Northwest labor press., April 18, 2008, Page 12, Image 12

Record crowd
attends #290
safety seminar
...Workplace health
major issue for ATU
(From Page 1)
of thing bus drivers might want to report.
“We decided to see if there was any evidence of that in terms of bus operator
seats needing to be switched out.” Stoner said they found that over the course of
the previous year, there had been about 30 maintenance reports showing seats
being replaced because of urine. “Drivers are so mortified they don’t admit to it,”
Stoner said. “But it’s a serious health and human dignity issue.”
Stories trickle into the union about drivers urinating and defecating on them-
selves, wearing adult diapers, or having to get off the bus and urinate in the
bushes.
Some drivers try not to drink very much during their shift, so they won’t have
to use the restroom. Such voluntary dehydration starves every organ in the body
of water and is quite dangerous long term.
“Your whole body is functioning with insufficient water,” Stoner said. “Then
when you do start to drink, it takes a long time to fill up those organs before it
ever gets to your bladder. So people may think they have a big bladder, but that’s
not really what’s going on.”
Truckers can face similar difficulty using a restroom, but many have enough
privacy in their cab that they can urinate into a bottle.
Employers say bus drivers can stop any time and run into a McDonald’s or
other public accommodation to use the restroom. But that can be embarrassing,
and passengers get angry when they’re made to wait. The union wants employ-
ers to build breaks into the schedule, and make sure there are restrooms avail-
able.
“Throughout the industry it’s a problem,” said Local 757 President Jon Hunt.
“Drivers have a uniform on, and they’re being scrutinized by the public all the
time, so they never get a break unless they’re in a lunchroom behind a closed
door.”
“If you pull a bus over when you have passengers who are trying to make a
connection, they don’t see that as you pulling over to use restroom. They think
you’re off screwing around.”
The problem can be worse among paratransit bus drivers, who transport the
disabled. They have no designated break built into their route, because they have
no fixed route: Dispatch continues to build their route while they’re driving. And
they often have passengers who can’t be left alone on the bus while drivers take
a bathroom break.
Some agencies are better than others. For example, the union hasn’t heard
bathroom break complaints from drivers at Salem Area Mass Transit District.
But at TriMet, the state’s biggest transit agency, it’s a constant battle. Shifts can
run 10 hours, and traffic can make buses late to arrive at transit centers where
drivers might have a chance to take a bathroom break. So both the employer and
drivers need to insist that breaks are taken.
It has become a mantra in the monthly union newsletter: “Take your breaks.”
It’s not that the union is encouraging sloth, as some managers may think — it’s
about keeping members healthy.
OR-OSHA is looking into whether employers are enabling sufficient bath-
room breaks, Stoner said, and seeking voluntary compliance.
“In a way, the most we’ve accomplished is to make people more aware of it,”
Stoner said.
Stoner thinks employers are doing better at providing restrooms and schedul-
ing breaks since the union started making the complaint. ATU took up the issue
with Oregon Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner, and expects the new commis-
sioner, Brad Avakian, will also help enforce the law requiring breaks.
“It’s expensive and they’re reluctant to do it,” Hunt said, “but the only way
it’s going to work is for employers to have more buses, more bodies, so they can
build breaks into the schedule.”
K ramers/metro
mailing service
3201 N.W. YEON
PORTLAND, OREGON 97210
(503) 274-1638 FAX (503) 227-1245
THE ONLY UNION MAILER
MIKE POLLOCK
UA apprentice coordinator
Kimes retires; Pollock hired
Bob Kimes has retired as appren-
ticeship coordinator for the Plumbers
and Fitters Local 290 Training Center
after 17 years at the helm.
Succeeding him is Mike Pollock.
“I have watched apprenticeship
change the lives of approximately
2,000 apprentices in the 20 years that
I have instructed or been a coordina-
tor,” Kimes said. “We have accom-
plished a great deal, but there will al-
ways be a great deal more to
accomplish.”
Kimes said it is a responsibility of
all journey-level plumbers and fitters
to help train apprentices. “It’s part of
the deal, dating back to the craft
guilds and beyond,” he said. “No edu-
cational model is as effective as our
apprenticeship, which has worked, lit-
erally, for centuries. Take your job as
a trainer seriously. Our future depends
on the job you do.”
Kimes is a graduate of the
plumbers apprenticeship program,
starting in 1978 as a member of the
former Plumbers Local 51. He served
as assistant training coordinator for
nearly five years before being hired
coordinator in January 1991.
Pollock has been the assistant co-
ordinator for nine months. He spent
10 years as an apprentice instructor in
the heating, ventilating, air condition-
ing/refrigeration field. From 2003 to
2007 he worked as a general foreman
for Alliant Systems. Prior to that he
worked for two years as operations
manager for Interstate Mechanical
and five years as project manager and
then as service manager for Fullman-
Kinetics.
As apprenticeship coordinator, his
duties include managing construction
and maintenance projects for training
center facilities, curriculum develop-
ment and managing daily operations.
In addition to Tualatin, Local 290
owns training facilities is Salem, Eu-
gene, Redmond, Medford, Coos Bay
and Eureka, Calif. It also conducts
training classes in Astoria, Brook-
ings, Klamath Falls and The Dalles.
There are currently 416 apprentices
training to be fitters and plumbers.
Pollock has hired Marci Wichman
as assistant training coordinator. She
is a graduate of the training program,
after spending 14 years working in
the medical industry. She has been a
journey-level fitter for eight years.
Another new hire at the training
center is Chris Baier, who will be a
welding shop instructor. He succeeds
Mike Jurkiewicz, who retired.
For more information about the
UA Local 290 Training Center, call
503-691-1997.
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for the BEST flowers call
503-288-5537
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MEMBERS OF TEAMSTERS LOCAL 223
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PAGE 12
BOB KIMES
A record 320 members and spouses
of Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 at-
tended the 11th annual Donald Dunn
Memorial Safety Seminar last month at
the union’s training center in Tualatin.
Dunn was a member of the union
and an apprenticeship instructor who
died in a ladder mishap while working
on a job in Salem. His wife sued, and
used some of the settlement money to
start a safety seminar for her husband’s
co-workers and their families. The fund
has since run out of money, but the pro-
gram was so popular that the training
center continued it.
This year’s theme was “The Work-
ers’ Compensation Process.” Featured
speakers included Brenda Rocklin,
chief execuive officer of SAIF Corp.;
Robert Sinclair, associate director of
occupational health psychology at Port-
land State University; and Jennifer
Flood, workers’ comp ombudsman for
the State of Oregon.
Local 290 members get eight hours
toward their continuing education cred-
its for attendaing the seminar. Last year,
the training center paid members $575
for completing 24 hours of continuing
education during the year.
Members also had an opportunity to
get a free health screening and chair
massage, as well as lunch, provided by
the Plumbing & Mechanical Contrac-
tors Association.
223-8517
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
APRIL 18, 2008