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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 2009)
March. 20, 2009:NWLP 3/17/09 9:50 AM Page 3 IN MEMORIAM Swan Nelson, a 63- year member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, passed away March 5. He was 85. Nelson served as exec- utive secretary-treasurer of the then-Portland Dis- trict Council of Carpen- ters for many years begin- ning in the mid-1960s. The council has since undergone sev- eral mergers and is now the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Car- penters. Nelson was elected as a full-time business agent for the Carpenters Coun- cil in 1954. He worked for the union un- til 1974, when he returned to the field as a carpenter. In 1976 he went to work at the Job Corps, starting as a pre-ap- prenticeship carpentry instructor at Timber Lake and later assisting in the opening of a carpenters’ training pro- gram at Springdale in east Multnomah County. He retired in 1984. In the late 1990s he survived bouts with prostate and throat cancer. Throughout his career Nelson repre- sented the Carpenters on the executive boards of the Oregon AFL-CIO, North- west Oregon Labor Council, and Ore- gon State Building and Construction Trades Council. He served on the Multnomah County Planning Commission, and on the board of the Union Labor Retire- ment Association. He was appointed by Gov. Tom McCall to a work- ers’ compensation task force that studied how to make power tools safer. He also served as co-chair of a 1950s la- bor committee that raised funds and re- cruited volunteers for construction of the first OMSI. He was inducted into the Northwest Oregon Labor Retirees Council Hall of Fame in April 2000. Nelson was born April 26, 1923 in Clark Fork, Idaho, one of nine siblings. He came to Portland to work on the new Bonneville Dam project, joining Operating Engineers Local 701. He served in the Navy from 1942-46 during World War II. After his discharge he returned to Portland, where he joined and became active in Carpenters Local 738. That union later merged into Lo- cal 1388 in Oregon City. He was preceded in death by his wife, Jeanette, in 2006. They married in September 1946. Nelson is survived by his sons, James C. and Chris J.; and daughter, Patty A. Richmire. Memorial contributions can be made to the American Cancer Society. Judge bans labor adversary Bill Sizemore from running charities Bill Sizemore — the perennial sponsor of anti-union initiatives on the Oregon ballot — now faces a court or- der banning him from having a role in any tax-deductible non-profit charity. Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Janice Wilson issued the order March 6 after lawyers from a teachers union and the Oregon attorney gen- eral’s office showed that Sizemore vio- lated an earlier court order that re- stricted his handling of money for non-profits. That order resulted from a 2002 jury decision in a lawsuit filed by the Oregon Education Association (OEA) and American Federation of Teachers Oregon, later joined by the State of Oregon. The jury found that organizations controlled by Sizemore had engaged in a pattern of forgery and fraud in campaigns to get anti-union initiatives on the 2000 ballot. Sizemore used a sham charity to avoid revealing the identity of his political donors, and to give them tax deductions they weren’t legally entitled to. Under the 2003 court order, Size- more was instructed to obey all cam- paign finance and charitable organiza- tion laws, and banned from handling money for any tax-deductible non- profit. But Size- more flouted that order when he set up a charitable non- profit in an- other state. American Tax Research Foun- dation (ATRF) — chartered in B ILL S IZEMORE Nevada — had Sizemore’s mother and a close friend on the board, and did no meaningful work analyzing the fiscal impact of ballot measures. ATRF enabled Size- more donor Loren Parks to claim a tax deduction for hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions that were paid out to Sizemore while he worked on anti-union initiatives for the 2008 ballot. ATRF paid for everything from a time share vacation rental to Size- more’s daughters braces, yet Sizemore could not show the court any meaning- ful work he’d done for the charity. “It was created as a sham,” Judge Wilson said. “It was run as a sham.” Having violated the ban on han- dling money for charitable non-profits, Sizemore is now banned from running or being paid by any charitable non- profit, and must get Judge Wilson’s permission to fill those roles for any political-cause-oriented non-profit. He can still serve as chief petitioner on ballot measures, but will face close scrutiny if he raises or handles money for the campaigns. The court order runs through 2013. OEA attorney Greg Hartman said Judge Wilson’s ruling was more re- strictive of Sizemore than even the unions had asked for. “If you had to sum it up, the pur- pose [of the court order] is to get him out of the charitable organization busi- ness,” Hartman said. As he has with every previous rul- ing, Sizemore made statements to the press blaming his legal difficulties on the judge, jury, unions, and elected leaders like the Oregon attorney gen- eral, whose job is to enforce campaign finance and charitable activities law. “Bill’s perspective is the law does- n’t apply to him,” Hartman said. “He can keep pointing fingers, but the real- ity is that the evidence is overwhelm- ing that he has simply continued to ig- nore the law and ignore the court’s orders, continued to do whatever he damn well pleased, and it’s finally catching up with him.” Rain Forest Boots Made in America! Try a pair on, you’ll like them. Tough boots for the Northwest. AL’S SHOES 5811 SE 82nd, Portland 503-771-2130 Mon-Fri 10-7:30 Sat 10-5:30 Sun 12-6 (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon as a voice of the labor movement. 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Ore. 97213 Telephone: (503) 288-3311 Editor: Michael Gutwig Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non- profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore- gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union members. Group rates available to trade union organizations. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS, P.O. BOX 13150, PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 MARCH 20, 2009 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 3
