, Boeing workers and taxpayers have
held several rallies protesting the Air Force’s decision. The latest
was March 19 (after this issue went to press) in Everett with mem-
bers of District Lodge 751 and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.
The Machinists Union is asking union members and all taxpay-
ers to call Congress and urge them to “defund” the contract with
Airbus and to support U.S. jobs by choosing a U.S.-made tanker.