Northwest labor press., December 05, 2008, Page 7, Image 7

DEC. 5, 2008 8pger:NWLP
12/2/08
10:21 AM
Page 7
After 32-year career, Pronovost retires from UFCW #555
Gene Pronovost has seen and expe-
rienced a lot as a labor leader in Ore-
gon. But after 32 years in the business,
he decided not to run for a fifth term as
president of United Food and Com-
mercial Workers Local 555 — the
state’s largest private-sector union,
with about 18,500 members.
Pronovost’s term doesn’t officially
expire until the end of the year, but to
help ease the transition of a new team
of elected leaders, he agreed to step
down early. His last day was Nov. 6.
“I’m retiring at a time when labor
might have some renewed hope,”
Pronovost said. “For the last eight
years, labor has been under constant
attack by the Bush Administration. I
think things might start turning around
(with the election of Barack Obama as
president). At least I hope they do.”
In the course of his career, Prono-
vost, 55, has worked in many facets of
the trade — starting out as a rank-and-
file member of Retail Clerks Local
1092 working as a boxboy and grocery
clerk. He was an elected union rep, a
hired union rep for both public and
private-sector unions, and he served
stints as grievance director, member-
ship services director, and executive
assistant to the president at Local 555.
In 1996, he reached the pinnacle of
his career as president of Local 555, a
post he held for four terms — the
longest reign in the union’s history.
Along his journey, Pronovost helped
bargain contracts that improved the
lives of thousands of union workers.
His involvement as chief co-sponsor of
a 2002 ballot measure also resulted in
wage increases for thousands of Ore-
gon’s lowest-paid workers — people
with no ties to organized labor. Voters
passed Measure 25, raising the state’s
minimum wage and indexing it to in-
flation so that to this day, when costs
go up, workers get a wage adjustment
to match it.
“That was probably one of my most
satisfying accomplishments,” he said.
But he’s also very proud of a bill
the union helped pass last year in the
Oregon Legislature that allows work-
ers who have been locked out by their
employers during a multi-employer la-
bor dispute to file for unemployment
insurance.
“I fought a long time to get that bill
through,” Pronovost said. “It was one
of my goals before I retired.”
Asked if he had any regrets, or
would like a “do over,” Pronovost said
he couldn’t think of anything. Cer-
tainly he would liked to have organ-
ized a Wal-mart store, something the
international union has been trying to
do in the United States for decades. He
is confident, however, that if the Em-
ployee Free Choice Act is passed into
At age 24, Gene Pronovost was
one of the youngest delegates to
attend the 1977 Oregon AFL-CIO
convention.
law, some Wal-mart stores will union-
ize. “They can’t close all their stores,”
he said, referring to a store the com-
pany closed in Canada shortly after
workers voted for the union.
He might also covet a second shot at
being president of Retail Clerks Local
1092. In 1983, he ran unsuccessfully
against incumbent Mike Hereford.
Shortly after the defeat, he went to
work for Oregon AFSCME Council
75, assigned as a union rep to Mult-
I NDEPENDENT R ETIREMENT L IVING
Westmoreland's
Union Manor
Marshall
Union Manor
6404 SE 23rd Ave.
Portland 97202
2020 NW Northrup
Portland 97209
503•233•5671
503•225•0677
Manors Make
the Difference
• Studio and One-Bedroom
Apartments
• Affordable Rent includes
Utilities ( EXCEPT PHONE AND CABLE )
• Planned Events, Clubs, and
Activities
• Ideal Locations offer easy
access to Bus Lines, Shopping,
and Entertainment
• No Costly Buy-In or
Application Fees
• Federal Rent Subsidies
Available (M UST Q UALIFY )
DECEMBER 5, 2008
M ARSHALL U NION M ANOR
Opened in January of 1974
L ABOR L EADERS IN THE
P ORTLAND B UILDING T RADE
M OVEMENT ORGANIZED THE
U NION L ABOR R ETIREMENT
A SSOCIATION IN 1962, WITH THE SOLE PURPOSE
OF PROVIDING HOUSING FOR THE ELDERLY .
