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10:12 AM
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IN MEMORIAM
S HELLEY H EROCHIK , a labor edu-
cator and communicator, died Jan. 14
at age 58 of complications from dia-
betes. In the Portland labor community,
she’s best known for her work locally
with the Service Employees Interna-
tional Union (SEIU).
Born Shelley Glotzer, she grew up
in Linden, New Jersey and married
John Herochik in 1976. She earned a
bachelor’s degree from Douglass Col-
lege and a doctorate in education from
Rutgers University in 1982, where she
taught labor history. She next went to
work as an educator for New Jersey
Local 65 of the International Ladies
Garment Workers Union, and later for
New York Local 122.
She helped register union workers to
vote and get out the vote for New York
mayor David Dinkins in 1989. In 1991,
her husband got a job as Portland Rose
Garden Arena production manager, and
the two moved to the Portland area.
She worked for two years for South-
west Washington Congresswoman Jo-
lene Unsoeld. After Unsoeld lost re-
election in 1994, Herochik was hired as
SEIU western region representative.
She also worked on SEIU’s na-
tional health care reform campaign and
helped organize a Portland rally at-
tended by First Lady Hillary Clinton.
In 1997, she was hired by then
SEIU Local 49 secretary-treasurer Rick
Henson as field director. She served as
strike spokesperson during a 33-day
walkout by 2,000 support workers at
Kaiser Permanente. Henson lost his
election in 2000, and Herochik went to
work as a reporter at the Portland Busi-
ness Journal. She also wrote for
BUILDERnews magazine.
To be nearer to families, she and her
husband moved to Chesapeake, Vir-
ginia, in 2005. She took a part-time job
teaching writing, philosophy and busi-
ness, and advising students at the
Chesapeake campus of Cambridge
College, a Massachusetts based school
for working adults.
Herochik is remembered by Port-
land unionists as a big-hearted fighter
for justice with a fierce commitment to
unions and working people.
After a memorial service in Chesa-
peake, Herochik was interred in New
Jersey.
Labor Law Conference
slated Feb. 27 in Portland
The 13th annual Oregon Labor Law
Conference will be held Friday, Feb.
27, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the
IBEW Local 48 union hall, 15937 NE
Airport Way.
The event is sponsored by Local 48,
the Oregon AFL-CIO, the Oregon State
and Columbia-Pacific Building Trades
Councils, and the Northwest Oregon
Labor Council.
Presenters will include Richard
Ahearn, regional director of the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board; manage-
Q
ment attorney Rick Liebman of the
firm Barran Liebman; and Oregon La-
bor Commissioner Brad Avakian.
The conference organizer is Norm
Malbin, in-house attorney for Local 48.
The purpose of the conference is to
provide information that will help
union activists do their job better and
help them avoid legal liability.
For more information, call Kristi
Straight at 503-889-3660 or Malbin at
503-889-3669.
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Dennis steps down as president of
Carpenters local, regional council
Bruce Dennis, a longtime local
leader within the United Brotherhood
of Carpenters, has resigned as presi-
dent of Portland-based Local 247 and
as president of the five-state Pacific
Northwest Regional Council of Car-
penters. Both are unpaid positions.
Until August, Dennis was also a
full-time union representative at the re-
gional council. He and three others
were let go following the regional
council elections, at which he won re-
election as president.
Based on age and years of service,
Dennis, 57, was eligible for the pen-
sion benefit offered to union staff, but
not while he continued to serve as a
union officer. So the decision to resign
the unpaid elected offices was an eco-
nomic one, he told Local 247 mem-
bers in November — and arrived at
after some soul-searching. Dennis has
spent much of his life in the union.
A Northeast Portland native and
Parkrose High grad, Dennis said he
was first exposed to the Carpenters
while he was a long-haired anti-war
student who had enrolled in Portland
State University to avoid the risk of
going to Vietnam. Dennis got a work-
study job in the university facilities de-
partment, and picked up skills from a
former Carpenters member who en-
couraged him to look into the union.
When Dennis graduated in 1973 with
a general studies degree, he promptly
joined Local 247 as an apprentice car-
penter.
James Coon
BRUCE DENNIS
After 15 years in the trade, Dennis
ran for union office. He won election
as trustee in 1988, full-time staff rep
in 1990, local president in 1992, and
regional council president in 1996.
Now that he’s no longer in the
union leadership, Dennis said he’s us-
ing his free time to do things he en-
joys, but hasn’t had time for — fish-
ing, working on his 1964 Corvette,
helping a friend remodel. He sings in
the choir at Trinity Lutheran Church.
He serves on the board of the IBEW
Raymond Thomas
Cynthia Newton
& United Workers Federal Credit
Union.
And he has more time to act on his
beliefs. Among his biggest concerns
are that big-dollar campaign contribu-
tions make the political system unre-
sponsive to regular voters, and that
NAFTA-style trade policies have sold
out the working class. Dennis, his
hardhat covered in union stickers, has
been a regular presence at anti-free
trade rallies. Last fall he campaigned
door-to-door for Portland Commis-
sioner Amanda Fritz and Multnomah
County Commissioner Judy Shiprack.
And he’s active in the Oregon Work-
ing Families Party, a union-backed
third party.
Carpenters are allowed to continue
to work part time while collecting
pension benefits, so Dennis also has
returned to working at the trade, tak-
ing occasional dispatches for short-
term jobs. He said he will continue to
attend Local 247 meetings, and is
freer to speak his mind now that he’s
not chairing them.
“We’ve got a good union,” Dennis
said. “It’s not perfect, but it’s up to us
to make it better.”
To fill its vacancy, Local 247 will
hold nominations at its February gen-
eral membership meeting, and vote on
a replacement at the March meeting.
The Pacific Northwest Regional
Council of Carpenters will nominate
and elect a replacement at a Feb. 15
delegates meeting in Spokane.
Kimberly Tucker
Chris Frost
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FEBRUARY 6, 2009
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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