IN MEMORIAM
J IM R IDDERBUSCH , a retired
member of Operating Engi-
neers Local 701, died Jan. 6 af-
ter being hit by a car crossing
the street in Southwest Port-
land. The accident occurred
just before 7:45 p.m. at South-
west Macadam Avenue and
Southwest Pendleton Street,
the neighborhood where he lived.
Ridderbusch, 76, joined Operating
Engineers Local 12 in Southern Cali-
fornia in November 1966. He trans-
ferred to Gladstone-based Local 701 in
September 1973.
He went to work for the local as a
field representative in Central Oregon
and was eventually made a field super-
visor. He also served as a trustee and
recording corresponding secretary on
Local 701’s Executive Board.
Ridderbusch left the union staff in
1991 for a position at Fair Contracting
Foundation. He stayed in that post until
1998, when he went to work for Cas-
cade General as a labor relations con-
sultant and contract administrator.
He retired in 2002.
James A. Ridderbusch was
born June 14, 1935, in Portland,
Oregon and was a lifelong Ore-
gon resident. He was raised in
Bend, Oregon, and graduated
from Bend High School in
1953. He served in the United
States Marine Corps from
1957-1960.
Ridderbusch enjoyed the outdoors
and had a wide range of interests that
included traveling, fishing, hunting and
rafting.
Ridderbusch is survived by four
children: daughters Amy McCann of
Battle Ground, Wash., Anne Holman of
Bend, and Terry Ocker of Las Cruces,
N.M.; and a son, Tony Jackson of
Beaverton; seven grandchildren; and a
brother, Chuck Ridderbusch of Bre-
merton, Wash.
A memorial service will be held at 1
p.m., Sunday, Jan. 22, at the Local 701
Union Hall, 555 East First Street, Glad-
stone, Oregon.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be
made to the Local 701 scholarship fund
in memory of Jim Ridderbusch.
...Postal workers rally to save USPS
(From Page 1)
with 227 co-sponsors, including the en-
tire Oregon congressional delegation
except Greg Walden.
On Dec. 7, Oregon Congressman
Peter DeFazio introduced HR 3591.
That bill mirrors the language in S.
1853.
Postal unions adamantly oppose HR
2309 and S. 1789. Combined, the bills
would end door-to-door and curbside
delivery for 90 percent of postal pa-
trons; end Saturday delivery; close
JANUARY 21, 2012
mined that union members were violat-
ing it.
In retirement, Ahearn says he may
do some work in labor arbitration.
His wife is a retired associate dean at
Seattle University Law School. They
have two grown daughters.
Hooks, Ahearn’s replacement, has
been Memphis regional director since
(Editor’s Note: NALC and USPS
have been in bargaining for a new con-
tract since August 2011. The 2006-
2011 National Agreement was set to ex-
pire Nov. 20. Bargaining has been
extended three times — first to Dec. 7; a
second time to Dec. 16; and a third
time to midnight Jan. 20, 2012. If the
parties fail to reach an agreement, fed-
eral law establishes a system of media-
tion and binding arbitration to resolve
the dispute. Federal law forbids strikes
by postal workers.)
...Major battle looms in Longview
(From Page 1)
said members are being “methodically
and maliciously prosecuted” for exer-
cising free speech rights.
“Locals need to be aware of the nar-
row path that we must cut through a
federal labor law (the Taft-Hartley Act)
that criminalizes worker solidarity, out-
law labor’s most effective tools, and
protects commerce while severely re-
stricting unions,” McEllrath wrote.
“The ILWU’s labor dispute with EGT
...Richard Ahearn retires from NLRB
(From Page 2)
International Longshore and Ware-
house Union (ILWU) Local 21, for ag-
gressively picketing the EGT terminal
in Longview. The NLRB asked for a
court injunction to stop the picketers
from blocking the facility. A judge is-
sued an injunction, and then ordered
fines totaling $315,000 after he deter-
thousands of community post offices;
close half the mail processing plants;
eliminate hundreds of thousands of
jobs; and end overnight delivery of
First-Class mail. Neither bill repeals the
pre-funding requirement.
Cook said Republican leaders of the
House are pushing for HR 2309 and
have buried bills favorable to the union.
“We called for this rally to build
public understanding of the current
postal crisis and support for the very vi-
able solutions available,” Cook said.
2000. He graduated from Lemoyne-
Owen College in Memphis, and re-
ceived a law degree from Rutgers Uni-
versity School of Law in 1971. He went
to work for the NLRB’s Memphis of-
fice in 1972, later transferred to the Fort
Worth, Indianapolis, and New Orleans
offices, and returned to Memphis in
1992.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
is symbolic of what is wrong in the
United States today. Corporations, no
matter how harmful the conduct to so-
ciety, enjoy full state and federal pro-
tection while workers and the middle
class get treated as criminals for trying
to protect their jobs and communities.”
Activists don’t know when the ship
will arrive, but they expect it to be in
late January or early February. They
may have as little as 12 hours notice.
(Editor’s Note: ILWU and Operat-
ing Engineers Local 701 are affiliates
of the AFL-CIO at both the state and
national levels. In September 2011, na-
tional AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka nullified an Oregon AFL-CIO
Executive Board resolution condemn-
ing Local 701 in the dispute. “The work
at issue involves a jurisdictional dis-
pute,” Trumka wrote, pointing out that
jurisdictional disputes are governed
and settled by Article 20 of the AFL-
CIO Constitution. “In view of these
provisions, neither the Oregon AFL-
CIO, nor any other AFL-CIO state,
area, or local central body has author-
ity to intervene or take sides.”
“Let me be clear that this letter con-
cerns simply the issue of the authority
of the state federation to take action re-
lating to jurisdictional disputes. This
should not be construed as a judgment
on the merits of the dispute,” Trumka
concluded.)
PAGE 5