May 15, 2009:NWLP
5/12/09
10:09 AM
Page 5
Virtual reality system trains painters Champions of single payer
in Oregon and Southwest Washington health care meet in Portland
Kelly Humann (left) takes a test run in the virtual reality
painter training booth at the Painters and Tapers Regional
Apprenticeship Training Center in Northeast Portland.
Watching in the photo below from left to right are Painters
apprenticeship instructor Harry Kalin, Apprenticeship
Coordinator Bill Regan, and International Union of
Painters and Allied Trades Job Corps Program Field
Coordinator Jim Purdy. Humann is an apprenticeship and
training rep for the Finishing Trades Institute. The virtual
reality paint training system is a computer simulation used
for teaching proper spray painting techniques to
apprentices and to help journeymen perfect their skills.
The system gives painters immediate feedback on their
transfer efficiency, paint consumption, overspray, and
paint thickness — all without
spending a dime on paint or res-
pirators, while reducing hazardous
waste and emissions. The training
center purchased the simulator two
months ago using a grant from
Worksystems Inc. Clackamas. The
technology was developed several
years ago by the University of
Northern Iowa in partnership with
Iowa Waste Reduction Center and
the Iowa Army National Guard for
use in training workers to paint
military vehicles. “This system cuts
down on waste, and it shows our
younger apprentices the hand-eye
coordination needed in painting, and
it lets our journeymen know where
there is room for improvement,”
Regan said. The virtual reality
painting system will be set up at this
year’s Women in Trades Career Fair
May 16 at the IBEW Local 48 Hall,
15937 NE Airport Way, Portland.
Mark Dudzic, national organizer for
the Labor Campaign for Single Payer
Healthcare, held a strategy session May
6 with a group of Portland union ac-
tivists. The visit was part of a West
Coast tour promoting labor support for
the universal health coverage plan pro-
posed by Rep. John Conyers of Detroit.
Conyers’ bill, House Resolution 676,
would expand Medicare — the govern-
ment health insurance program for sen-
iors — to cover all Americans.
The bill would be the most efficient
route to guaranteed universal health
care, because there would be just one,
public, “single” payer for health serv-
ices, not hundreds of private insurance
companies with complicated billing
procedures and exceptions. But it faces
a political obstacle: HR 676 would
eliminate private insurance companies
from any significant role providing
health insurance.
“The primary hurdle is that people
believe it’s not politically possible,”
Dudzic told the Northwest Labor Press.
“The function of a labor campaign is to
change that perception.”
Labor Campaign for Single Payer
Healthcare was formed in January at a
national conference in St. Louis at-
tended by 150 trade unionists. Tom
Leedham, president of Portland-head-
quartered Teamsters Local 206, is a
member of the group’s national steer-
ing committee. Dudzic is a former New
Jersey union president with the Oil
Chemical and Atomic Workers and
long-time national organizer for the La-
bor Party — an effort to form a union-
backed national political party.
Dudzic said HR 676 has strong sup-
port at the grass roots of the labor move-
ment. So far, 20 international unions, 39
state labor federations, 127 central la-
bor councils, and more than 400 local
unions have passed symbolic resolu-
tions supporting the bill. Since 2007,
the national AFL-CIO has listed single
payer as one option it would support.
But many international union leaders in
Washington, D.C., don’t see the bill as
likely to pass, and in a meeting with
AFL-CIO political staff, Democratic
DePaul clarification:
An article in the May 1 issue, “De-
Paul workers learn how hard it is to
unionize in America” failed to make
clear that DePaul Industries — which
fired a group of workers who tried to
unionize — is not the same organiza-
tion as the better-known Society of St.
Vincent De Paul charity or St. Vincent
De Paul parish in downtown Portland.
DePaul Industries was founded in 1971
— with a grant from the Society of St.
Vincent De Paul — as an independent
not-for-profit organization. While De-
Paul Industries says its mission “values
the spirit and tradition of St. Vincent
DePaul,” the organization has no direct
connection to the Catholic Church.
The Northwest Labor Press regrets
any confusion the article may have
caused.
MAY 15, 2009
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly
confirmed that it will go nowhere. So
leaders of organized labor are instead
largely focusing their political efforts on
making the best of other health care re-
form proposals, such as Obama’s cam-
paign promise of a government health
insurance plan offering that anyone
could buy into. The AFL-CIO and sev-
eral large unions have joined with other
organizations to form Health Care for
America Now, an umbrella group or-
ganized to support Obama’s campaign
for a public insurance plan.
For its part, Labor Campaign for
Single Payer Healthcare wants to make
sure the “single payer” idea is at least
on the table when Congress discusses
health care reform this year. To achieve
that, Dudzic said, single payer advo-
cates will have to overcome Washing-
ton, D.C., group-think, which he called
a “gigantic echo chamber of people
telling each other what they can and
can’t do.”
When Montana Sen. Max Baucus
held a hearing May 4 on health care re-
form, no advocates for “single payer”
were invited to testify, and Dudzic was
one of eight single payer advocates who
were arrested for standing up in the
hearing room to demand “single payer”
be considered.
HR 676 has 75 co-sponsors in the
House, including Rep. Jim McDermott
of Seattle.
Public/private work
relations LERA topic
The Oregon Chapter of the Labor
and Employment Relations Association
(LERA) is sponsoring a Public & Pri-
vate Labor Employment Relations
Conference from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Thursday, May 21, at the new Univer-
sity of Oregon-Portland branch, 70 NW
Couch St. (the old White Stag building
in Old Town.)
Registration is $99 for members of
LERA, $120 for non-members and $45
for students. Registration includes ma-
terials, continental breakfast, lunch, and
break refreshments.
For more information, e-mail Ore-
gonLERA@ aol.com.
Howard Dean will
speak at JJ dinner
VANCOUVER — Howard Dean
will be the keynote speaker at the Jef-
ferson Jackson Dinner and Auction Fri-
day, June 5, at the Clark County Fair-
grounds.
The event, which is from 4:30 to 9
p.m., is a Democratic Party fundraiser
hosted by the Clark County Democrats.
Tickets are $65 if purchased before
June 1, and $75 after that.
For more information, call Paul
Stuckenschneider at 503 860-7004 or
email him at plstuck@tds.net.
PAGE 5