NOV. 6, 2009:NWLP
11/3/09
10:21 AM
Page 9
Steward won’t seek re-election
as president of AFSCME Local 88
American Federation of State,
County, and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) Local 88 President Becky
Steward will step down when her term
ends Nov. 18. Steward, 59, plans to re-
tire in the next year from her job as
senior business analyst at Multnomah
County’s Department of County Man-
agement.
Local 88 vice president Michael
Hanna is running unopposed to suc-
ceed her.
Steward has been Local 88 presi-
dent since 2005, when she was elected
to serve the remainder of her prede-
cessor Marla Rosenberger’s term. She
was twice re-elected to two-year
terms.
Local 88 represents about 2,700
employees of Multnomah County, 84
percent of whom are full union mem-
bers. Also in Local 88 are employees
of three non-profit organizations:
American Friends Service Commit-
tee, Central City Concern, and Transi-
tion Projects.
Looking back, Steward said union
president was hardest but also the best
work of her career; hardest, Steward
said, because there’s always more you
can do. Members have high expecta-
tions for the position, which carries a
BECKY STEWARD
$300 a month stipend but is not a paid
staff position.
The job was also a healthy stretch
for the self-described introvert.
The successes she has seen she at-
tributes to group efforts. Those she is
proudest of include bargaining a wage
freeze with the county that prevented
layoffs; making the local more aware
of the issues of the non-profit sub-lo-
cals; and changes in how meetings are
conducted.
“We instituted democratic princi-
ples in our meetings. Everybody gets
a chance to speak. Even if people dis-
agree, we work to give everybody an
opportunity to express their voice.
And then we vote.”
That included candidate endorse-
ments, which are now made by mem-
bers, after a forum in which they hear
from candidates for County office.
The political committee makes a rec-
ommendation, but it’s the members at
the meeting who decide, directly.
Steward said she’s always been a
union supporter, owing to her up-
bringing as the daughter of a Presby-
terian minister who taught about so-
cial justice. While earning a
bachelor’s degree in anthropology at
Portland State University, she worked
at Pacific Northwest Bell as an opera-
tor, clerk, and dispatcher, and was a
member of Communications Workers
of America until she was promoted
into management, then downsized.
She went to work for the county in
1987, and later got involved in AF-
SCME, first as a steward, then chief
steward, then secretary.
She said she will remain active as a
steward and member until she retires.
Once she retires, she plans to buy a
trailer and travel around the United
States for 12 to 18 months, and then
return to enroll in a service program
like Americorp.
7LUHG
RI
:RUNLQJ
LQ
3$,1"
0RVW ,QVXUDQFH
3ODQV $FFHSWHG
3 528'/< 6 (59,1*
3 257/$1' : 25.(56
) 25 2 9(5 < ($56
%HHVRQ &KLURSUDFWLF
KHOSV EULQJ WKH
UHOLHI \RX QHHG
7UHDWPHQW IRU SDLQ GXH WR
RYHUXVH DQG UHSHWLWLYH PRWLRQ
&KLURSUDFWLF DGMXVWPHQWV
7UHDWPHQW IRU DFFLGHQW DQG
VSRUWVUHODWHG LQMXULHV
5HKDELOLWDWLRQ H[HUFLVHV
7KHUDSHXWLF PDVVDJH
,QWHUQDO GLDJQRVLV DQG WUHDWPHQW
/DE WHVWV DQG [UD\V
'U 'DQ %HHVRQ &KLURSUDFWRU
6( 7KLUWHHQWK $YH LQ 6HOOZRRG
&$//
Hard times in construction industry
lead to wage freezes for Carpenters
Hard times in the construction in-
dustry — and last year’s stock market
meltdown — took a bite out of com-
pensation in recent contract settle-
ments covering thousands of union
Carpenters.
In mail ballots counted Sept. 18,
members of the United Brotherhood
of Carpenters ratified an agreement
with the Oregon-Columbia chapter of
Associated General Contractors
(AGC) that looked much like the deal
they rejected at meetings in June. Un-
der the terms of the two-year agree-
ment signed by the Pacific Northwest
Regional Council of Carpenters (PN-
WRCC), the journeyman carpenter
wage will be frozen at $32.40 an hour
through June 2010.
And starting Dec. 1, 2009, that
wage will be reduced by $1.10, money
that will instead go to shore up the
pension trust, where assets lost value
in last year’s stock market tumble. Un-
like the rest of the employer pension
contribution, the $1.10 won’t accrue
future benefits. Regional council
spokesperson Eric Franklin said mem-
bers’ average age is mid- to late- 40s,
and shifting funds to make up for the
pension shortfall prevents the trust
from having to eliminate benefits such
NOVEMBER 6, 2009
as the “80 and out” early retirement
provision.
“We wanted to make sure our re-
tirees are protected and there’s not di-
minishment of benefits,” Franklin said.
The new contract also raised the
threshold for a lower wage on smaller
privately funded jobs: Projects of $4
million or less can pay $27.54 an hour
— 85 percent of the regular wage.
Franklin said that wage will make
union-signatory contractors more
competitive with open shop contrac-
tors in bidding on small projects like
strip malls and light commercial
work.
“We’re partners with our contrac-
tors, and they’re really hurting,”
Franklin said. “We’re just basically
trying to make sure that we keep their
doors open and get through this spot
in the economy.”
The new AGC contract covers
5,000 to 7,000 general construction
carpenters, millwrights and pile driv-
ers, most of whom work for general
contractors in Oregon and Southwest
Washington. It expires June 1, 2011.
Wages for the second year of the con-
tract will be negotiated next year.
On Oct. 28, PNWRCC announced
a tentative Exterior/Interior agreement
with Associated Wall and Ceiling
Contractors of Oregon and Southwest
Washington. Mail ballots went out
this week and must be postmarked by
Nov. 12. Similar to the AGC deal, the
agreement contains a one-year wage
freeze at $33.14 an hour for journey-
man drywallers, with wages in the
second year of the contract to be ne-
gotiated later. The threshold for a
lower 85 percent wage on smaller pri-
vate projects was raised to $750,000.
In a letter to members and their
families, PNWRCC leaders said the
bargaining team didn’t like the agree-
ment, but considered it the best of the
bad options.
“Today our contractor base has
been badly shaken by cancelled proj-
ects, lack of credit, and fewer opportu-
nities to bid,” the letter stated. “We
must remain in the game and still have
a base of contractors with whom to
bargain in better times.”
The agreement runs through May
31, 2011 and covers about 1,500 dry-
wallers and lathers at Exterior and In-
terior Local 2154.
Bargaining on the two contracts
had been under way since February
and March. Both previous contracts
had expired as of May 31, 2009.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 9
