Inside
Official
Meeting Notices
See
Page 4
Volume 112
Number 23
Dec. 2, 2011
Portland, Oregon
Occupiers focus on financial fraud, infrastructure repair
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
November 17, dubbed N17 by ac-
tivist organizers, was a nationwide day
of action for Occupy Wall Street, mark-
ing two months since the original Oc-
cupy Wall Street protest began in New
York City’s financial district.
In Portland, the turn was toward
civil disobedience, blocking downtown
banks and a Willamette River bridge to
protest financial fraud and call for in-
frastructure investment. The day’s first
protest began at 8 a.m. on the east end
of the Steel Bridge, where a crowd of
200 to 300 union members and sup-
porters gathered. The action — “Get
On The Bridge: We Declare a State of
Economic Emergency for the 99%”—
was called by the labor-backed com-
munity outreach group We Are Oregon
and publicized by the national AFL-
CIO and local groups, including Port-
land Jobs with Justice.
The plan was for a subgroup to
block the car lanes on the bridge and be
arrested. But at the event, it was Port-
land police who blocked traffic, shut-
ting down the street before protesters
moved on the bridge. So the civil dis-
obedients moved to the front of the
Wall Street’s bull has made quite a mess in Main Street’s china shop.
crowd, sat down in the road, and were
arrested one by one.
Police reported 25 arrests on the
bridge. Communications Workers of
America Local 7901 President Made-
lyn Elder was arrested. So was Service
Employees International Union Local
503 Executive Director Heather Con-
roy, along with six SEIU staff: Joye Ca-
macho, Samuel Davila, Aaron Giesa,
Bob Rossi, Lorene Scheer, and Maro
Sevastopoulos. Also arrested: Jamie
Partridge (National Association of Let-
ter Carriers Branch 82); Peter Parks (In-
ternational Longshore and Warehouse
Union); Tim Flanagan (retired Ameri-
can Federation of Teachers-Oregon);
Kent Sprang (retired Portland Associa-
tion of Teachers); Bill Magorian
(United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 555); Steven Gilliam (Oregon
Action staff organizer); and 11 others.
The Steel Bridge was chosen be-
cause it’s an example of a bridge that has
structural deficiencies and a need for re-
pair: 25 million Americans are looking
for work, protest organizers said, but
Congress won’t pass a jobs bill.
About a dozen members of Labor-
ers Local 483 attended the bridge event
bearing orange picket signs to make a
parallel point: Portland, with a massive
backlog in road repair, is planning to
cut its budget for street maintenance
next year, and lay off as many as 100
workers. (See article below.)
After the arrests, the crowd crossed
the river on the below-deck pedestrian
part of the Steel Bridge, and gathered in
Tom McCall Waterfront Park for a rally
where Occupy Portland first assembled
Oct. 6. From there, the crowd — joined
by participants in Occupy Portland —
Laborers Local 483 warns
City of fiscal emergency
Union members went
before Portland City
Council Nov. 16 … and
got the usual response
Members of Laborers Local 483
showed up en masse at City Hall Nov.
16, filling Portland City Council’s
ground-floor chamber for the public
comment period before the Council’s
regular business. Most wore union T-
shirts and hats, and carried signs that
said, “Mr. Mayor, this is an emer-
gency.”
“You’re welcome to have signs as
long as you keep them down by your
chest, at the request of folks providing
security here,” said Mayor Sam Adams.
“There’s no hooting. There’s no holler-
ing.”
Local 483 Staff Rep Erica Askin
was the first of three to speak for the
union, which represents City employ-
ees in several bureaus, and read a state-
ment that was approved the previous
evening by the union’s general mem-
bership: “We are the 900-member pub-
lic employee union who maintain your
infrastructure, including your gold-
medal parks … your clean roads and
bridges, your safe water, and the vi-
brant community centers where your
children learn and play. We support the
public through our daily labor.”
Askin said Adams is proposing a
$16.2 million cut in infrastructure spend-
ing in the Bureau of Transportation,
which could lead to 100 layoffs. That’s in
addition to Parks and Recreation, where
up to 49 layoffs are projected, Askin said.
“We … ask you to consider how
massive layoffs will increase wealth in-
equality and depress labor standards in
a community already struggling with a
lack of family-wage jobs.”
The statement also took aim at the
(Turn to Page 6)
marched to several downtown banks,
where smaller groups of protesters
planned to commit civil disobedience.
Security guards prevented protesters
from entering a Bank of America branch
at Southwest Second and Morrison.
At a Wells Fargo branch across from
Pioneer Square, members of the Port-
land Central America Solidarity Com-
mittee protested, and nine were ar-
rested. Kari Koch, a former union
organizer who was one of those ar-
rested, says Wells Fargo was targeted
because it is a primary investor in GEO
Group, the world’s second largest pri-
vate prison company.
Meanwhile, at a Chase bank branch,
also across from Pioneer Courthouse
Square, another group of activists with
We Are Oregon entered to serve an
“eviction” notice, then marched on the
sidewalk. Mounted police and police in
riot gear arrived, and shoved protesters
and used pepper spray.
The bridge arrestees were charged
with disorderly conduct, given differ-
ent court dates, and are being defended
by SEIU Local 503’s in-house legal
counsel. The Wells Fargo arrestees
were charged with criminal trespass
and are being defended pro bono by
members of the National Lawyers
Guild. Both groups were released al-
most immediately.
Oregon home care
workers protest
wage, benefit cuts
Early start to 2012 political season
The Northwest Oregon Labor Council sponsored the first Portland
mayoral forum of the 2012 political season Nov. 15 at its new headquarters
in Southeast Portland. Candidates participating were from left:
businesswoman Eileen Brady, former city commissioner Charlie Hales,
and State Rep. Jefferson Smith. Prior to the forum, candidates for
Portland City Council answered questions before an audience of some
150 union members. Candidates included Steve Novick, incumbent City
Commissioner Amanda Fritz, and her challenger, State Rep. Mary Nolan.
To see the entire forum, go to www.oraflcio.org/.
Service Employees International
Union (SEIU) Local 503 organized ral-
lies in seven Oregon cities Nov. 21 to
protest service, wage, and benefit cuts
in Oregon’s in-home care program for
the elderly and disabled. The union re-
ports that over 400 home care workers,
clients and supporters turned out.
Local 503 represents about 12,000
workers who are paid by the state to
care for seniors and the disabled, plus
another 7,500 who care for adults with
developmental and mental illnesses.
Contract bargaining has reached im-
passe, and the two sides are entering
mediation.
Local 503 spokesperson Ed Hershey
said the state is proposing to cut the
number of home care workers who get
(Turn to Page 8)