...Klare remembered
Steelworkers ratify new
contract at Cascade Steel
United Steel Workers Local 8378
reached a final agreement with Cas-
cade Steel Rolling Mills, which mem-
bers ratified May 30.
After voting down an earlier com-
pany offer several weeks prior, mem-
bers picketed outside the McMinnville
plant and conducted a one-shift shut-
down of the melt shop May 16.
The company, owned by Schnitzer
Steel Industries, then sweetened its
proposal, making a 3.5 percent raise
ATU 757 gets
tentative deal
at Bend Transit
BEND — Amalgamated Transit
Union Local 757 officials announced
today (May 22) that they have reached
a tentative agreement for a three-year
contract covering Bend Area Transit
workers employed by Paratransit Ser-
vices, the contractor that runs public
transit for the City of Bend.
The union has scheduled a ratifica-
tion vote on June 6.
Details of the tentative agreement,
which will cover approximately 40
Bend Area Transit and Dial-A-Ride
drivers, dispatchers and customer
service representatives, were not
known at press time.
Bend Area Transit and Dial-A-
Ride employees voted to join ATU
Local 757 in early 2007. They have
been bargaining with Paratransit Ser-
vices for about nine months.
ATU Local 757 represents transit
workers in over 20 Oregon cities and
counties, ranging from Tri-Met in
Portland to communities smaller than
Bend.
Q
(From Page 1)
November 1962. A 1964 exposé Klare
wrote of corruption in the Multnomah
County coroner’s office won an award
from the American Political Science As-
sociation for reporting on public affairs.
Eugene Francis Klare was born Oct.
12, 1926, on a farm in Tippecanoe
County, Indiana to Viola and Francis
Klare. At the request of his maternal
grandfather, he was named after Eu-
gene Debs, a co-founder of the Indus-
trial Workers of the World and five-time
Socialist candidate for U.S. president.
retroactive to the April 1 end of the
previous contract, agreeing to start a
1 percent 401(k) match much earlier
in the contract, and setting up a fund
to compensate union stewards and of-
ficers when they do union work.
That last item had been a sticking
point, since up to now, union officers
who spent lots of time on grievances
and arbitrations could fall behind
coworkers in company pension contri-
butions and production bonuses.
The new contract provides for three
annual raises of 3.5 percent. It gives
union members greater say on the
company's safety committee. And it
commits the company to cover the
costs for Steelworker safety training
and occupational safety conferences.
It also gives the union sole adminis-
tration of the canteen fund, which uses
profits from vending machine sales in
the employee break room. The fund
pays for flowers on the birth or death
of a family member, and once a year,
is parceled out to local charities,
school sports teams, and employee
scholarships.
The final agreement was much im-
proved from the company's first offer,
which was an 18-month contract with
a 4 percent 401(k) match and no wage
increase.
The new contract runs three years
and expires March 31, 2011.
CORRECTION
Throughout his career, Gene Klare was always very active in Democratic
politics. In the photo above, he meets President Jimmy Carter. Below he
is pictured shaking hands with President Lyndon B. Johnson.
A photo caption in the May 16 edi-
tion of the Northwest Labor Press
misidentified Gary Moore of Laborers
Local 296 at the 100th anniversary din-
ner of the Columbia Pacific Building
and Construction Trades Council.
The Labor Press regrets the error.
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JUNE 6, 2008
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
His parents divorced when he was a
small child. He and his mother moved
several times before landing in Hous-
ton, Texas, where he graduated from
high school.
During an oral history interview
for the Pacific Northwest Labor His-
tory Association in 1987, Klare said:
“My mind was made up at 12 years
old, I wanted to work on a newspa-
per.”
After high school Klare returned to
Indiana, where he attended Valparaiso
University. He left after a one year to
take a job creating newsletters. It was in
Valparaiso that he met his first wife,
Margaret.
They had a son, Max, who now lives
in Alaska.
The young couple moved to Niles,
Ohio, when Klare landed his first news-
paper job at the Niles Times. They later
teamed up with a friend to buy a weekly
newspaper in Lagrow, Indiana.
Klare was drafted into the Marine
Corps during the Korean Conflict. He
spent two years in Washington, D.C.,
working in the publicity department. He
served nine more years in the reserves,
earning the rank of sergeant.
Following his military duty, Klare
worked at newspapers in Pocatello and
Nampa, Idaho, and San Leandro, Cali-
fornia, and as a freelance political writer
for Time Magazine before moving to
Portland to work at the Oregonian.
Margaret told the NW Labor Press
that Klare was offered, but turned down,
a Nieman Fellowship. The fellowships
are awarded to working journalists of
accomplishment and promise to come
to Harvard University for a year of
study, seminars and special events.
They divorced in 1961.
Klare’s second wife was Jane Zahler.
She had three children from a previous
marriage: Mark, Paul and Mary. To-
gether they had twins Amy and
Matthew. Amy is director of the Civil
Rights Division of the Oregon Bureau
of Labor and Industries, and Matt is an
Oregon state trooper.
Gene and Jane were divorced and in
1973 he met Oleta (Lita) Mooney. They
married in November 1975. Lita had
three grown kids from a previous mar-
riage: Leslie, Michelle, and Kris. Lita
preceded him in death on Nov. 2, 1998.
During his career Klare served as
president of the Portland Newspaper
Guild, chaired the Multnomah County
Civil Service Commission, and was the
first West Coast labor editor to serve as
president of the International Labor
Press Association.
His achievements were recognized
with induction to the Northwest Ore-
gon Labor Council Retirees Hall of
Fame and as a Pacific Northwest La-
bor History Association “Labor His-
tory Person of the Year.”
He was a 45-year member of Office
and Professional Employees Local 11.
Klare was cremated and his ashes
were interred at Willamette National
Cemetery.
The family said a memorial service
will be arranged at a later date.
PAGE 11