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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2013)
IN MEMORIAM K ATHY M ORRIS , a retired secretary-treas- urer of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Lo- cal 555, died March 29 at her home in For- est Grove. She was 71. K ATHLEEN A NN M ORRIS was born Jan. 10, 1942, in Carroll, Iowa. Her family moved to Omak, Wash- ington, when she was a young girl. She graduated from Omak Union High School in 1960. She married Robert “Bob” Morris, on Dec. 28, 1960. They made their home in Central Washington until 1963, when they moved to Forest Grove. Morris joined UFCW in 1963 when she went to work as a meatwrapper at the Forest Grove Safeway. She rose from the ranks to elected office in 1987, when she defeated a longtime incumbent in a run-off elec- tion for secretary-treasurer. She went on to serve three more terms, leaving in November 1996. She officially retired on May 30, 1997. Morris was known for her expertise in the field of workers’ compensation. She studied the laws and was the go-to person at the union to help injured members get through the myriad rules and regulations of the workers’ comp system. She was appointed by two gover- nors to serve as a labor representative on the 10-person Workers’ Compensa- tion Management-Labor Advisory Committee. MLAC was created by the Oregon Legislature as part of the mas- sive reform of the workers’ compensa- tion system in 1990. Morris also served as a trustee on the UFCW Pension & Trust Fund and was on the Executive Board of the UFCW International Northwest Re- gion. After retiring she was elected and served three years on the Forest Grove City Council. Morris is survived by her husband, Bob; three children; five grandchil- dren; six great-grandchildren; and three brothers. She was preceded in death by a son, daughter, and grand- daughter. The family suggests donations in Kathleen’s name to Forest Grove High School Athletic Department in care of Doug Thompson. L IN M AYES , a former secretary- treasurer of UFCW Local 555, died in a Salem hospital April 4. He was 66. L INDEN H ENRY M AYES was born Oct. 11, 1946, in Elmira, New York. He began his career at age 15, taking a job at a small butcher shop in New York. After high school he went to work for American Stores as a meatcutter. He later became the meat market manager and a member of Amal- gamated Meat Cutters Local 1. He married Sandra in 1967. They had two children. In 1972, while working at the Meats and Foods Warehouse in New York City, Mayes was promoted to general manager in charge of seven stores in the New York metropolitan area. He moved his family to Oregon in 1978, taking a job as a meatcutter for Albertsons. He worked there for 17 years — two years as assistant meat sales manager for the Albertsons Ore- gon Division. As a member of UFCW, Mayes served as a shop steward, volunteered on organizing committees, and served as a picket captain. In 1987 he was appointed to the local’s Executive Board, and in 1995 he was hired as a union representa- tive covering Salem, Albany, Corval- lis, Lebanon, Sweet Home, Stayton, Silverton, Woodburn, Bend, Red- mond, Madras and Burns. Mayes held several leadership po- sitions at Local 555, including griev- ance director and membership serv- ices director. He negotiated many contracts, and served as a trustee on the Oregon Federation of Butchers Pension Plan. He was appointed secretary-treas- urer of Local 555 in February 2005 to fill the unexpired term of Ed Clay, who retired. Mayes was forced to re- tire in May 2006 due to health reasons. Mayes is survived by his wife of 46 years; two children; numerous grand- children and great grandchildren; two brothers; and a sister. Paid sick leave ordinance fails in Philly PHILADELPHIA (PAI) — A pro- posed city ordinance requiring firms to give paid sick leave to almost all pri- vate-sector workers in Philadelphia failed on April 11 when the city council could not muster enough votes to over- ride Mayor Michael Nutter’s veto. The week before, Nutter vetoed the ordinance for the second time in three years. He argued it would make Philly businesses uncompetitive, an argument that Debra Ness, president of the Na- tional Partnership for Women and Fam- APRIL 19, 2013 ilies (NPWF), rejects. Her organization lobbies for such laws at local levels and in Congress. “More than 100,000 Philadelphians will continue to face impossible choices when illness strikes. For the second time, the city’s residents have been denied the ability to earn paid sick days. The city and the families who live there will suffer as a result,” said Ness, adding that “the fight for paid sick days, in Philadelphia and across the country, is far from over.” Transit Union ready to meet with TriMet Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 757 has notified TriMet that it is ready to start bargaining as the sides await a judge’s ruling on whether the negotiations can be open to the public. Since November the transit union and TriMet have been involved in a procedural standoff over allowing public access to their contract negoti- ations. The union says state law re- quires them to be public, but TriMet disagrees. Earlier this month, Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Leslie Roberts said she needs more informa- tion before she can rule on the matter. In a letter sent to TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane and Execu- tive Director of Labor Relations Randy Stedman on April 8, ATU Lo- cal 757 requested that the parties start bargaining immediately, rather than wait for a judicial determination. “Simply put: What was supposed to be an expedited process has turned out not to be,” wrote ATU President Bruce Hansen. In a response posted on