Northwest labor press., July 17, 2009, Page 2, Image 2

JULY 17, 2009:NWLP
7/14/09
10:27 AM
Page 2
Move to put Fred Meyer IBEW #280 votes Frew business manager
on Unfair List is tabled
Fred Meyer Inc. dodged a bullet July
13 when the Northwest Oregon Labor
Council Executive Board tabled a re-
quest to put the retailer on its Unfair/Do
Not Patronize List.
The citing was brought to the Exec-
utive Board by Cement Masons Local
555 and International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers Local 48.
Fred Meyer did not respond to the
labor council’s citing as requested.
The construction locals have been
conducting informational picketing at
Fred Meyer stores for several months
because the company is using nonunion
contractors on its remodeling projects.
“Fred Meyer wants our union mem-
bers to spend money at their stores and
pharmacies, yet won’t let us bid their
work and, in fact, hires contractors that
provide little in the way of prescription
drug benefits for their workers,” said
Bob Childers, an international repre-
sentative of the Operative Plasterers and
Cement Masons International Associa-
tion.
Fred Meyer is owned by Kroger Inc.
of Cincinnati.
Three unions — United Food and
b h
m k
Commercial Workers Local 555, Bak-
ers Union Local 114, and Teamsters —
each represent workers at Fred Meyer.
“We’re sympathetic. Fred Meyer
should be doing its remodeling work
union,” said Local 555 Secretary Treas-
urer Jeff Anderson, who requested that
NOLC table the motion. “But, we can-
not support a secondary boycott that af-
fects our members.”
Local 555 is in the midst of bargain-
ing with Fred Meyer and other grocers
in the Portland metro area and in Cen-
tral Oregon. Fred Meyer bargains
jointly with Albertsons and Safeway us-
ing labor consultant Food Employers
Inc. Clerks, meatcutters and central
checkout clerks at those stores have
been working under an extended con-
tract for more than a year.
Additionally, Local 555 is trying to
bargain a first contract for non-food em-
ployees at The Dalles Fred Meyer.
Those workers voted to join the union
in November 2007.
Childers encouraged union leaders
to notify their trust offices about the la-
bor dispute and to consider changing
pharmacies if nothing changes.
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PAGE 2
TANGENT — In a June 30 runoff
to determine International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
Local 280’s next business manager,
one-time vice president Tim Frew out-
polled former business manager Den-
nis Caster 278 to 219. Incumbent
business manager Tim Nicol placed a
close third in the first round of voting
held June 9.
With headquarters just south of Al-
bany, Local 280 represents about
1,200 construction electricians and
sound and communications techni-
cians in the Willamette Valley and
Central Oregon.
Frew, 51, is a 25-year IBEW mem-
ber starting in Local 177, Jack-
sonville, Florida. He moved with his
wife to Eugene in 1991 and became a
member of Local 280. Frew served as
Local 280 vice president from 1997 to
2000, and was an Oregon AFL-CIO
convention delegate and chair of the
IBEW-NECA Safety Committee. He
has also volunteered as an organizer
and has served as a job site steward.
T IM F REW
For the last seven years, Frew has
worked for EC Company.
Frew began his three-year term
July 17, and hired Local 280 members
Bill Kisselburgh and Tom Baumann
as organizer and dispatcher, respec-
tively. Baumann served two terms as
recording secretary and one term as
president, ending in 2006.
Frew spoke well of Nicol and
Caster, the other candidates for busi-
ness manager, and lauded Nicol’s
work in the legislative arena.
Frew plans to focus on making
sure IBEW members seize opportuni-
ties in green technology jobs. Local
280’s training center has a strong pro-
gram in solar, Frew said. The chal-
lenge will be to find work for union
members in an industry that has
tended to be nonunion.
Frew also wants to involve more
young members, and expects to work
with Local 280 President Drew Lind-
sey to appoint younger members to
committees.
Lastly, Frew said the ideal of broth-
erhood is central to his vision for the
local, and it’s an ethic he wants to in-
still in members, for example, through
team-building community efforts like
Habitat for Humanity.
“Sometimes we forget about the
brotherhood, our roots and where we
came from, the oath we took,” Frew
said. “Even in these struggling times,
if we stick together and rely on one
another, unions will emerge stronger.”
Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council
wants NOAA facility relocated to Newport
Oregon on short-list for
federal agency’s Marine
Operations Center
The Columbia Pacific Building and
Construction Trades Council has en-
dorsed relocating the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration’s Ma-
rine Operations Center to the Port of
Newport in Oregon’s Lincoln County.
NOAA is considering leaving its
current facility on Lake Union in Seattle
after its lease expires in 2011. The move
will relocate six research vessels and 75
administrative positions from Seattle to
Newport.
Ed Hall, labor liaison to U.S. Sen.
Jeff Merkley (D-OR), told construction
union leaders July 6 that all of Oregon’s
congressional delegation have signed
on supporting the relocation to Oregon.
In addition to the permanent jobs,
there will be a considerable amount of
construction work, Hall said.
The Port of Newport owns five acres
of land on which NOAA could con-
struct new facilities.
Officials said the move would bring
up to $19 million in economic benefits
to the Oregon Coast.
Three other ports are competing for
the center, including Port Angeles,
Bellingham and Lake Union, all in
Washington.
The building trades council is asking
union leaders and rank-and-file work-
ers in Oregon to send letters of support
to NOAA, specifically to:
• Admiral Jonathan W. Bailey, direc-
tor NOAA Corps, Office of Marine and
Aviation Operations, 8403 Colesville
Road, Suite 500, Silver Spring, MD
20910.
• James Barrows, contracting officer,
Western Administration Support Cen-
ter, Facilities and Logistics Division,
7600 Sand Point Way, N.E. Seattle, WA
98115-0070.
• Jane Lubchenco, undersecretary of
commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere,
14th and Constitution Avenue, NW,
Room 5128, Building HCHB, Wash-
ington, D.C., 20230-0001.
A decision from NOAA is expected
by August.
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JULY 17, 2009