IN MEMORIAM
Lung cancer has claimed
K EN M AC K ILLOP , retired
president of United Food and
Commercial
Workers
(UFCW) Local 555. He
passed away Sept. 10 at his
home in Hollywood, Florida.
He was 72.
Kenzie Melville MacKillop
was born on June 24, 1939, in Syd-
ney, Nova Scotia. He moved to Los
Angeles in 1951 with his mother and
sister, where he reunited with two
older sisters.
After graduating from Eagle Rock
High School, MacKillop found a job
at a Western Electric telephone manu-
facturing plant and joined the Com-
munications Workers of America.
In 1961 he moved into the retail
field as a clerk at a Safeway super-
market in Southern California, where
he joined Retail Clerks Local 770.
After a decade there, MacKillop
transferred to Oregon and worked at
the chain’s store in Lincoln City,
where he was a member of Salem Lo-
cal 992. While living at the coast he
also owned and operated a camp-
ground for tourists and a fast-food
drive-in.
In 1979, MacKillop was hired to
work for Local 992 as an organizer
and union representative. Soon after
that, UFCW was formed by a merger
of a number of retail-oriented unions.
The UFCW consolidated Local
992 into Eugene Local 201, and
MacKillop continued his staff duties
at the merged local. In 1985, when
UFCW merged Oregon and South-
west Washington locals into Local
555, MacKillop moved to the Port-
land area to work on the staff.
In 1987, MacKillop ran for presi-
dent of the 19,000-member local, de-
feating incumbent Mike Here-
ford.
He retired from that post in
1997.
During his tenure, MacKil-
lop served as a trustee on the
seven health and welfare and
pension trust funds which cover
the local union’s members. He
was a delegate to the Portland-based
Northwest Oregon Labor Council and
to the Salem-based Marion-Polk-
Yamhill Counties Labor Council. He
served on the Oregon AFL-CIO’s Ex-
ecutive Board and was a vice presi-
dent of the state labor federation.
MacKillop also was on the board
of directors of the Oregon Labor Press
Publishing Company, the non-profit
entity that publishes the Northwest
Labor Press.
He was inducted into the North-
west Oregon Labor Retirees Coun-
cil’s Labor Hall of Fame in June 2005.
Outside of labor, MacKillop
served several terms as chair of the
Oregon Wage and Hour Commission.
He also was interested in race-
horses. As a business venture in the
1990s, he and two partners owned a
string of eight race horses that ran at
racetracks in the Pacific Northwest.
Survivors include his wife Mary
(Lyons), a former office manager of
the Labor Press; four children from a
previous marriage, John, Michael,
Robyn, and Kara; three stepchildren
from Lyon’s previous marriage,
Casey, Robin, and Jessi; one grand-
child and two step-grandchildren.
At MacKillop’s request, no service
will be held. According to his wife,
Mary, he wanted only to be cremated
and have his ashes strewn on the horse
track — “because they’ve shit on me
all my life,” he told her.
Pendleton Woolen Mills launches
made-in-the-USA clothing line
Fabric for the ‘Portland
Collection’ is union-made
in Oregon & Washington
Decades after most apparel compa-
nies abandoned U.S. manufacturing to
chase cheaper labor overseas, Port-
land-headquartered Pendleton Woolen
Mills is launching a new made-in-the-
USA clothing line. Its “Portland Col-
lection” debuted Sept. 8 at a fashion
show in downtown Director Park.
The clothing won’t be union-made,
but it will be made of union-made fabric
— from the company’s mill in Washou-
gal, Washington. The 141 workers there
(and 20 at the company’s Pendleton,
Oregon, plant) are members of Workers
United (formerly UNITE), a division of
Service Employees International Union
(SEIU), and are represented by Port-
land-headquartered SEIU Local 49.
Under the union contract that runs
through October 2013, wages at the
Washougal mill range from $12.91 to
$15.87 an hour with overtime pay on
weekends or after 8 hours in a day.