“ We believe that everyone earns the
right to retire, free from pressures
of earlier years.”
Kirkland
Union Plaza
Kirkland
Union Manors
1414 Kauffman Ave.
Vancouver 98660
3530 SE 84th Ave.
Portland 97266
360•694•4314
503•777•8101
WWW . THEUNIONMANORS . ORG
TDD 503•771•0912
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Gene Pronovost at a 2002 press conference announcing the filing of an
initiative petition to increase the state’s minimum wage and provide annual
cost-of-living adjustments. Only six of 12 measures on the statewide ballot
were approved by voters that year — Measure 25 was one of the six.
nomah County Employees Local 88.
Four years later he returned to the
grocery union to work for then-Presi-
dent Ken MacKillop. In 1985, Ore-
gon’s retail, grocery, and meatcutter
locals merged to create UFCW Local
555. In 1987, MacKillop defeated
Hereford in an election mandated by
the merger.
MacKillop retired in 1996 and
members elected Pronovost as his suc-
cessor. He was re-elected by wide
margins or by acclamation for three
more consecutive terms.
Pronovost believes a large part of
his success and sustainability came
from surrounding himself with quality
staff and stewards. “We tried to always
stay positive and loyal to our member-
ship,” he said.
Pronovost learned his labor philos-
ophy from his parents, who were ac-
tivists both politically and at work. His
father was a postal clerk at a time
when government employees weren’t
allowed to have a union.
“That doesn’t mean they weren’t
organized,” Pronovost said. “I remem-
ber going to meetings with my mom
(who was with the women’s auxiliary)
and dad to plan political events or for
something going on at work. They
were very involved.”
A native of Portland, Pronovost
graduated from David Douglas High
School in Northeast Portland and at-
tended the University of Oregon for
two years.
As many students do, he worked
part-time as a box boy and grocery
clerk. It was while working as a clerk
at Ernie’s Thriftway in Beaverton that
he met Lon Imel and Nellie Fox. Both
were reps for the Retail Clerks Union
and regular customers at the store.
“It was a highly energized union
store,” Pronovost recalled.
That energy apparently rubbed off.
In December 1976, at age 23,
Pronovost ran for and was elected a
union rep at Local 1092. He jumped
right in, helping to create the first shop
stewards program at the local. [In
1999, in his second term as president
of Local 555, Pronovost launched the
first steward summit to recognize the
hard work done by shop stewards.]
In 1977, Pronovost was a delegate
at his first Oregon AFL-CIO conven-
tion. In an interview with the Labor
Press featuring young union members,
Pronovost said that he would like to
see the AFL-CIO devote more energy
toward setting organizing targets and
helping organize nonunion workers.
“I think the labor movement is go-
ing to have to change. You can’t stay
as you are,” he said in the 1977 inter-
view. “The labor movement has to be
educated in economics and law. It’s
not like the old days where it was
power politics. Now you have to jus-
tify everything.”
Pronovost clung to that philosophy
throughout his career. As president he
established an aggressive organizing
department at Local 555, and created a
political action program to keep mem-
bers informed about issues that im-
pacted their jobs. He also stayed active
in other organizations, serving as pres-
ident of the Portland Provision Trades
Council; as a vice president of the
Oregon AFL-CIO; on the Executive
Board of the Northwest Oregon Labor
Council; as chair of the Oregon Labor
Press Publishing Co. board of direc-
tors; as chair of the Oregon Wage and
Hour Commission; on the advisory
committee of the Labor Education and
Research Center at the University of
Oregon; on Labor’s Community Serv-
ices Agency board of directors; on the
Oregon Employment Advisory Coun-
cil, as well as a trustee on several
union pension and health care trusts.
In 2001, he was appointed to the
international union’s Executive Board
— the first UFCW labor leader from
Oregon to ever hold a seat on the
board. He will serve in that capacity
until Dec. 31.
PAGE 7