FEB. 6, 2009:NWLP
2/3/09
10:12 AM
Page 10
Labor says replace I-5 bridge now
Local labor officials told Portland
City Council it’s time to bring to a close
the long and drawn out debate over re-
placing the Interstate 5 bridges.
“We’ve been talking about this for a
long, long time now. It’s not something
new,” said Judy O’Connor, executive
secretary-treasurer of the Northwest
Oregon Labor Council. “This has been
studied and studied. The longer we
wait, the more expensive it gets.”
Portland City Council held a public
hearing on the subject Jan. 29. O’Con-
nor was among 75 people signed up to
give testimony.
“It’s time to poop or get off the pot,”
said Lynn Lehrbach of Teamsters Joint
Council 37. “We need to build a bridge
that will last 100 years — and build it
12 lanes.”
The Teamsters want 12 lanes, in
part, to allow the center lanes to remain
relatively unobstructed for movement
of freight. “Moving in and out of lanes
can be very dangerous,” Lehrbach said.
“The more lanes, the better the trucks
can get through.”
Labor groups are generally in agree-
ment that the current six-lane bridges
should be replaced with new bridges
Teamsters begin withdrawing funds
from KeyBank over strike at Oak Harbor
Teamster local unions across the
country have informed KeyBank of
Cleveland, Ohio, that they intend to end
their financial relationship with the
bank. KeyBank and its parent company,
KeyCorp, are the primary lender for
Oak Harbor Freight, based in Auburn,
Wash., where 470 Teamsters have been
on strike for the past four months.
The strike involves more than 100
members of Portland-based Teamsters
Local 81.
It is estimated that local Teamster
unions and sister unions maintain ap-
proximately $18 billion in assets
through KeyCorp and its subsidiaries.
In a letter addressed to local unions,
Teamster President Jim Hoffa asked
that they contact KeyCorp immediately
and begin the process of transferring
their business to a comparable service
provider.
“KeyBank, which operates branches
in several states, is playing a critical
role in the ongoing dispute by provid-
ing funds that allow Oak Harbor
Freight Lines to survive,” Hoffa said.
Teamsters started bargaining for a
new contract with Oak Harbor in Oc-
tober 2007 and so far the union nego-
tiators have met with management over
25 times. Union members went on
strike Sept. 22, 2008 to protest Oak
Harbor’s violations of U.S. labor laws.
This is the first strike in the five
decades that Teamsters have repre-
sented employees of Oak Harbor
Freight.
that have the capacity to accept 12
lanes, with light rail and pedestrian and
bike access.
City Commissioner Randy Leonard
appears to be on board with that plan,
but it’s not clear what other city com-
missioners, the mayor, or Metro coun-
cilors favor. The two councils held a
joint work session Jan. 26 to talk about
the replacement bridge. From that
meeting, it appears opposition to the
12-lane option will come from Metro
councilors Carl Hostika and Robert
Liberty, and new City Commissioner
Amanda Fritz.
City Commissioners Nick Fish and
Dan Saltzman and Mayor Sam Adams
look to be undecided, as do Metro Pres-
ident David Bragdon and councilors
Rod Park, Carlotta Collette, Kathryn
Harrington and Rex Burkholder.
A 39-member Columbia River
Crossing task force spent three years
discussing what, if anything, should be
done to the current bridges connecting
Oregon and Washington. The task force
favors 12-lane replacement bridges
with light-rail and bike and pedestrian
crossings.
Anticipated cost at this point is be-
tween $3.1 billion to $4.2 billion —
which also includes work on six nearby
interchanges.
Both the City Council and Metro
will make their recommendations
known by Feb. 25. The bridge, in what-
ever form, is not slated to break ground
for at least two years.
Obama reverses Bush executive orders,
creates new Middle-Class Task Force
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President
Barack Obama reversed three Bush-era
anti-worker executive orders and created
a Cabinet-level task force to rebuild the
nation’s middle class. In a White House
ceremony Jan. 30, attended by AFL-
CIO President John Sweeney and other
union leaders, Obama signed three ex-
ecutive orders that reverse a series of or-
ders by then-President George W. Bush,
which govern the way federal contrac-
tors deal with unionized workers.
The three new executive orders:
• Require federal service contractors
to offer jobs to current workers when
contracts change.
• Reverse a Bush order requiring fed-
eral contractors to post notice that work-
ers can limit financial support of unions
serving as their exclusive bargaining
representatives.
E
E
FR
• Prevent federal contractors from be-
ing reimbursed for expenses meant to
influence workers deciding whether to
form a union and engage in collective
bargaining.
“We cannot have a strong middle
class without strong labor unions,”
Obama said before signing the orders.
“We need to level the playing field for
workers and the unions that represent
their interests.”
Obama also announced creation of
the White House Task Force on Middle
Class Working Families to develop and
coordinate policies to rebuild the na-
tion’s middle class. Vice President Joe
Biden will chair the task force. A Web
site, www.strongmiddleclass.gov, has
been set up where workers can submit
ideas about how the economy has af-
fected them and ideas on changing it.
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PAGE 10
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FEBRUARY 6, 2009