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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2012)
...Community benefits agreement (From Page 1) ent discrimination.” Maurice Rahming, immediate past president of the Oregon chapter of the National Association of Minority Con- tractors, explains that in the past, con- struction contractors didn’t hire women and minorities. Racial and gender dis- parity continued after overt discrimina- tion ended, Rahming says, in part be- cause sons tend to follow fathers into careers in construction. And access to these jobs matters a great deal, because journeymen can earn $39 an hour or more plus benefits — depending on the trade — on public construction jobs that are subject to state and federal pre- vailing wage laws. The community benefits agreement is a breakthrough, Francesconi told the Labor Press, for several reasons: It’s the first time in Oregon that a government has required project labor agreements on its construction projects, and it rep- resents a new unity between unions and minority communities. Nonunion contractors have often de- feated proposals for project labor agree- ments, Francesconi said, by forming al- liances with minority contractors or community members and arguing that unions don’t work well with minorities. “Here the opposite has happened,” Francesconi said. “Minority contractors SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 and community representatives want a relationship with the unions, and advo- cated for this project labor agreement. And the unions went a long way to pro- vide training and support for minority and women workforce and minority businesses, and carved out this excep- tion for disadvantaged minority- and women- owned businesses where they didn’t have to join the union.” Rahming, who is both a black busi- ness owner and a signatory contractor with IBEW Local 48, agrees: “Minor- ity contractors have been pitted against the unions as if they’re opposing sides of an argument. This agreement says, ‘You know what? We’re not on oppos- ing sides.’” To test run the community benefits agreement, City Commissioner Randy Leonard offered up two Water Bureau projects that are already under way: the Kelly Butte reservoir replacement, and the Interstate Maintenance Facility ren- ovation. The Kelly Butte project — to replace the 10-million-gallon above- ground steel tank with a 25-million-gal- lon reinforced concrete underground reservoir — had already been awarded to Hoffman Construction, but the City is modifying that contract. In the Inter- state Maintenance Facility Renovation, the City will construct a 28,000-square- foot LEED Gold building to replace a 1925 building that rates poorly for seis- mic and fire safety and disabled access. An adjacent 38,000 square foot build- ing will be built in a second phase. The day the community benefits agreement was approved, City Council chambers were packed to the edge of the sec- ond-floor gallery with 175 people who turned out in support, most wearing red T- shirts made by CAWS bearing the slo- gan, “community benefits for all.” Portland Mayor Sam Adams told the crowd the community benefits agreement is about “taking another step to become a city of the most equal op- portunity for all Portlanders.” Doug Tweedy, executive secretary- treasurer of the Pacific Northwest Re- gional Council of Carpenters, com- mended the City Council for being the first agency to “step up to the plate and do the right thing.” “Opportunity is what this is all about,” he said. “The disparity within our workforce and our contracting community is documented and does exist.” ... it represents a new unity between unions and minority communities. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS IN MEMORIAM Oregon AFSCME Council 75 Staff Representative J AMES H ESTER lost a three-year battle with lung cancer. He passed away peacefully in Portland on Sept. 9. He was 55 years old. J AMES R EED H ESTER was born in Tacoma, Wash., on Aug. 14, 1957. His father died when Hester was six, and the family moved to Portland when he was 11. He graduated from Cleveland High School in 1975, and received an asso- ciates degree in journalism arts from Mt. Hood Community College in Gre- sham in 1977. Hester lived for several years on the Lummi Indian Reservation in Wash- ington, where he helped his in-laws (his sister is married to a tribal council leader) establish the communications department for the government of the Lummi Nation in 1981. Hester enjoyed a varied profes- sional career. He spent 12 years as a West Coast district manager for Sears & Roebuck, followed by a four-year stint as director of operations for the Portland Beavers baseball team. He spent three years working with an in- vestment firm in Los Angeles, Calif. In 1997 he returned to Portland and took a police records specialist position with the Portland Police Bureau — a job he intended to keep only a short period while he attended Warner Pacific College to get a degree in business adminis- tration. But jobsite issues led him to become a union stew- ard and activist with the Amer- ican Federation of State, County and Municipal Em- ployees Local 189. Hester held a variety of positions with Local 189, ultimately becoming the elected president. In August 2004 he was hired by Oregon AFSCME Council 75, serving primarily as the Local 189 staff rep. He also worked with Oregon AFSCME Executive Director Ken Allen negoti- ating the first AFSCME contract at the Portland Development Commission. “James was a great member-leader and then a strong staff person for our members,” Allen said. “He had a strong commitment to making sure members got treated fairly on the job.” Hester is survived by his mother, Helen; sisters, Barbara Howe and Pam Thomas; brothers, Rick Hester, Scott Hester, and Gary Lichty; and many nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, the family sug- gests donations to either the Pongo Fund, Oregon Humane Society, or the American Cancer Society. PAGE 7
