Inside
MEETING NOTICES
See
Page 6
Volume 109
Number 15
August 1, 2008
Portland, Oregon
Caregivers of migrant children join Laborers #320
Employees at the Oregon Child De-
velopment Coalition in Washington
County voted July 23 to join Laborers
Local 320. The vote, conducted by the
National Labor Relations Board, was
124-17 in a bargaining unit of 170
mostly Hispanic women. Thirteen bal-
lots were challenged by management.
“For a unit of this size, it is one of
the widest margins of victory I’ve seen
in my 30 years doing this,” said John
Seaton, organizing director for the La-
borers Northwest Region.
Local 320, headquartered in Port-
land, represents 1,100 workers in heavy
and highway construction, at industrial
plants, as well as in the public sector.
OCDC is a non-profit pre-school
childhood care and education network
that works primarily with families of
the state’s migrant farm workers.
Statewide, it employs 1,100 workers at
operations in 12 counties, serving about
3,000 children and families.
The Washington County bargaining
unit consists of teachers, teacher assis-
tants, cooks, bus drivers, custodians and
other workers at locations in Cornelius,
Forest Grove and Banks, Oregon.
“These are truly people that need
Employees from the Oregon Child Development Coalition in Washington
County celebrate after ballots were counted in favor of union representation
by Laborers Local 320.
union representation, and they knew it,”
said Local 320 organizer Ben Guzman.
As “at-will” employees, several teach-
ers — some with more than 10 years of
service — had been fired for no appar-
ent reason. Many employees were paid
$8 an hour with no benefits.
Guzman said he was initially con-
tacted by an employee who had been
fired without cause.
“Because I spoke Spanish, she asked
me to represent her,” Guzman said.
Guzman told the Labor Press that he
and the woman met with an OCDC ad-
ministrator, who told them he didn’t
have to explain the firing to anyone.
Three months passed before a group
of employees from OCDC called Guz-
man and asked about joining the union.
“I laid it out to them,” he recalled. “ I
told them they had to unite, hold hands
and work together.”
A full-fledged organizing campaign
ensued, with picnics, house visits and
authorization cards signed.
At first, Local 320 filed for card-
check recognition with the Oregon Em-
ployment Relations Board, but were
told OCDC was a private, non-profit or-
ganization.
“Because there was state and federal
funding, we thought we were dealing
with public employees,” said Local 320
Business Manager Dave Tischer.
OCDC operates on a budget of al-
most $35 million a year. It gets funding
from the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, U.S. Department
of Education, U.S. Department of Agri-
culture, Oregon Department of Educa-
tion, Oregon Child Care Division,
Washington County Commission on
Children and Families, and the Hills-
boro and Forest Grove school districts,
as well as from private donations.
ERB told the union that it would in-
vestigate, but that it would take some
time and the results probably wouldn’t
be in their favor. The only other option
was to file for an election through the
National Labor Relations Board.
“Once we found this out, we knew it
would be more difficult going through
the NLRB,” Tischer said.
But pushed by employees, the cam-
paign forged ahead.
Seaton, from the international union,
praised Guzman and Tischer for their
work coordinating the campaign, but he
was especially proud of the employees.
“This was worker-driven. I have to hand
it to them, it was one of the best cam-
paigns I’ve seen,” he said.
Tischer said the goal now is to get a
first contract ratified. The wide margin
of victory should help smooth the way.
Sizemore operation faces new forgery allegations
Union-backed group finds
evidence of fraud in campaigns
for measures that are headed for
the ballot
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Staff at a labor-supported watchdog group found what they
think is evidence of forgery on initiative petitions sponsored by
anti-union activist Bill Sizemore — after less than 40 hours of
staff time spent combing through petition sheets.
The group, Our Oregon, shared its early findings with Oregon
Secretary of State Bill Bradbury June 16. Then, after it appeared
nothing was being done with the information, the group filed a
formal complaint July 15 with the state Elections Division, which
Bradbury oversees.
The Elections Division is certifying eight measures for the
November ballot, despite indications that election law was vio-
lated by paid signature gatherers who worked on seven of the
campaigns.
Those signature gatherers are employees of Democracy Di-
rect, Inc., a for-profit company owned by Sizemore associate Tim
Trickey. A 2005 complaint by Our Oregon resulted in fines for
Trickey, Sizemore, and two Democracy Direct subcontractors for
violating the voter-approved ban on the pay-by-the-signature
bounty. Sizemore himself has a history of initiative abuses — a
jury found two of his groups had engaged in a pattern of fraud
and forgery during several 2000 ballot measure campaigns.
Democracy Direct ran the 2007-2008 paid signature-gathering
operations for nine initiatives aimed at the November 2008 ballot.
Five of the initiatives were sponsored by Sizemore and two by
former state Republican Party chair Kevin Mannix. The other two
initiatives, which didn’t make it to the ballot, were sponsored by
Russ Walker, current vice chair of the Oregon Republican Party.
[Walker also co-sponsored three of the Sizemore measures.]
The current forgery allegations stem from a two-day visit in
June by two Our Oregon staff members to the Elections Division
offices in Salem. Rachel Lebwohl and Maggie Weller looked for
irregularities in a small sample of the initiative petition sheets.
They tried to match up sheets for different measures that were
circulated by the same paid petitioner on the same day. That was-
n’t easy: A single ballot measure can easily require more than
15,000 signature sheets. But Our Oregon spokesperson Scott
Moore, formerly of Bradbury’s office, said it didn’t take long to
find rather obvious evidence to confirm their suspicions.
A very high proportion of pages had all the signers’ address
and date information filled out in the same handwriting, and
sometimes that handwriting was different than that of the circula-
tors who’d signed below swearing they’d witnessed the signa-
tures. On many sheets, it was clear that carbon paper had been
used to copy addresses and dates from one signature sheet to oth-
ers; the signatures were always in ink, but on some sheets, they
were written on top of the carbon. Sometimes, the same individ-
ual’s name appeared on several measures, but with fundamentally
different signatures.
Lebwohl and Weller made copies, and used voter registration
databases to locate some of the people whose names appeared on
the suspicious signature sheets. Moore said they called as many
as 200 individuals and spoke with about 70. Though most didn’t
remember whether they’d signed or not, and some were suspi-
cious or uncooperative, seven said they were certain they hadn’t
signed the petition on which their names appeared. And four of
those agreed to go public.
Keizer resident Ellen Clay confirmed to the NW Labor Press
that she was approached in Salem outside a Kohl’s store — and
signed several petitions. Clay specifically declined to sign a peti-
tion eliminating seniority pay for teachers — there are several
teachers in her family. But her name appears on a sheet for that
initiative, and paid petitioner Joseph Yearby, who lists a Flint,
Michigan, home address, signed below swearing he witnessed all
the signatures. Clay wonders: Did Yearby trick her into signing a
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