May 1, 2009 :NWLP
4/28/09
9:56 AM
Page 3
...DePaul CEO denies any wrongdoing, ULP dropped
(From Page 2)
swore that receiving notification of the
unfair labor practice charge was the
first they’d heard of any union activ-
ity. And if they didn’t know there was
a union campaign, they couldn’t really
have fired workers for taking part in it,
could they?
All the fired workers believe they
were terminated for supporting the
union, but they couldn’t prove that, or
even that management knew of the
union. The unfair labor practice
charges were dropped.
“The word ‘union’ didn’t even
come out of my mouth after that,”
Taylor said. Taylor said he’d had no
disciplinary problems before. But
once the union drive died, he says he
was hassled constantly for petty vio-
lations of company policy, each men-
tion of which made it into his person-
nel file. A gold necklace with a New
York Giants ring would sometimes
tumble out of his shirt, and that vio-
lated company policy against wearing
loose jewelry. He spent too much time
in the bathroom, managers said.
Taylor lasted until March 3, when a
manager suspended him on accusa-
tion of taking pictures with his cell
phone. His phone doesn’t have a cam-
era, he told the manager. Still, he had
a phone in his hand in a work area,
came the company’s retort: He must
have been goofing off. Taylor was on
lunch break when the incident oc-
curred, he says. He was fired anyway.
In an interview with the Labor
Press, DePaul CEO David Shaffer
wouldn’t discuss particulars of the fir-
ings, but said workers are sometimes
fired when they violate company
rules. “Are employees terminated?
Yes, they are,” Shaffer said, “just like
in any other company where an em-
ployee violates a particular policy.”
Shaffer said he stands by DePaul’s
mission — providing employment op-
portunities to people with disabilities,
so they can move on and become con-
tributors to society.
“If we can bring people in, have
them gain some work skills, develop
a work history and then get employ-
ment elsewhere where there are higher
wage opportunities, that’s A-okay
with us,” Schaffer said.
Pierre is still out of work. So is
Francois. Perez enrolled in Job Corps.
Taylor is mulling his legal options, in-
cluding a possible civil lawsuit.
In the last year, national business
groups like the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce have aired millions of dol-
Rep. Wu doubtful Congress will reform
health care system with single-payer plan
Oregon Congressman David Wu
doesn’t foresee a single-payer health
care system in the United States.
The Obama Administration has put
reforming the nation’s health care sys-
tem front and center in its strategy to
revive the struggling economy. But Wu,
a Democrat representing the First Dis-
trict, told nearly 60 union leaders at a
breakfast meeting April 15 sponsored
by the Northwest Oregon Labor Coun-
cil that Obama is likely to retain the
current employer-based system.
Wu said 150 million to 190 million
Americans are currently covered under
an employer-based system. “Most peo-
ple like it and they want to keep it,” he
said. “To doom any type of reform is to
say you are taking that away.”
A majority of unions support a sin-
gle-payer health care plan as proposed
by U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michi-
gan. HR 676 would institute a single-
payer health care system by expanding
and making improvements to Medicare.
As for labor’s top legislation — the
Employee Free Choice Act — Wu said
there is still work to be done to get it
through the Senate. Until then, it won’t
come up for a vote in the House, where
it has strong majority support.
Wu is an original co-sponsor of the
Employee Free Choice Act.
On trade, the six-term congressman
said it’s time to “re-think what we do”
in regard to trade treaties.
“Working folks have suffered a lot”
under free trade agreements that have
been signed over the last 10 to 15 years,
he said. “Shareholders and investors
are the winners.”
Wu supports an amendment to the
TRADE Act, a bill that was introduced
last year by U.S. Rep. Michael
Michaud of Maine. HR 6180 did not
come up for a vote in the 110th Con-
gress, and has yet to be reintroduced
this year.
MAY 1, 2009
Wu has been working with Michaud
to incorporate new language into the
bill before submitting it. Overall, the
TRADE Act would require the Gov-
ernment Accountability Office to re-
view all existing U.S. trade pacts, and
based on the review, would allow the
renegotiation of those deals. The bill
would also set the terms for future trade
agreements, including labor, environ-
mental, and human rights standards.
During a question and answer pe-
riod, Wu reiterated his opposition to a
labor-backed liquefied natural gas plant
near Astoria unless the community sup-
ports it and until it is proven to be safe.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
lars worth of television ads showing a
fictional union organizer who knocks
on a worker’s door and intimidates
him into signing a union card. Nothing
could be further from the reality De-
Paul workers experienced. There, the
union organizer was a fellow worker,
Crane, who would meet with them on
weekends and before and after his
shifts at Frito-Lay. DePaul workers
had plenty of reason to unionize, but
their campaign fizzled when the pro-
moters were fired.
The business ad campaign is meant
to prevent the Employee Free Choice
Act from passing in Congress. The
Employee Free Choice Act would
rewrite the nation’s labor law to make
it easier for workers to unionize and
get a first union contract.
If the Employee Free Choice Act
had been the law last year, the cards
that DePaul workers signed would
have been enough to get them their
union, and management would have
had to negotiate a decent first contract
— or have one imposed on them in
binding arbitration. Employers would
think twice about firing workers for
supporting a union drive, because un-
der the Employee Free Choice Act
they would face fines of up to $20,000
per violation, plus triple back pay.
There are no fines in the current law,
only reinstatement with back pay —
minus whatever wages workers
earned elsewhere after they were fired.
If it passes, Crane says, the union
will be back for a second try at De-
Paul.
Zachary
Zabinsky
• Social Security
• SSI - Disability Claims
Personal Attention To Every Case
Working For Disability Rights
Since 1983
NO FEE WITHOUT RECOVERY
621 SW Morrison, Portland
503-223-8517
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