JULY 18, 2008:NWLP
7/15/08
10:53 AM
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Conditions are attached
Government agencies okay bridge plan... but
Oregon AFSCME, a progressive labor
organization, is seeking a union rep to
provide tech, admin and organizing
skills to affiliated locals. Position
requires quasi-legal expertise in labor
and employment law, leadership skills,
written & verbal skills, and ability to
build and maintain positive relation-
ships. Rep’s operate with general su-
pervision and must be self motivated.
Excellent pay and benefits. Position in
Eugene, OR.
Send resumes by July 25 to:
Rick Henson, AFSCME
P.O. Box 12455, Salem, OR 97309 or
rhenson@oregonafscme.com .
JULY 18, 2008
C a r p en te r s , E l e c tr i c i a n s , L a b o r er s , G l a z i er s , Sh ee tm et a l W o r ker s , F l o o r c o ve r e r s , B r i c kl a y er s , C e m en t Ma s o n s , R o o f e r s , A s b es t o s W o r ker r s , M i l l wr i g h ts , P a i n t er s , El ev a to r s , P l a s te r er s ,
HELP WANTED
will pay for it, and how much.
Building trades union officials and
members attended most of the public
hearings, where they provided testi-
mony in support of a new bridge with
light rail and bike lanes.
“Three years of hard work has
gone into this already,” said Lynn
Lehrbach of Teamsters Joint Council
No. 37 in testimony before the Port-
land City Council on July 9. Lehrbach
was one of 79 people to speak.
“The feds are on board. Both states
are on board. If we don’t do this now,
we will miss out on a very important
opportunity. If not now, when will we
do it? And what will the cost be
then?” Lehrbach asked.
Joe Esmonde, speaking on behalf
of the Columbia Pacific Building and
Construction Trades Council, said any
delays could set the project back 10
years or more. “It’s the right project at
the right time for our region,” he said.
Supporters of the replacement
bridge say the region is well positioned
politically to get federal dollars for
most of the light rail project, as well as
a good portion of the highway and in-
terchange work. The I-5 bridge is a
major West Coast freight thoroughfare,
and fixing the bottleneck at the bridge
is listed as a high priority by the U.S.
Department of Transportation.
Statewide and locally, bridge tolls
and gas tax increases are on the table.
Portland City Council supports a CRC
recommendation that would impose
tolls before the new bridge is even
built, while Vancouver City Council
opposes tolls altogether.
TriMet and Portland favor a bridge
with six total through lanes, while the
CRC plan endorses as many as 12
lanes. Vancouver City Council backed
a “stacked transit” option that would
eliminate a third span for light rail
tracks.
These and other issues will be dis-
cussed as phase two moves forward.
“If a new bridge is built, it is built
with no more through lanes than exist
right now,” said Portland Mayor-elect
Sam Adams, who is a city commis-
sioner in charge of transportation. The
I-5 bridge currently has three through
lanes running both north and south.
Adams said Portland has leverage
in the final product design. “The po-
tential exists, the raw materials exist,
the good will exists to really make a
bridge that we can be proud of,” he
said. “But if this doesn’t live up to its
promise, if this doesn’t live up to our
expectations, we can stop this.”
Portland commissioners all agreed
that building the bridge should be
done with local workers and contrac-
tors.
Use of apprenticeship programs
and women and minority-owned con-
tractors “is of fundamental importance
to me,” said Commissioner Nick Fish.
“This is a need, it has to be done
anyway, but it also creates great jobs
and wealth for working-class people
in our community,” said Commis-
sioner Randy Leonard. “I can’t imag-
ine the circumstances under which it
should not happen.”
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A HARD RAIN FELL:
Struggles for civil rights in the 1960s
and their meaning today
A forum on Friday, August 8, at 7:00 pm
6401 SE Foster Rd, Portland, Oregon
(SEIU Hall)
Sponsored by SEIU Local 503
Civil & Human Rights Committee
Panel Speakers:
Union activist Ann Montague on Bayard Rustin
& Gay Liberation
Union organizer Bob Novick on the legacy of the 1960s
Civil rights leader Jarvis Tyner on
connecting the 1960s to now
Info: Contact BobRossi, 503 581-1505 X141
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Over the past month, five govern-
ment agencies have passed resolutions
supporting construction of a new In-
terstate 5 bridge over the Columbia
River between Portland, Oregon and
Vancouver, Washington.
Approval by the Portland City
Council, Vancouver City Council,
Metro, TriMet and C-Tran are crucial
because any one agency could kill the
project if they were to oppose it. Their
support now, however, doesn’t mean
the bridge will be built. It merely
moves it from phase one to phase two
in the planning process.
A 39-member Columbia River
Crossing (CRC) task force has recom-
mended to the Oregon Department of
Transportation and the Washington
Department of Transportation a “lo-
cally preferred alternative” that calls
for replacing the aging lift-span bridge
with a “seismically sound” new bridge
that includes light rail, and bicycle and
pedestrian access. Additionally, the
project would rebuild seven inter-
changes and add merging lanes be-
tween State Route 500 in Vancouver
to Victory Blvd., in Portland.
Public agencies, businesses, labor,
civic organizations, neighborhoods
and freight, commuter and environ-
mental groups were represented on the
CRC task force, which met 23 times
between February 2005 and June
2008 before making its recommenda-
tion.
Cost for the project is pegged at
$4.2 billion and is to be funded by a
mix of federal, state and local money,
including bridge tolls.
Each of the government agencies
passed resolutions supporting a new
bridge with light rail and bicycle ac-
cess. [Metro’s vote was held after this
edition went to press, but it was ex-
pected to pass.] However, with each
agency’s stamp of approval came
pages of conditions that each would
like to see implemented during the
second phase of planning. Key among
the conditions are: 1) the design and
number of lanes to be built; 2) the im-
pact on the environment; and 3) who
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