FEB. 6, 2009:NWLP
2/3/09
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MEETING NOTICES
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Volume 110
Number 3
February 6, 2009
Portland
Recession deepens
But help is on the way, say elected leaders
Inauguration Day festivities
Retired International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 48
business manager Ed Barnes and his wife, Luanne, were among
many union members from Oregon and Washington to attend the
Jan. 20 inauguration of President Barack Obama. “It was one of
the greatest experiences of my 75 years of life,” Barnes said. “We
finally have an open door policy at the White House for labor.” For
more on organized labor’s participation in the inauguration, see
Page 12.
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
It’s getting scary out there. The re-
cession that began officially in Decem-
ber 2007 worsened rapidly in Novem-
ber and December. Daily announce-
ments of business closures and mass
layoffs are pushing up unemployment
numbers to levels not seen in decades.
As of December, unemployment
was at 7.2 percent nationally, while in
Oregon, the figure was 9.0 percent, the
highest level since 1983. As of De-
cember, about 175,000 Oregonians
were unemployed, 70,000 more than
the year before.
And sectors where union workers
are concentrated — like manufactur-
ing and construction — are some of
the hardest hit. John Mohlis, executive
secretary-treasurer of the Columbia-
Pacific Building & Construction
Trades Council, said 10 to 25 percent
of local construction union workers
were on their unions’ out-of-work lists
as of mid-January, depending on the
craft.
“My guess is some are going to be
out of work for quite a while,” Mohlis
said — because few projects are in the
pipeline for the warm-weather busy
season.
“The contractors have nothing to
bid on,” said Frank Regalado, business
manager of Elevator Constructors Lo-
cal 23. “I think by June we’re going to
have problems.”
At the Daimler Trucks North Amer-
ica Portland truck plant (formerly
Freightliner) 192 workers were laid off
January 30, including members of Ma-
chinists Lodge1005, Teamsters Local
305, Sign Painters and Paint Makers
Local 1094, and Service Employees
Local 49. The company had earlier
planned to start week-long shutdowns
once-a-month, but instead decided to
lay some workers off.
For Daryl Payne, 39, the layoff
means he’ll go from $860 a week to
$482 — the maximum weekly unem-
ployment benefit. Payne, a 15-year
production technician, is looking at
taking two years of welding classes at
Clark College in Vancouver, which he
hopes will help him become a union
steamfitter like his father.
Some unions have worked out cre-
ative ways to cushion the blow of lay-
offs. In McMinnville, Cascade Steel
Rolling Mills laid off 77 union work-
ers in December, leaving just over 300.
When United Steel Workers Local
8378 President Joe Munger learned
further layoffs might be coming, he
met with company managers and they
came up with a way to match produc-
tion to lowered demand. Members ap-
proved a “rolling layoff” by a strong
margin. The way it works, the com-
pany shuts down department-by-de-
partment for a week or two at a time.
Workers get unemployment benefits
for the weeks they’re off. Cascade
Steel guarantees everyone will work at
least two weeks out of every four, and
agreed to pay full health care premi-
ums for at least the first month. The
two sides will meet each month to ex-
tend the deal. It’s good for the com-
pany because they’ll be ready if and
when demand rebounds; steel industry
analysts say that could be six to nine
(Turn to Page 11)
Employee Free Choice Act
Labor wants Obama to prioritize, help promote EFCA
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The AFL-CIO
wants President Barack Obama to use the bully
pulpit of the presidency to campaign for passage
of the Employee Free Choice Act.
By “speaking positively about unions and
workers’ rights to organize,” by promising to
“stand with and protect” workers’ rights and “by
criticizing employers who interfere” with union-
ization, Obama’s administration “can set a new
tone and put our nation’s labor-relations system
back on the right track,” the national labor feder-
ation said.
Looking at history, union officials noted that
as president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt told the
country that if he worked in a factory, the first
thing he would do is join a union. That led to sig-
nificant growth in labor’s ranks.
Forty years later, President Ronald Reagan sent
exactly the opposite message when he fired strik-
ing air traffic controllers. “That led to employer
anti-union tactics at a level not seen in decades,”
the AFL-CIO said.
“The Obama Administration can make a
tremendous difference by publicly sending the
message that the administration believes in, and
supports, workers’ rights to form and join unions,
and the importance of a thriving labor movement
to our nation’s economic health and well-being,”
the AFL-CIO concluded.
Last month, labor rolled out a new $3 million
advertising campaign mobilizing members of
churches, consumer groups, civil rights groups,
and environmental groups to push Congress to en-
act the Employee Free Choice Act.
Pro-EFCA advertisements are airing on na-
tional cable television networks, as well as on
news talk shows, said Mary Beth Maxwell, exec-
utive director of American Rights at Work, which
assembled the coalition.
Speakers at a press conference launching the
campaign said giving workers organizing and bar-
gaining power raises their standards of living,
which in turn injects more money into workers’
pockets.
“When the law passes and the long decline in
unionization stops, workers will have increased
bargaining power, higher living standards, more
health care, better pension benefits and higher
wages,” said Dean Baker, director of the Center
for Economic Policy Research.
That same point was made by Rhode Island
Price Rite grocery worker Joe Sorrentino, one of
the campaigners for the United Food and Com-
mercial Workers’ organizing drive at the firm. “I
don’t see any big problem with giving Americans
better pay and medical coverage,” he said.
Price Rite is resisting the organizing drive,
even though its parent grocery chain operates 95
percent union.
The Employee Free Choice Act would not only
write majority sign-up into labor law — with
workers rather than bosses deciding how to move
forward — it would also impose heftier fines for
labor law breakers, order the National Labor Re-
lations Board to get court injunctions against fla-
grant violators, and mandate binding arbitration
for a first contract if the workers’ union and the
bosses can’t agree on one within 120 days.
AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel
said the ad campaign is concentrating on 15 to 16
key states whose senators — Democratic and es-
pecially Republican — hold the key to overcom-
ing a planned GOP filibuster against the law. A
majority of senators supported EFCA last session,
but it was procedurally blocked from a vote by
Republicans in the minority.
Samuel said backers now count 60 votes to
stop a filibuster, including Senate co-sponsor
Arlen Specter, R-Pa. But they want to clear that
barrier with plenty to spare and they have to do so
in the face of a multi-million dollar business ad-
vertising campaign against it.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indi-
cated that he won’t take up the Employee Free
Choice Act until sometime this summer. It’s an
“important piece of legislation,” Reid told the Las
Vegas Sun newspaper. “We’re going to get to
that.”
“It will not be an easy lift,” said Wade Hender-
son, executive director of the Leadership Confer-
ence on Civil Rights, who was at the press con-
(Turn to Page 9)