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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 7, 2010)
May 7, 2010:NWLP Inside 5/4/10 10:12 AM Page 1 MEETING NOTICES See Page 8 Volume 111 Number 9 May 7, 2010 Portland, Oregon Unions sign project labor agreement for federal building job Oregon’s fallen workers remembered SALEM — The names of 66 Oregon workers and soldiers killed on the job were read at the Fallen Work- ers Memorial (photo above right) on the Capitol Mall on April 28 — Workers Memorial Day. Several family members of the deceased were among more than 100 people who attended the ceremony, which included the Oregon State Defense Force Pipe Band (photo above left). “Workers Memorial Day is a day to remember those we have lost. But it is also a day to remember that the fight is not over, and to rededicate ourselves to control- ling and eliminating the workplace conditions that put our friends and family at risk of serious injury, illness and death,” said OR-OSHA Administrator Michael Wood. On April 26, the Northwest Oregon Labor Council held a memorial prior to its monthly delegates’meeting. Wood spoke at that event, and the Oregon Honor Guard provided military honor services. Both the Portland and Salem services included a reading of the names of the 66 fallen workers. In Port- land, delegates raised a flag in remembrance of each worker. In the photo left, Ed Barnes (foreground), a re- tired business manager of IBEW Local 48, and Riller Clegg, a member of Machinists Lodge 1005, raise flags. Workers Memorial Day was enacted by the AFL- CIO in 1989 to serve as a nationwide day of remem- brance of the thousands of U.S. workers who die and the more than 1 million who are injured at work each year. April 28 was chosen because on that date in 1970, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The Columbia-Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council (CP- BCTC) and the Northwest Regional Council of the National Construction Alliance II have finalized a project la- bor agreement (PLA) with Howard S. Wright Constructors on the $125 mil- lion Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Fed- eral Building “green” remodel in down- town Portland. Once signed by all parties, it will be the first PLA ever on a federal building construction project in Oregon, accord- ing to John Mohlis, executive secretary of the CPBCTC. (A couple of signa- tures were still needed when this issue went to press.) A project labor agreement (PLA) is a contract that establishes uniform stan- dards that all unions, prime contractors, and subcontractors — union or nonunion — must conform to on a spe- cific project. PLAs promote economy and efficiency, prevent labor disputes, and ensure compliance with a host of workplace safety and labor laws. They are particularly useful on large, com- plex construction jobs that require a large number of skilled craft workers, and that are expected to last a long pe- riod of time, and on projects that are particularly time-sensitive. U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has commented before that PLAs “are a win-win; they benefit businesses, work- ers and taxpayers.” For political reasons, such agree- Historic workers’ comp reform reaches milestone By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor SALEM —With Gov. Ted Kulon- goski at the 20th anniversary celebra- tion of the Mahonia Hall workers’com- pensation reforms, it was like old times. Present in the Oregon State Capitol Gal- leria May 3 were representatives of la- bor and business, and a crowd of state administrators; absent were chiroprac- tors and trial lawyers, and injured work- ers. The reforms were touted as refocus- ing workers’ comp on workers and em- ployers, and reducing the role of “spe- cial interests” that had added costs to the system. The results of the reforms — at the time controversial within la- bor — have been dramatic. “It has been the greatest success,” Kulongoski told celebrants. Since 1990, Oregon’s workers’ comp premiums have dropped every year but one. Ore- gon employers pay 60 percent less to- day than they did 20 years ago. “Do you know how much money that is to employers over the last 20 years?” Kulongoski asked. “$17.5 bil- lion. No other state in the country can claim that statistic.” Twenty years ago, Oregon employ- ers paid the eighth highest workers’ comp insurance rates in the nation. The system was breaking down, recalled Bob Shiprack, longtime executive di- rector of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council, who took part in crafting the reforms. At the time, Shiprack also was an elected state rep- resentative from Beavercreek, and chair of the House Labor Committee. Em- ployers paid $100 in workers’ comp premiums for every $100 in payroll for some occupational classifications. Once injured, workers stayed out for years, sometimes getting addicted to painkillers, Shiprack said, or suffering depression brought on by the jobless- ness. And there were abuses of the sys- tem, including cases of fraud by chiro- practors, attorneys and workers. (Turn to Page 12) ments were banned by former President George W. Bush via an executive order he made shortly after taking office in 2001. PLAs were reinstated by Presi- dent Barack Obama in one of his first actions after taking office in 2009. The Obama Administration encourages (it doesn’t mandate) the use of PLAs on all federal projects of $25 million or more. Soon after Obama’s executive order, the General Services Administration (GSA), which manages property for the federal government, identified 10 proj- ects nationwide as candidates for PLAs. The list included the Green-Wyatt building at 1220 SW 3rd Avenue. Built in 1975, the federal building is an 18-story, 500,000-square-foot office tower, which occupies a full city block and two levels of basement and parking areas. The building was named in honor of former U.S. Representatives from Oregon, Edith Green and Wendell Wy- att. It was scheduled for a remodel in 2006, but financing fell through. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the federal stimulus program — brought the project back to life. The new structure will be designed into a high-performance green building, with the ability to resist earthquakes and bomb blasts. The goal is to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmen- tal Design (LEED) platinum certifica- tion. Starting in late summer or early fall, the building will be stripped to bare iron and retrofitted with a roof-top solar ar- ray, low-flow plumbing fixtures, rain- water collectors, double-glazed win- dows, a new HVA system, and an automatically adjusting lighting system. Vegetated fins on the building will help reduce heat gain in summer, and allow light to come in during the winter. According to Nelda Wilson, execu- tive assistant for Operating Engineers Local 701, it took eight weeks to nego- tiate the PLA with Howard S. Wright, which technically is the construction manager as constructor for the project. Local 701 and the Pacific Northwest (Turn to Page 11)
