Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 2012)
Endicott retires as business manager of UA Local 290 John Endicott, business manager of charge of the local in the event the Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 for the business manager can’t fulfill the du- ties of the job. Endicott stepped into past decade, retired Jan. 20. the position and subse- Endicott, 58, was ap- quently was re-elected for pointed interim business three more terms. manager in March 2002, fol- A native of Vancouver, lowing the death of Business Washington, Endicott grew Manager Matt Walters. Wal- up in a pipe trades family. ters died of a heart attack at His father was a fitter and age 54. his grandfather and two un- Endicott was one month cles were plumbers. into a new job as Walters’ as- J OHN He enrolled in the steam- sistant, after working 10 E NDICOTT fitters apprenticeship pro- years as an organizer and business agent. Three more senior gram after graduating from Hudson’s business agents had all recently re- Bay High School in 1972. At that tired when Walters named Endicott time it was Steamfitters Local 235. [Local 235 merged with Plumbers assistant to the business manager. “I didn’t aspire to be business Local 51 in the mid-’80s to form manager. It kind of fell into my lap,” United Association Local 290.] Endicott turned out as a journey- Endicott said. The union’s bylaws place the as- man in 1977. Always an advocate of training sistant to the business manager in Shropshire elected business manager of UA Local 290 Al Shropshire has been elected business manager/financial secretary- treasurer of United Association of Plumbers and Fitters Local 290. He de- feated Lou Christensen, assistant to the business manager, 897 to 655. The two were running to succeed John Endi- cott, who retired. In other races, Robert Porter was elected president, defeating Paul Elder and Steven Cowell; Gil Freeland de- feated incumbent Terry Neely for vice president; Amy Sprengelmeyer out- polled Barry Bledsoe for recording secretary; and Craig Weismann bested Preston Hunt for inside guard. Eight members ran for two seats on the local’s Executive Board represent- ing Region 1. The winners were Mark Sundstrom and Teresa Neely. In Re- gion 2, Dennis Mask defeated one other candidate; and in Region 3, Rick Two Bears outpolled four other candi- dates. Dave Hauth, Rick Hindman and Chris McNicholas were re-elected to the Finance Committee. Elected to the Examining Board were Pete Bakker and Barry Sather representing Oil Burners; Jim Eastman and Craig Harguth representing Metal Trades; and Frank Boyle and Drew (Turn to Page 8) Retiring Local 290 Business Manager John Endicott (second from left in back) opened the training center to students from the Tigard-Tualatin School District. and skills upgrading, Endicott taught classes at the training center and went on to complete a five-year instru- ments training certificate program out of Purdue University. He has served on the joint apprenticeship training committee since 1986. “It’s all about training — appren- tice and journeyman,” he said, noting that last year alone Local 290 com- pleted 50,000 hours of journey-level training. Endicott was doing service work at Control Contractors in Portland when, in 1988, he accepted an offer from the company to go into man- agement. That lasted until 1992, when Walters hired him as an agent. During his tenure at Local 290, Endicott has served as either a trustee or co-chair on a half-dozen of the union’s pension, health and welfare, scholarship and apprenticeship train- ing trusts. He recently resigned as president of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council; from the Executive Board of the Oregon AFL-CIO; from the board of the Fair Contracting Foundation; and as a trustee and board member of the Pipe Fabricators Institute of America. Endicott will finish out his term as secretary-treasurer of the Western Mechanical Association, which ex- pires this July, and he’ll complete his second term to the governor-ap- pointed SAIF board of directors. SAIF is the state-owned workers’ com- pensation insurance carrier. He was first appointed to the board in November 2004 by Gov. Ted Kulongoski. Endicott also served a governor appointment to the Boiler Board, one term as chair. Endicott is turning over the reins of Local 290 — which represents 4,200 workers in Oregon, Southwest Washington, and four counties in Northern California — having re- cently completed major collective bargaining agreements that will take most of the membership through 2014. He said most of the out-of- work books are clear for fitters, with only scattered unemployment for plumbers. Intel currently has 1,600 fitters on site. “There’s still not a lot of commer- cial work out there,” he said. “It’s been a great run. We have a great group of contractors. I wish all the new folks at the local the very best,” he said. In retirement, Endicott says he will “retire, retire.” He wants to spend more time with his 4-year-old grand- daughter, improve his golf game — “and ... you know ... I haven’t bought a fishing license in 10 years.” (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon as a voice of the labor movement. 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Ore. 97213 Telephone: (503) 288-3311 Editor: Michael Gutwig Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non- profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore- gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union members. Group rates available to trade union organizations. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS, P.O. BOX 13150-0150, PORTLAND, OR 97213 JANUARY 21, 2012 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 3
