OCT. 17, 2008:NWLP
10/14/08
9:55 AM
Page 7
Steelworkers mount union
campaign at Oregon Steel
United Steelworkers (USW) is
nearing the end of a three-month cam-
paign to unionize 566 employees at
Evraz Oregon Steel Mills.
The operation, in Portland’s River-
gate Industrial District, includes a spi-
ral pipe plant, a structural tubing plant,
and a rolling mill that turns slab steel
into steel plate used in rail cars, barges,
natural gas pipelines, wind towers and
military armor.
The Portland complex has been
nonunion since the company — then
known as Gilmore Steel — perma-
nently replaced striking union mem-
bers in 1983.
But in 2004, Oregon Steel Mills
agreed to be neutral towards unioniz-
ing efforts, as part of the settlement of
a six-year labor dispute at Rocky
Mountain Steel — its Pueblo, Col-
orado subsidiary. Oregon Steel Mills
has since been bought by the Russian
steel company Evraz.
The neutrality agreement, part of
the union contract that covers the
Pueblo workers, gives the USW a one-
time 90-day window during which it
can talk with workers in company
break rooms, and contact workers
from a company-provided list. If a ma-
jority of the Portland plant’s produc-
tion and maintenance workers sign
union cards, Oregon Steel Mills is sup-
posed to recognize the union.
The agreement commits both sides
not to disparage the other. Because
USW initiated the campaign in early
August, the union has until Nov. 4 to
gather the cards.
But the campaign has not been
trouble-free. Oregon Steel Mills has
hired the Burke Group, a Malibu, Cali-
fornia consulting firm that specializes
in “union avoidance.” And both union
and management accuse the other of
violating certain terms of the neutrality
agreement. An arbitrator will rule on
those charges Oct. 15 (after this issue
of the Labor Press went to press) and
could give the union more time to sign
up workers if its charges are found to
have merit.
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503-288-5537
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Endorsed by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Tualatin Valley Fire Fighters Local 1660
Columbia County Democratic Central Committee
United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555
Brad Witt, State Representative House District 31, Columbia County
Paid for by the Committee To Retain Judge Grant 280 S First Street, St Helens, OR 97051
OCTOBER 17, 2008
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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