Other benefits include full-family
health coverage, a defined-benefit pen-
sion plan, paid vacation, and eight paid
holidays a year.
The company is a 140-year-old
family-owned business.
Pendleton blankets are union-made
in Washougal and Pendleton, but
Pendleton Woolen Mills’ previous ap-
parel lines have been manufactured
overseas. A large tote bag in the new
Portland Collection is foreign-made,
but all the clothing is U.S. made, said
Pendleton spokesperson Linda Parker.
Pendleton’s production manager did
not return Labor Press calls seeking
further details.
CWA defends AT&T/T-Mobile merger
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Communications Workers of America
(CWA) is defending the proposed
merger of T-Mobile into AT&T after
the Justice Department on Aug. 31 for-
mally sued in court to stop it.
The $39 billion sale would let
AT&T take over the wireless provider
from its current owner, Germany’s
Deutsche Telekom, which wants to un-
load it.
If the deal goes through, T-Mobile
would become part of AT&T, which
has a neutrality clause its contract with
CWA. That would open the way for
the union to organize T-Mobile em-
ployees without facing the constant op-
position it now receives from current
T-Mobile management.
“In today’s sinking economy,
where millions of Americans are look-
ing for work, DOJ has filed suit to
block a merger that will create as many
as 96,000 quality jobs,” CWA said in a
statement. “In a nation where workers’
rights are routinely violated, as occurs
everyday at T-Mobile, DOJ apparently
believes workers should be on their
own instead of having a fair choice
about union representation. DOJ’s ac-
tion would put good jobs and workers’
rights at the bottom of the govern-
ment’s priorities.”
The day before, AT&T had said that
if it took over T-Mobile, it would also
return 5,000 offshored jobs to the U.S.
“In the U.S., where too many
Americans, especially in rural areas,
don’t have access to the tools of Inter-
net technology, the DOJ is looking to
block a plan to build out high speed
wireless access to 97 percent of the
country,” CWA added. “Instead of act-
ing to block this merger, our govern-
ment should be looking to support
companies that create, keep and return
good jobs to the United States.”
Justice Department officials ig-
nored those points when they an-
nounced their lawsuit, filed in U.S.
District Court in D.C. They want the
U.S. wireless market to stay “vibrant
and competitive,” and said that if the
two firms merge, it wouldn’t.
Niemi elected president at SEIU
Local 49; major contracts ahead
President is Local
Members of Service
49’s top elected office.
Employees International
As president, Niemi di-
Union (SEIU) Local 49
rects a staff of 25. She’ll
elected Meg Niemi to a
have her hands full in the
three-year term as president
coming year, as nearly
in mail ballots counted
three quarters of the lo-
Aug. 31. Niemi outpolled
cal’s membership will be
challenger Patti Harris, a
in contract negotiations
longtime Kaiser Perma-
in 2012. Relations are
nente chief steward.
strained with many em-
Niemi has been presi-
ployers, Niemi said.
dent since May 2009, when
M EG N IEMI
“I think the economy
she was appointed by the Lo-
being tough is an excuse for
cal 49 Executive Board.
Headquartered in Southeast Port- a lot of employers to feel insecure and
land, Local 49 is a private-sector affili- try to take that out on low-wage work-
ate of SEIU, with about 9,100 members ers,” Niemi said.
Many Local 49 members are in low-
in Oregon and Southwest Washington
— principally health care and building wage occupations, Niemi said, and are
service workers such as janitors and se- having to fight back against proposals
curity guards. Local 49 also represents for cuts. Contracts up for renegotiation
about 900 members of Workers United include the Portland-area master jani-
(formerly UNITE) who work at torial contract, the national agreement
Pendleton Woolen Mills, a Xerox plant at Kaiser Permanente, and contracts at
in Wilsonville, and several industrial Good Samaritan hospitals in Corvallis
and Albany.
laundries.
SEPTEMBER 16, 2011
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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