DEC. 5, 2008 8pger:NWLP
12/2/08
10:21 AM
Page 5
Clay takes helm at UFCW #555
Dan Clay has been appointed acting
president of Tigard-based United Food
and Commercial Workers Local 555.
Clay was elected president of the
union in October, but the term of office
doesn’t officially start until Jan. 1, 2009.
Clay defeated Secretary-Treasurer Jeff
McDonald in a race to succeed four-
term incumbent Gene Pronovost, who
did not seek re-election due to retire-
ment
Jeff Anderson, a union organizer and
longtime member of Local 555, was
elected secretary-treasurer. He defeated
Executive Vice President Roberta Cun-
ningham for the open seat.
Rather than wait two months for the
new administration to be installed, Lo-
cal 555’s Executive Board worked out a
deal whereby McDonald resigned as
secretary-treasurer. Clay then was ap-
DAN CLAY
pointed by the Executive Board to com-
plete McDonald’s term of office.
Pronovost then resigned as president.
Under the union’s constitution, the sec-
retary-treasurer becomes acting-presi-
dent until a successor is named. No suc-
cessor will be named.
This all happened Nov. 6.
Local 555 represents approximately
18,500 workers in Oregon and South-
west Washington. It is the largest pri-
vate-sector union in the state.
The union is in the midst of contract
negotiations for some 6,000 grocery
workers, meat cutters and central
checkout clerks at Kroger (Fred Meyer,
QFC), Albertsons, and Safeway stores
in the Portland area. Employees have
been working under contract extensions
since July 26.
Clay, Anderson and the bargaining
committee met with the employer rep-
resentative on Nov. 24. Further talks
have been scheduled for Dec. 18-19.
AFL-CIO prioritizes ‘09 legislative agenda
The Executive Board of the Oregon
AFL-CIO on Nov 18 approved five leg-
islative concepts that it will introduce
when state lawmakers convene in Salem
in January 2009.
The state labor federation will lobby
for bills that:
• Change the definition of “manage-
rial employee” back to its previous def-
inition of “supervisory employee” in the
Public Employee Collective Bargaining
Act. The definition was changed in
1995’s Senate Bill 750 to exclude some
employees from being eligible to join a
union.
• Require state governmental depart-
ments to demonstrate an actual overall
cost savings that is not based solely on
lower pay and benefits, before public-
sector jobs can be contracted out to pri-
vate for-profit and non-profit companies.
Under the proposal, displaced workers
would be offered jobs with the contrac-
tor at current pay and benefits.
• Establish labor standards for busi-
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ness energy tax credits and renewable
energy. The 2007 Legislature increased
business energy tax credits for renew-
able enterprises, but the statute did not
define labor standard requirements. The
AFL-CIO bill would specify that 80 per-
cent of jobs covered should be full time,
local jobs that pay a living wage of at
least 300 percent of the federal poverty
level for a family of four, and should in-
clude health insurance and paid leave.
Businesses receiving energy tax credits
would have to file an annual report
showing they are meeting the criteria.
• Make it illegal for employers to
hold “captive audience” meetings relat-
ing to religion, politics and union organ-
izing and give employees the right to sue
their employers if they are disciplined or
fired for not attending such meetings.
• Reform Oregon’s Products of Dis-
abled Individuals Law. The current law,
written in 1977, allows non-profit qual-
ified rehabilitation facilities to take pub-
lic contracts without competitive bid-
ding, and requires them to replace the
current workers doing the job with
workers who are disabled. The law is
administered to allow literally anyone
with any type of disability to qualify, re-
gardless of severity or degree. The state
labor federation’s proposal would rede-
fine severely disabled.
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