DEC. 4, 2009:NWLP
12/1/09
9:42 AM
Page 2
...20 union supporters fired after organizing drive begins
(From Page 1)
when a BrucePac employee who is re-
lated to a Local 296 member called
Aranda and asked for help. Local 296
has about 1,000 members, including
construction workers, shipyard work-
ers, and school district and housing au-
thority employees. Roy saw no reason
the union couldn’t represent BrucePac
workers too.
A meeting of union supporters was
called at one worker’s home.
“They want job security and respect
on the job, to quit being treated like
dogs,” Roy said.
Workers interviewed for this article
described abuse and mistreatment by
supervisors, as well as rampant fa-
voritism. Supervisors’ friends and fam-
ily members — and younger, more at-
tractive female employees — get
higher wages and easier work assign-
ments, workers said. And that’s not all:
Some workers reportedly witnessed in-
appropriate touching of female em-
ployees by supervisors.
Four BrucePac employees have
filed complaints of employment law vi-
olations, including sexual harassment.
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and In-
dustries Civil Rights Division is inves-
tigating.
“It would be against federal and
state law to discriminate or treat an em-
ployee adversely because of their gen-
der,” said BOLI spokesperson Bob Es-
tabrook.
After the first meeting, union talk
spread among employees at BrucePac.
But management knew right away. The
day before the second union meeting,
a BrucePac supervisor was threatening
an “explosion” if it kept up.
Before the month was out, the ex-
plosion came: 20 workers who had
voiced support for the union, and 25
others who had stood up to supervisors
in some way or were otherwise out of
favor, were terminated. BrucePac did
not return calls from the Labor Press
about the number and reasons for the
Laurelhurst nursing home now a union shop
Laurelhurst Village nursing home
in Southeast Portland — which fired a
pro-union worker in April — is now a
union shop.
As a condition of joining an indus-
try partnership with Service Employ-
ees International Union (SEIU) Local
503, parent company Farmington
Centers agreed in September to recog-
nize the union if a majority of workers
signed union authorization cards. Lo-
cal 503 spokesperson Ed Hershey at-
tributed the company’s decision to
community pressure, and the union’s
carrot-and-stick strategy with nursing
homes.
SEIU’s partnership with Oregon
Health Care Association, begun in
2002, commits the union to use its po-
litical clout to maintain and improve
public funding, and not to publicly
criticize nursing home companies. In
return, companies stay neutral when
employees look at joining the union,
recognize the union on the basis of
"card check," and bargain a contract
on an expedited timetable.
On Nov. 23, by agreement with
both sides, Oregon State Rep. Jules
Kopel Bailey matched cards against a
list provided by Laurelhurst Village,
and determined that a majority of the
144 workers had signed. That brings
to 26 the number of Oregon nursing
homes that are unionized, for a total
of over 1,100 workers. Local 503 rep-
resents certified nursing assistants,
janitors, kitchen workers, and support
staff at the facilities, which rely on
Medicaid reimbursements to pay for
the care.
Lobbying together at the Oregon
Legislature, SEIU and the nursing
home industry association have been
able to win funding improvements,
and an almost 40 percent improve-
ment in staff-to-patient ratios.
Hershey said the union expects to
begin bargaining a contract for Lau-
relhurst Village workers in January.
Thus far, union wages and benefits are
only marginally above the nursing
home industry average, but unionizing
brings workers workplace rights like a
grievance process, seniority rights,
and just cause discipline.
In July, Laurelhurst Village paid
back wages plus an undisclosed
amount to settle an unfair labor prac-
tice charge over the firing of pro-union
worker Elizabeth Lehr, in return for
her agreeing to waive her right to rein-
statement. She continued to volunteer
in support of the union campaign.
layoffs.
In mid-July, Local 296 filed 18 sep-
arate NLRB charges protesting the fir-
ings. BrucePac retained Jackson Lewis,
possibly the nation’s best-known anti-
union law firm.
To inform workers of their rights,
and of the benefits of union member-
ship, Local 296 staff and member vol-
unteers began showing up with fliers
outside the Silverton and Woodburn
plants. Managers responded by stand-
ing outside to observe who would talk
to the union contingent on the way out.
At the Woodburn plant, manage-
ment called police upon the unionists’
arrival. And in at least one case, Aranda
said, with unionists waiting at the plant
entrance, managers kept workers work-
ing three hours past their normal 3:30
p.m. quitting time.
In the workplace, anti-union meet-
ings began, and continue. Signing a
union card will put their jobs at risk,
workers are told. They’ll have to pay
$75 union dues out of every paycheck.
The union doesn’t want them to get
overtime. The union wants to destroy
the company.
Aranda said the union tries to
counter the misinformation, but does-
n’t have anywhere near the access to
employees that management has.
The union called a meeting for a
Saturday. Management scheduled em-
ployees to work that day, and subse-
quent Saturdays.
On Nov. 3, Mid-Willamette Valley
Jobs With Justice turned out a group of
40 protesters outside the Silverton
plant, accompanied by a giant balloon
of a fat cat strangling a worker. Man-
agement was ready for them. Banners
hung from the building called on pass-
ing motorists to honk if they support lo-
cal businesses. A company flier in Eng-
lish and Spanish appealed to workers
to “tell the union to stop these senseless
attacks.”
“Why is the union doing this?” a
flier asked. “The answer is simple: The
union wants to destroy BrucePac’s
business and reputation so we lose cus-
tomers.… While trying to harm the
company, the union’s actions could
also harm you and all other BrucePac
employees.”
None of that’s true, Roy said.
“We want BrucePac to succeed,”
Roy said, “and we want the employees
to share the benefits.”
BrucePac didn’t respond to the La-
bor Press’ invitation to share its version
of the story, but did issue a statement to
the Salem Statesman-Journal, which
reported on the Nov. 3 protest.
“BrucePac recognizes and respects
employees’ rights under federal law,”
the statement reads. “It has been union-
free for several years in large part due
to its competitive wages and benefits
and employee-focused labor relations.”
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DECEMBER 4, 2009