NWLP-03-18-11:NWLP
3/15/11
10:16 AM
Page 5
...Labor
rallies
for jobs
Voting opens on airport
screeners union recognition
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Voting began March 9 on whether
40,000 transportation security officers
(TSOs) — also known as airport
screeners —will approve a union as
their bargaining representative.
The month-long voting gives the
TSOs a choice between AFL-CIO af-
filiate American Federation of Govern-
ment Employees (AFGE), the inde-
pendent National Treasury Employees
Bargaining opens at
Multnomah County
Contract bargaining began March 2
for 2,800 union workers at Multnomah
County. The current contract between
the county and American Federation of
State, County, and Municipal Employ-
ees (AFSCME) Local 88 expires June
30.
On March 1, about 120 members
and supporters turned out for a rally
outside the County headquarters build-
ing, to send the message that members
will be standing behind the union bar-
gaining team. Local 88 also has formed
a Member Action Team to keep mem-
bers up-to-date on bargaining.
The current four-year agreement
started out with annual cost-of-living
increases, but two years ago, with the
county facing recession-related budget
trouble, Local 88 stepped up to modify
the contract, and members took a wage
freeze to save their co-workers’ jobs.
“It’s time that county executives ac-
knowledge that sacrifice,” union lead-
ers said at the March 1 rally.
Union or “no union.”
It’s one of the biggest U.S. organiz-
ing drives in years.
AFL-CIO Organizing Director Eliz-
abeth Bunn said the federation, which
issued a statement supporting AFGE’s
drive, “is providing staff, resources and
community support” to its member
union.
AFGE currently has 12,000 trans-
portation security officers as members
even though it lacks collective bargain-
ing rights for all of them. Over the last
decade it has offered employees legal
aid, advocated for better working con-
ditions, and sent shop stewards with the
TSOs when the workers faced often-ar-
bitrary disciplinary moves from super-
visors.
But until a decision last month by
Transportation Security Administrator
John Pistole, the union lacked even the
right to seek to represent the screeners.
The TSA administrator during the
Bush Administration, which estab-
lished the agency, banned unions.
President Geroge W. Bush and other
top administration officials called
unionization a threat to national secu-
rity.
Pistole’s Feb. 4 ruling said that if a
union wins recognition among the
screeners, it could represent them in
limited areas, such as seniority, bids,
transfers and awards — but not wages
or security issues.
“Collective bargaining rights are a
necessity if TSA is going to evolve into
a high-performance workplace,” AFGE
said.
(From Page 1)
Art Pena of Roofers Local 49 was among the crowd of 750 people rallying in
Salem March 7 for middle-wage jobs and collective bargaining rights.
LABOR HUMOR
A CEO, a Tea Party member, and a public employee union member are sitting at a
table around a tray with a dozen fresh-baked cookies. The CEO takes 11. Then he turns
to the Tea Party activist and says, “Better keep an eye on that union guy. He wants your
cookie.”
Local Motion
Call
503-288-3311
February 2010
A list of Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces deciding
whether to be union-represented – as reported by the National
Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board.
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Voting in union elections
Date Workplace (Location) Union
2/10 Pioneer Memorial Hospital (Prineville) ONA
DECERT
Yes
No
22
5
RATES: $13.75 a year for union members
Special union group rate of 38 cents per issue
(based on 24 issues) on orders of 25 or more
Requesting a union election
Workplace (Location) Union
Mail to: Northwest Labor Press
P.O. Box 13150
Portland, OR 97213
Number of workers in unit
Bowtech hunting bow factory (Eugene) Machinists District LodgeW24
Dosha Salon Spa (Portland) CommunicationsWorkers of America Local 7901
94
155
Name/Union Affiliation
L EGEND
: workers will be union-represented
DECERT
: workers will be on their own
: unionized workers vote whether to go non-union
MARCH 18, 2011
Address
City
State
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Zip
infrastructure,” Kitzhaber said.
Several lawmakers broke away
from their business inside the Capitol
to join the rally.
State Rep. Dave Hunt said Oregon
House Democrats recently sent a letter
of solidarity to Democratic lawmakers
in Wisconsin. Reading from the letter,
Hunt said: “Attacking public employ-
ees under the guise of resolving a fiscal
crisis is the cynical kind of politics that
Americans have rejected time and
again. As Oregon has repeatedly
shown, balanced budgets and collective
bargaining can coexist.”
Hunt warned, though, that some Re-
publicans in the Oregon House aren’t
as supportive of collective bargaining
rights.
He said the House Republican
leader (referring to Kevin Cameron of
Salem) recently was asked if he
planned to pursue a ban on collective
bargaining rights during this session of
the Legislature.
“Now what would be the easy an-
swer to that question?” Hunt asked the
crowd.
“NO!” they responded.
“Let me read you what he said: ‘We
don’t think now is the time to push
those buttons,’ “ Hunt said. “That is not
a ‘no,’ that is a ‘we wish we could do it
right now, but we’re going to try to do it
next year, next month, two years from
now.”
Hunt stressed the importance of
standing together to protect the gains
the state has made in recent years in ar-
eas of transportation, health care, and
worker freedoms, “and continue focus-
ing on moving Oregon not left or right
— because I know you all have one di-
rection you want to move Oregon, and
that is forward.”
Following the rally, a large contin-
gent of union members went inside the
Capitol to listen to and testify on a
number of important pro-jobs bills, in-
cluding Senate Memorial 1, a resolu-
tion urging Congress to enact and Pres-
ident Obama to sign the Trade Reform,
Accountability, Development and Em-
ployment (TRADE) Act.
The TRADE Act requires a review
of existing trade pacts, including the
North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), the World Trade Organiza-
tion (WTO) and other major pacts. It
spells out what must and must not be
included in future trade pacts, and it
provides for the renegotiation of exist-
ing trade agreements if they don’t meet
those standards.
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