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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2013)
Inside Meeting Notices See Page 6 Volume 114 Number 5 March 1, 2013 Portland, Oregon Organized labor campaigns for immigration overhaul By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor Few topics are as touchy and divisive as immigration, and opportunities to re- form U.S. immigration policy are rare. That’s why, with President Obama and a group of U.S. senators proposing a package of reforms with bipartisan ap- peal, U.S. labor leaders are campaign- ing to make sure the reforms benefit workers, not just employers. In mid-February, the national AFL- CIO held events with local labor leaders in 14 cities to promote labor’s standards for reform. On Feb. 19, Service Em- ployees International Union (SEIU) an- nounced a $250,000 nationwide Span- ish language radio ad — the first in what it said would be a multi-week me- dia and field campaign to win congres- sional enactment of immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship. And on Feb. 21, the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce jointly an- nounced agreement on a set of common To promote a union movement campaign for immigration reform, Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain stages a Feb. 19 press conference outside Portland’s immigration office, alongside Francisco Lopez of the immigrant rights group CAUSA (left), and Brenda Mendoza (right) of the farmworker advocacy group PCUN. principles for immigration reform. Immigration has sizable labor mar- ket impacts. Industries with lots of im- migrant workers can see wages fall, and the downward pressure is worse in the case of illegal immigrants, since their tenuous status leaves them more open to exploitation. The latest U.S. Census Bureau estimate is 40 million foreign- born residents out of a total U.S. popu- lation of 312 million. And 28.5 percent of the immigrants — 11.1 million — were unauthorized, having either en- tered illegally or overstayed visas. While the foreign-born are 12.8 percent of the overall population, immigrants make up 42 percent of the 1.6 million workers in farming, fishing, and forestry; 31 percent of the 8 million in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; 23 percent of the 9.6 mil- lion in construction; 22 percent of the 4 million in computer and math occupa- tions; 22 percent of the 11.1 million in manufacturing; and 20 percent of the 11.3 million food preparation and serv- ing. Re-establishing control over immi- gration is key to the compromise pack- age being discussed in Washington, D.C. The package would include fur- ther increases in border control, and in- creased enforcement against employers who hire undocumented workers (while also making it easier for them to verify eligibility for employment). It would also include a process whereby the esti- mated 11.1 million illegal immigrants now in the United States could become legal permanent residents and ulti- mately attain the full rights of U.S. citi- zenship. And it would include a more efficient and sensible system for bring- ing in future immigrants to work. The union position on these details is spelled out in an August 2009 joint statement of principles by the AFL-CIO and Change To Win labor federations. That statement outlines five key pieces: (Turn to Page 5) SPEEA units reach split decision in Boeing contract votes SEATTLE — Engineers and tech- nical workers at The Boeing Co. re- turned a split decision in voting on new four-year contract offers. Engineers ac- cepted their offer, and technical work- ers rejected theirs, while also giving their negotiation team authority to call a strike if necessary. In votes tallied Feb. 19 by the Soci- ety of Professional Engineering Em- ployees in Aerospace (SPEEA) Local 2001, engineers in the Professional Unit accepted Boeing’s offer 6,483 to 5,514. The Technical Unit rejected their offer 2,868 to 3,203 and granted strike authorization by a vote of 3,903 to 2,165. The engineers (aerospace, electrical and other fields) and technical workers (designers, technical writers, planners and others) work on plans for new planes and solve problems that arise on the factory floor. The assembly of the planes is performed by members of the Machinists Union, which agreed to a four-year contract in 2011. SPEEA, an affiliate of the Interna- tional Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, represents 22,950 employees at Boeing (15,550 engi- neers). Most work in the Puget Sound region of Washington state, but the con- tracts also cover 200 employees at the Gresham plant in Oregon, as well as workers in Utah and California. The union bargains contracts for the Professional Unit and Technical Unit at the same time, but the agreements are separate and independent from each other. Negotiating teams from both units had recommended that workers reject the offers and support strike authoriza- tion. SPEEA last struck Boeing in 2000 when all workers walked off the job for 40 days. That strike slowed airplane production to a crawl and prevented Boeing from delivering aircraft. A key sticking point in the most re- cent bargaining has been Boeing’s de- mand to switch new hires to a defined contribution pension plan, i.e., a 401(k). Union officials say the new re- tirement plan slashes benefits by 41 percent. Boeing’s analysis shows a 33 percent cut. “Pick your favorite analysis, or do one of your own; it’s a significant cut in the retirement contribution,” said SPEEA Executive Director Ray Go- forth in a website video to members. Boeing also refused to ensure exist- ing employees their benefits would not be affected by changes to the Social Se- curity cap on taxable income (scrap the cap) or raising the Medicare eligibility age to 70. Both are being considered by Congress and, according to union offi- cials, would dramatically impact exist- ing retirement packages. “Interestingly, The Boeing Com- pany has amended the executives’ pen- sion so that it is protected from ‘scrap the cap,’” Goforth said. “We asked for similar protections for (members) and their answer was, ‘why are you worry- ing about it; you don’t need to worry about this.’” Boeing did agree to extend most el- ements of the previous contracts, in- cluding 5 percent annual wage pools and no increases to employees for med- ical coverage. Union officials said it was members’ activism and their over- whelming rejection of the company’s first contract proposals in October 2012 that forced Boeing to improve its offer. SPEEA contracts expired Nov. 25, 2012. Negotiations started in Novem- (Turn to Page 8) UFCW grocery workers ratify more contracts Some 14,000 grocery workers, meatcutters and central checkout clerks at major supermarkets in Oregon and South- west Washington have wrapped up voting on new three-year collective bargaining agreements. Workers are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555. A 45-member Unity Bargaining Com- mittee has been in negotiations for more than 22 months with Allied Employers Inc., a Kirkland, Washington-based firm that represents Fred Meyer and QFC (Kroger), Albertsons, and Safeway at the bargaining table. It is the first time in the union’s history that contracts from each geographic region within its jurisdiction — from Kla- math Falls, Oregon, to Longview, Washington — were bar- gained simultaneously. Voting began in early February and wrapped up Feb. 20 with the ratification of contracts in Klamath Falls, Tillamook, and Longview. The union had scheduled a series of strike vote meetings for the month of February because employers had moved very little on their demands to increase the minimum waiting time to receive full health care coverage; to double the maxi- mum out-of-pocket costs for family health insurance to $12,000; and to schedule workers seven days a week without any days off or having to pay overtime, effectively eliminat- ing the five-day work week. The possibility of strike pushed the employer group to en- gage in a four-day, 68-hour marathon bargaining session start- ing Jan. 29. Those talks resulted in an offer the union was willing to take to its membership for a vote. Local 555 Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Anderson told the La- bor Press month that “This was some of the toughest bar- gaining in bad times that I’ve ever seen.” Anderson is a 36- (Turn to Page 4)
