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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 3, 2009)
JULY 3, 2009:NWLP 6/30/09 Inside 10:25 AM Page 1 MEETING NOTICES See Page 4 Volume 110 Number 13 July 3, 2009 Portland, Oregon H a p p y F o u r t h o f J u l y ! O’Connor to retire from labor council Promoting IBEW Local 48 In a lighthearted effort to increase union “brand awareness,” International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 48 is renting a pair of billboards and giving out bumper stickers with the slogan “Keep Portland Wired.” The motto is a spinoff of “Keep Portland Weird” — a popular bumper sticker that celebrates Portland’s quirkiness. Some people may think Portlanders keep wired enough as it is, considering how much coffee they consume. But that ambiguity is eliminated by the IBEW name and logo next to the slogan. Union electricians have been keeping Portland “wired” for nearly 100 years. The idea was generated by an apprentice member working on a Habitat for Humanity volunteer project. Local 48 Business Manager Clif Davis heard it, liked it, and ran with it. The billboards are visible to eastbound traffic on Sandy Boulevard at NE 96th Avenue (above), and to westbound traffic on I-84 near the Troutdale exit. Judy O’Connor, executive secretary- treasurer of the Northwest Oregon La- bor Council, the state’s largest central labor council, announced June 22 that she will retire before her term of office expires in December 2011. Her last day will be Aug. 28. O’Connor, who turns 62 on July 6, said a change in her defined benefit pension plan was a primary reason for retiring. She is a 27-year member of Of- fice and Professional Employees Local 11. The union’s Western States Pension Fund had investment losses of 32.5 per- cent last year and was declared to be in critical status. In response, pension trustees decided to increase the normal retirement age to 65 and eliminate the early retirement subsidy, among other things. O’Connor has enough years of serv- ice and is at an age that she can collect 100 percent of her pension. Had she completed her term of office and retired at age 64, (after the rule-changes had been implemented), she would have seen her pension reduced. “Retirement has been on my mind for a while now,” O’Connor said. “But when I re- ceived the letter from the pension fund explaining the changes, it made me look at it a little harder — and it changed J UDY O’C ONNOR my timeline. I feel blessed that I am able to retire be- fore all the changes are implemented.” O’Connor went to work as an office secretary at the labor council in 1982 under the leadership of Lon Imel. After Imel retired she managed the office throughout the tenure of his successor, Ron Fortune. When Fortune announced his plans to retire mid-term in 1998, O’Connor decided to step up and run. She was elected to finish that term (the first woman to ever hold the full-time position at NOLC), and has won re- election three times. The most recent election was in November 2007. O’Connor said she will coordinate (Turn to Page 7) ATU #757’s Ron Heintzman named to international post Ron Heintzman, former president of Portland- based Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 757, has been appointed to the number-two posi- tion in his international union. Heintzman, 56, will be executive vice president — responsible for assigning and overseeing the work of 18 international vice presidents and four special representatives. He’ll also be in charge of the union’s organizing efforts, and he would be next in line if the international union presidency becomes vacant. ATU has about 148,000 active members and 37,000 pensioners, with 264 locals across 44 states and nine Canadian provinces. The union represents mass transit workers in most large cities in the United States and Canada, plus school bus drivers and mechanics, and emergency med- ical service personnel. In ATU, international vice presidents are full- time paid staff, responsible for negotiating con- tracts as assigned by the union. They also make up the international’s General Executive Board, which makes decisions between conventions. Heintzman has been an international vice presi- dent since 2002, and has helped bargain union contracts in Wash- ington, Oregon, Ida- ho, Montana, Cali- fornia, Colorado, Nevada, and Texas. In that time, though there have been sev- eral short strikes and some negotiations that dragged on 18 months, Heintzman said he has never failed to reach ag- reement. R ON H EINTZMAN Heintzman’s new position came open when its current occupant an- nounced plans to retire July 31. Heintzman leapfrogged more senior members of the General Executive Board to win the appointment, bucking tradition within the international. But ATU Inter- national President Warren George’s choice of Heintzman received majority approval at the May 1 meeting of the General Executive Board. Heintz- man will need to run for re-election at the next ATU convention in September 2010. Heintzman told the Labor Press he plans to ramp up organizing at the international, particu- larly among paratransit workers, who transport senior and disabled riders. He also expects to take more of an interest in D.C. politics than he has in the past. Heintzman and others at ATU are sensing that mass transit could have job growth potential as society shifts to combat global warming. Heintzman attended the United Nations climate change talks in Poland October 2008 as part of a U.S. labor delegation, and he’ll observe the next round of talks this De- cember in Copenhagen. “If we going to reduce greenhouse gas emis- sions,” Heintzman said, “one way to do that is to take cars off the road and replace them with tran- sit.” Driving a bus is both a “green job” and a union job that can’t be shipped overseas. And yet, with nationwide mass-transit ridership at a 50-year high, 90 percent of transit agencies have cut serv- ice or raised fares, according to a recent survey by the American Public Transportation Association. ATU is pushing a bill in Congress that would allow federal transit money to be used for operat- ing expenses, not just new equipment and con- struction. Heintzman’s early background was in criminal justice. He spent most of his childhood in North Dakota, but finished high school in Seattle. He graduated from Washington State University in Pullman in 1975 with a bachelors’ degree in po- litical science on an Army ROTC scholarship, and then served two years active duty as a second lieu- tenant in the Military Police in Fort Hood, Texas. That was followed by 15 years in the reserves. He moved to Oregon in 1977 to take a job as an agent for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, then attended the police academy in Monmouth, and earned a master’s degree in criminal justice at the University of Portland. He joined TriMet as a tran- sit police officer in 1982, and ran for union presi- dent in 1988 on a platform of drivers’ safety. The new job starts Aug. 1 and will require Heintzman to relocate to the Washington, D.C., area. The farm near Mt. Angel where Heintzman and his wife Linda have lived and raised horses the last 13 years is for sale. The couple’s two daughters, 17 and 19, will accompany them in the move.