TriMet’s website April 10, agency spokes- woman Mary Fetsch said “TriMet is looking forward to resuming contract negotiations with ATU.” She said TriMet would propose negotiation dates within the next week. (At press time no dates had been posted.) In the letter, Hansen said both sides must be prepared to schedule an “extraordinary number” of bargaining sessions, including at night and on weekends. He said more bargaining time will be needed in order to deal with the more than 400 changes TriMet has proposed. [TriMet pre- sented its offer to the ATU and to the public via its website on Nov. 30, 2012.] “Last time we bargained, TriMet made approximately 16 proposals,” Hansen said. Fetsch disputed the union’s num- ber, saying TriMet has offered 29 sub- stantive proposals. “There are a num- ber of housekeeping proposals, such as correcting spelling and punctuation errors, and incorporating existing side agreements into the main body of the contract that do not change the wages, hours, benefits or working conditions of employees,” she said. As for the public attending, that won’t happen until the judge issues her ruling. Fetsch said TriMet “remains com- mitted to having these bargaining ses- sions covered by the mainstream me- dia so the public can be informed about the process.” Hansen said TriMet believes it has found a legal loophole in the public meetings law that gives it the sole ability to declare negotiations “non- public.” “TriMet claims that by sim- ply sending only one official negotia- tor to the bargaining table, the session is no longer subject to the public meetings law,” Hansen said. In contrast, union bylaws require that 18 union members attend bar- gaining sessions, and they do so in their off-hours to reduce costs to the union. “We think TriMet’s interpretation is contrary to the legislators’ intent and the interest of the public,” Hansen said. “We will continue to seek judi- cial confirmation of our view of the statute.” Who’s On Our Side? By Tom Chamberlain American attitudes and the union movement have come a long may since I first became involved with la- bor in the 1980s. My union training was from fire union leadership who fought in World War II and Korea. They were tough, they never com- plained, and they got the job done. In fact, they would roll over any obsta- cle that stood in their path without a second thought. Firefighter union leadership was all white and all male. Their focus and their mantra — and what they in- stilled in young leaders like myself — was wages, hours and working conditions. Stay away from social is- sues, stay away from issues that can’t be addressed at the bargaining table. This philosophy dates back to Samuel Gompers. Gompers was a founding member of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and its president for over 30 years. He was a strong supporter of these principles, focusing efforts at the bargaining table rather than the ballot box. But even he took a broad view of wages, hours, and working conditions, stak- ing out positions on immigration and foreign affairs. The firefighter unions of the 1980s were not unique. Many unions of that era limited their focus to (you guessed it) wages, hours, and work- ing conditions. The problem with the 1980s mantra is what it ignores. Workers NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS come in all shapes and colors. To fo- cus only on what can be achieved at the bargaining table ignores the fact that our union movement must speak for all workers — not just those who are fortunate enough to hold a union card. Two years ago, when the Oregon AFL-CIO passed a convention reso- lution supporting same-sex marriage, some were caught off guard. I per- sonally received telephone calls from people who were outraged that we took such action. Why would anyone be caught off guard? We represent union members who are lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender. And if we fight for all workers — whether they are union members or not — why would the Oregon union movement push the LBGT community to the curb and turn a blind eye to a basic human rights issue, one with significant eco- nomic impacts on Oregon workers and their families, at that? Today, the union movement has moved beyond a 1980s agenda of fo- cusing on wages, hours, and working conditions. By staking out a position on comprehensive immigration re- form, we will ensure that undocu- mented workers who have been ex- cluded from any protection on the job have a voice. We can show them the value of a union by giving them pro- tection, making it hard for bad em- ployers to exploit them, and if we can reduce such exploitation, we can sta- bilize and increase wages. Comprehensive reform means tighter control and oversight of a guest worker program that allows employers to bring in workers from outside the United States. If guest workers lose their jobs, they are de- ported, creating a program ripe for exploitation that drives down Ameri- can wages. Comprehensive reform means a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented workers who have been in America for decades, con- tributing to our economy and hoping to be treated like equal workers. Our position is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do. By giving millions of workers legal status, we ensure they have a voice on the job, which leads to greater protections for workers and increases our ability to increases wages and benefits. No, this isn’t the labor movement I was introduced to sitting around a kitchen table at a fire station at 5th and Southwest College St. three decades ago. But it is the labor move- ment that’s on the side of all workers, and on the side of a stronger future. Tom Chamberlain is president of the Oregon AFL-CIO. PAGE 15
