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Card to lead
Letter Carriers
state association
Portland letter carrier Kevin Card
won election as president of the Na-
tional Association
of Letter Carriers
(NALC) Oregon
State Association.
Card, a mem-
ber of NALC
Branch 82, out-
polled former
vice president
Linda Smith at
KEVIN CARD
the group’s April
29-30 convention.
Smith also is a member of Branch 82.
The state association coordinates
politics and education for about 3,300
urban letter carriers in NALC locals
around the state. The term of office is
two years. The presidency is a less-
than-part-time assignment, and Card
will remain on staff as secretary treas-
urer of NALC Branch 82.
Card’s predecessor at the state as-
sociation, Steve Devereux of Eugene-
Springfield Branch 916, is retiring
and did not seek re-election.
Convention delegates also elected
Rickie Horton of Branch 916 as vice
president and Michael Parrish of
Branch 82 as assistant secretary-treas-
urer and newsletter editor.
Card, 54, serves on the Oregon
AFL-CIO Executive Board and is the
Oregon coordinator for NALC’s an-
nual Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
Trade deficit with Mexico
has cost 682,900 U.S. jobs
A total of 682,900 U.S. jobs have
been lost or displaced since 1994 as a
result of the U.S. trade deficit with Mex-
ico, a new Economic Policy Institute
(EPI) study finds.
All 50 states, the District of Colum-
bia, and Puerto Rico have seen jobs lost
or displaced to Mexico.
“Heading South: U.S.-Mexico Trade
and Job Displacement After NAFTA,”
by EPI economist Robert Scott, finds
that the 10 states that have experienced
the largest share of jobs displaced by
trade with Mexico are, in order: Michi-
gan, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Ten-
nessee, New Hampshire, Illinois, Ala-
bama, Massachusetts and Texas.
The 10 states that have the largest
number of jobs displaced due to Mexico
trade deficits are, in order: California,
Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, New
York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana
and North Carolina.
Oregon shed 8,700 jobs while Wash-
ington lost 10,800 jobs, the report said.
Most of the jobs displaced nationally
— 415,000 jobs, or 60.8 percent of the
total — have been in manufacturing.
Most affected have been computer and
electronic parts (22 percent) and motor
vehicles and parts (15.8 percent).
The trade deficit with Mexico, which
totals $97.2 billion, developed after the
North American Free Trade Agreement
took effect. In 1993, the year before
NAFTA was implemented, the U.S. had
a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Mex-
ico, which supported 29,400 U.S. jobs.
Keep Social Security out of deficit talks
WASHINGTON, D.C. — When
they’re not busy trying to privatize So-
cial Security, congressional Republi-
cans clamor to cut Social Security in
the name of deficit reduction. Pointing
out that “Social Security is not respon-
sible for the deficits we face,” Sen.
Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Social Se-
curity should not be on the table in up-
coming budget deficit talks.
In a Senate Finance Committee hear-
ing May 10, Baucus, the committee
chair, said the Social Security Trust Fund
has a $2.6 trillion surplus and will pay
full benefits through 2037 and “even af-
ter that, payroll tax revenues will be able
to pay 78 percent of benefits.”
Baucus said the system is not in cri-
sis. “It is an issue that should be ad-
dressed sooner, rather than later ... but
the current situation does not necessi-
tate rushed or severe action.”
Nancy Altman, co-chair of the
Strengthen Social Security, Don’t Cut
It coalition, told the committee, “the
law is clear. Social Security shall not
be counted for purposes of the federal
budget. The injection of Social Secu-
rity into the broader deficit debate ob-
scures the fact that by law, Social Se-
curity lacks the authority to add to the
federal deficit,” she continued. “Social
Security lacks the legal authority to
deficit-spend, and so, cannot run a
deficit. Because it cannot run a deficit,
it cannot add to the federal deficit.”
April 2011
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.
Voting in union elections
Date Workplace (Location) Union
4/6 RAB Communications (Portland) IBEW Local 48
Yes
No
19
49
Unionizing by majority sign-up
Date Workplace (Location) Union
Number of workers in unit
4/22 Portland State University Performing Arts (Portland) IATSE Local 28
8
Requesting a union election
Workplace (Location) Union
Number of workers in unit
City of Cornelius police (Cornelius) National FOP vs. Cornelius Police Officers Association
Ridgeline Montessori Public Charter School (Eugene) AFT Local 6432 DECERT
Carlton Police Department (Carlton) Yamhill-Carlton Employees Assn. DECERT
Providence St. Vincent postpartum nurses (Portland) Oregon Nurses Association
Legacy Emanuel interpreters (Portland) SEIU Local 49
Legacy Emanuel patient access reps (Portland) SEIU Local 49
Top Notch Electric residential electricians (Portland) IBEW Local 280 DECERT
Hilton Vancouver Washington (Vancouver) UNITE HERE Local 9 DECERT
Rogue Ales Brewery (Newport) Teamsters Local 324
Morrison Child & Family Services (Portland) SEIU Local 503
Paragon Systems (Ore./SW Wash.) Assn. of Security Profs. vs. SPFPA
11
17
2
3
3
40
7
117
24
181
106
L EGEND
: workers will be union-represented
DECERT
: workers will be on their own
: unionized workers vote whether to go non-union
“If you think you are too small to be effective,
you have never been in the dark with a mosquito.”
U NKNOWN
MAY 20, 2011
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 3