NWLP-2-16-09:NWLP
1/20/09
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MEETING NOTICES
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Volume 110
Number 2
January 16, 2009
Portland, Oregon
192 union jobs cut at
Daimler (Freightliner)
SEIU demands ‘McJustice’
Protesters denounce anti-union stance at 100 McDonalds locations
that would make it easier for workers to form a union and
win a first contract.
The protests were a response to a Nov. 25 memo to all
2,400 company franchisees from McDonald’s USA Pres-
ident Don Thompson, which urged them to contact sen-
ators and representatives to oppose the Employee Free
Choice Act. A copy of the memo was leaked to Crain’s
Chicago Business magazine. The memo said the legis-
lation, if enacted, would “impact the McDonald’s sys-
tem.” Accordingly, Thompson wrote, McDonald’s had
formed an internal “response team” to help franchisees
“actively participate in the opposition to EFCA.”
SEIU said its protesters visited nearly 100 McDon-
ald’s locations nationwide. Protesters passed out leaflets
that asked, “How does McDonald’s really feel about
America’s workers,” and noted that the McDonald’s
CEO earns the equivalent of $6,250 an hour, while
workers are paid an average of $8.11 an hour.
After the protests, the company released a statement
Staff and members of SEIU Local 503, above, show up saying their reported position against EFCA was a “mis-
Dec. 18 at a Salem McDonald’s restaurant 1110 Center representation” and that they “try not to take sides in po-
St., but not for the Dollar Menu.
litical issues.”
Around the United States, members and staff of Service
Employees International Union (SEIU) went to McDon-
ald’s Dec. 18 — to protest the company’s opposition to the
Employee Free Choice Act. EFCA is a bill in Congress
Daimler Trucks North America
(formerly Freightliner) opened the
new year by announcing it will lay off
192 union workers at its Portland
plant at the end of January and cut
2,137 production line workers from
operations in Cleveland, Mount Holly,
and Gastonia, North Carolina by the
end of March.
Daimler made it known last Octo-
ber that it would cease making trucks
at Portland’s Swan Island Industrial
Park by June 2010 as part of a major
restructuring plan. But the early round
of cuts took union officials by sur-
prise.
“I certainly didn’t see it coming;
this was a surprise,” said Joe Kear, a
business representative of Machinists
Lodge 1005.
Workers in Portland are repre-
sented by four unions — Machinists
Lodge 1005; Sign Painters and Paint
Makers Local 1094; Teamsters Local
305; and Service Employees Local 49.
A total of 163 Machinists were given
pink slips, along with 33 Painters, 16
Teamsters, and seven Service Em-
ployees.
By June 2010, 700 additional fam-
ily-wage jobs will be gone.
Daimler Trucks North America
corporate headquarters will remain in
Portland for now, the company said.
About 1,900 nonunion workers are
still employed in administration, prod-
uct development, procurement, and in-
formation technology. In 2007, the
sales, marketing, and customer sup-
port work was relocated to Fort Mill,
South Carolina.
Portland production line workers
were told Jan. 8 that orders for the
Western Star brand truck were down
dramatically in November and De-
cember, thus warranting the earlier-
than-expected job cuts. Production has
dropped from 17 Western Star trucks a
day to just 10 trucks a day. The Port-
land plant also produces 10 military
vehicles a day.
The plant once made all Freight-
liner trucks — with 3,000 union work-
ers cranking out 112 trucks a day. But
since 2000 the work has migrated in
stages to plants in Mexico and North
and South Carolina.
“Daimler is at the forefront in mov-
ing manufacturing work to Mexico,”
Kear said. “The company says the
layoffs are due to market conditions,
but Daimler isn’t downsizing in Mex-
ico at a comparable rate. It doesn’t
help to rebuild our (U.S.) economy by
relying on imports, instead of building
things here (in the U.S.).”
By June 2010, all Western Star pro-
duction will take place in Santiago
Tianguistenco, Mexico. More truck
manufacturing will begin later this
year at Daimler’s brand new 1 mil-
lion-square-foot facility in Saltillo,
Mexico.
This migration to Mexico is cost-
ing jobs in the U.S. and Canada.
In Mt. Holly, 572 members of the
United Auto Workers will be out of
work March 13 when the company dis-
continues production of Class 6 and 7
(Turn to Page 7)
Twelve international union presidents hold ‘unity meeting’
Leaders from AFL-CIO and
Change to Win labor
federations talk about reuniting
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — Prodded by
transition team officials for President-Elect Barack
Obama, 12 international union presidents held a
“unity meeting” Jan. 7 in the nation’s capital to try
to figure out how the labor movement can speak
with one voice, not three. They emerged pledging
“broad participation” in the effort, but no specifics.
In attendance at the session, called by former
House Democratic Whip David Bonior, chair of
American Rights at Work, were presidents of five
the seven unions that make up the Change to Win
labor federation, six of the 56 AFL-CIO unions,
and the new National Education Association Pres-
ident Dennis Van Roekel. His 3.2 million-mem-
ber union is the nation’s largest.
The presidents’ joint statement said: “The goal
is to create a unified labor movement that can
speak and act nationally on the critical issues fac-
ing working Americans.” It added that “while we
represent the largest unions, we recognize unity
requires broad participation.”
Local union leaders hailed the news. Chicago
Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon
said it would be “welcomed by local labor move-
ments and stands to benefit all working people in
this country.”
Reunification at the top of organized labor
would also ratify what has, to some extent, hap-
pened on the ground since Change To Win split
from the AFL-CIO in 2005: close cooperation in
elections and legislation.
Attending the meeting, besides Bonior and Van
Roekel, were AFL-CIO member union presidents
Larry Cohen (Communications Workers), Leo
Gerard (Steelworkers), Ron Gettelfinger (Auto
Workers), Gerald McEntee (AFSCME), Ed Hill
(International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers),
and Randi Weingarten (American Federation of
Teachers). Change to Win presidents attending
were Joe Hansen (United Food and Commercial
Workers), James Hoffa (Teamsters), Terry O’Sul-
livan (Laborers), Bruce Raynor (UNITE HERE),
and Andy Stern (Service Employees).
The statement also said AFL-CIO President
John Sweeney and Change to Win Chair Anna
Burger joined the session, but that was not con-
firmed.