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
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Every dollar of every donation goes
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NOVEMBER 2, 2012
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
PAGE 9