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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2012)
OSU grad students crash donor party Oregon State University (OSU) has refused to recognize a union for gradu- ate research assistants, so three dozen of them showed up with signs Oct. 25 outside a Portland appreciation dinner for major donors to the university. The research assistants are graduate students who receive free tuition and a stipend, in exchange for which they per- form research under the direction of university faculty. American Federation of Teachers (AFT)-Oregon says a sig- nificant majority of the 750 research as- sistants have signed authorization cards seeking to join an existing union — AFT Local 6069 — which covers 900 graduate teaching assistants. They sub- mitted the cards, and requested union recognition, in March. But OSU argued before the Oregon Employment Relations Board (ERB) that the research assistants are not em- ployees, and that the money they’re paid is student financial aid. AFT countered that the same positions at the University of Oregon are included in the graduate assistant bargaining unit. The assistants work up to 20 hours a week and earn from $600 to $1,600 a month. AFT organizer Eben Pullman said the OSU graduate teaching assistant unit has won incremental improve- ments — including health insurance, improved work rules and a grievance procedure — since they unionized in Coalition of Graduate Employees President Wren Keturi, an Oregon State University graduate teaching assistant, protests OSU’s refusal to acknowledge graduate research assistants as employees. 1999, and OSU extends the same terms to the nonunion graduate research as- sistants. At the Portland Art Museum, where the fundraising dinner was held, pro- union grad students were joined by scores of supporters, including Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain. They hoped to confront OSU President Ed Ray, but never saw him. Pullman said students got polite receptions and sympathy from some of the donors. ERB heard oral arguments Oct. 22 about whether OSU graduate research assistants are employees. If ERB de- cides they are, they could move forward with a union election in which they’d be added to the existing bargaining unit. Carpenters Food Bank low on cash Cash donations to the Carpenters Food Bank are at an all-time low, while distribution is reaching record levels. Cash donations to help buy food can be sent to: Food Bank, P.O. Box 17358, Portland, OR 97217. For more information about the Car- penters Food Bank, call Mike Fahey at 503-970-2482. IN MEMORIAM R OY C OLES a retired execu- tive secretary-treasurer of the former Oregon State Council of Carpenters, died Sept. 19. He was 96 years old. Coles’ career as a full-time union officer spanned 20 years. He retired from the Carpenters’ state post in 1979 after serving in that job for 10 years. For a decade prior to that he was business agent of Pile Drivers Local 2416 of Portland. The Oregon State Council of Car- penters and Local 2416 no longer exist. The council was merged into the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Car- penters and the local was dissolved in January 2011 and merged with other lo- cals to create Piledrivers Carpenters Lo- cal 196. R OY W ILLIAM C OLES was born April 2, 1916, in Quincy, Ore. He at- tended grade school and high school in Clatskanie and participated in all sports. He worked in logging camps and sawmills, and as a commercial fisher- man, before marrying his high school sweetheart, Fay Wood, in 1936. She preceded him in death in 1954. Coles joined the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC) in 1937 as a mill- wright’s helper at a mill near Wauna. Two years later he transferred to a Shin- gle Weavers local, also in the UBC, upon taking a job in a shingle manufac- turing plant at Astoria. Two years later, in 1941, he transferred to Pile Drivers Local 2416 in Portland. In 1943 Coles enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he served with the 25th Combat Engineers of the 6th Armored Division. As a ser- geant, Coles fought in the Bat- tle of the Bulge in Belgium and Luxembourg from Dec. 16, 1944 through Jan. 25, 1945. After returning from the war, Coles took a job with the fire department at the Beaver Ammunition Depot at Clatskanie. After six months on that job he returned to the pile driving trade with Local 2416. He worked out of Local 2416’s hall until April 1949, when he moved his family to the Coos Bay area. There, he went into the business of logging and driving a log truck until the summer of 1955. That year he married Theda. She preceded him in death in April 2003. Coles returned to the pile driving trade out of Local 2416 after leaving Coos Bay. He worked on various con- struction projects as a foreman and su- perintendent until 1959, when he won election as the union’s business agent. In that capacity, Coles helped set up a Pile Driver Apprenticeship Program in the early 1960s. Oregon Gov. Tom McCall appointed Coles in 1970 to the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Advisory Board. Coles was selected to the Northwest Oregon Labor Council Hall of Fame in 2002. Coles is survived by son Robert; daughter Trudi; six grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and two great- great granddaughters. Coles was buried with military hon- ors at Willamette National Cemetery. United Way connects people in need with the building blocks for quality life - education, financial stability and good health. Every dollar of every donation goes to local projects that work. YOUR SUPPORT CREATES CHANGE. Visit us at www.unitedway-pdx.org NOVEMBER 2, 2012 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 9
