Northwest labor press., May 03, 2013, Page 9, Image 9

Union protests force
feds to yank plan to
allow knives on planes
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) —
Union protests, led by the Association
of Flight Attendants, forced the Trans-
portation Security Administration
(TSA) on April 24 to yank its plan to
let airplane passengers bring small
knives aboard planes.
Now AFA, an affiliate of Commu-
nications Workers of America (CWA)
and its allies — Teamsters, Machinists,
the Transport Workers, and Air Line Pi-
lots — want to make sure the ban is
permanent.
TSA won’t admit that yet: It said it
mishandled the rollout of the knife
plan.
TSA Administrator John Pistole un-
veiled his knife plan on March 5. He
also would allow small baseball bats
onto planes. Terrorists and hijackers
can use both knives and bats as
weapons to overwhelm flight crews
and take over planes, as the al-Qaeda
terrorists used box cutters to comman-
deer planes on Sept. 11, 2001, the
unions said.
“In order to accommodate further
input from the Aviation Security Advi-
sory Committee, which includes repre-
sentatives from the aviation commu-
nity, passenger advocates, law
enforcement experts, and other stake-
holders, TSA will temporarily delay
implementation of changes to the pro-
hibited items list, originally scheduled
to go into effect April 25,” Pistole said
in a memo to his staff.
“In the face of a huge backlash from
Flight Attendants, nearly every other
stakeholder in aviation and the public,
TSA postponed its plan to allow knives
on U.S. flights,” AFA said. “But the
90,000-member Flight Attendants
Union Coalition, which opposed the ill-
advised plan from the start, remains
resolute: No knives on planes ever
again.
“The United States has banned all
knives from commercial flights since
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks for good rea-
son: Knives were the terrorists’
weapons of choice in bringing down
four jetliners and murdering thousands
of Americans. All knives should be
banned from planes permanently,” the
unions added.
If Pistole wants to enact “this drastic
departure” in policy, he should try to do
it the legal way, by putting his proposal
out for public comment and reaction,
which he did not, the coalition stated.
If he did that, the coalition predicted,
public reaction would reject it.
The coalition also garnered support
against letting knives on planes from
other unions, such as the Steelworkers,
from passenger groups and from doz-
ens of lawmakers. Rep. Edward
Markey (D-Mass) and Sen. Charles
Schumer (D-N.Y.) both said they
would introduce legislation overturning
Pistole’s plan unless he withdrew it.
Kaiser dental hygienists protest
Dental hygienists at Kaiser Permanente demonstrated in front of Kaiser’s headquarters in Northeast Portland April
24 to protest the health care provider’s move to eliminate the periodontal hygienist classification within its dental
system. Periodontal hygienists do specialized work in conjunction with periodontists to provide treatment of advanced
gum disease. Twenty periodontal hygienists — in a bargaining unit of 140 registered dental hygienists — are members
of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Healthcare Local 5017. The union filed a grievance
claiming the action violates their collective bargaining agreement. The dispute has gone to binding arbitration. A date
has not been set. “It is extremely disappointing that Kaiser has recently promoted Dr. (Kenneth) Wright to the vice
president of Dental Services, while at the same time he is eliminating an entire classification of specialized care, which
will clearly impact the quality of care that Kaiser Dental has historically provided,” said Local 5017 Executive Director
Edward Burke. The union pointed to Kaiser’s own statistics showing the region’s dental membership has increased
from 190,000 in 2011 to 205,000 in 2013. “This growth is based on the excellent and focused care each patient receives,”
Burke said. The union said it plans to conduct more demonstrations at various dental clinics throughout the region
on a random and unannounced basis. In the photo above from left to right, registered dental hygienists Jackie
Farlinger-King and Kay Fun hold the union’s banner along with Local 5017 organizers Jeff Carr and Sharon Culley,
and Executive Director Burke.
Sizemore files bankruptcy to skirt paying unions
Perennial union foe Bill Sizemore
filed bankruptcy April 9, listing assets
of $10,796 and debts of $21 million —
most of it to the Oregon Education As-
sociation (OEA) and the American
Federation of Teachers (AFT) in a set
of court cases that have been under way
since 2000.
In 2002, a Multnomah County Cir-
cuit Court jury found that two groups
controlled by Sizemore engaged in a
pattern of racketeering, having used
fraud and forgery to place two anti-
union measures on the 2000 ballot. A
judge ordered the groups to pay $2.5
million in damages to the unions, and
later found Sizemore personally liable.
The amount was later reduced on ap-
peal.
In 2009, OEA and AFT filed a new
$17 a month coverage
includes:
K NOW Y OUR R IGHTS
I F YOU ARE INJURED AT WORK BUT
NOT SURE YOU NEED MEDICAL TREAT -
MENT OR FILE A CLAIM , AT LEAST GIVE
THE EMPLOYER NOTICE THAT YOU MAY
HAVE HURT YOURSELF AT WORK TO
PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS LATER ,
SHOULD YOU NEED TO FILE A CLAIM .
www.legalshield.com/info/randallnix
MAY 3, 2013
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
lawsuit seeking $18 million in dam-
ages, charging that Sizemore and his
longtime funder, Nevada millionaire
Loren Parks, hid and misused money
funneled through Sizemore's new
group to qualify a new set of 2008 bal-
lot measures, all of which failed at the
polls.
Sizemore told the Oregonian that
his bankruptcy filing was part of a strat-
egy to avoid potential debts from the
unions’ lawsuits.
“Hopefully I can draw a line and
make this go away,” Sizemore told re-
porter Jeff Mapes.
Sizemore declared bankruptcy once
before: In 1987 a court discharged
$358,000 when he liquidated his carpet
business. At the time of his 1998 run
for governor, he also had about
$795,000 in debt for a defunct toy busi-
ness, most of it owed to members of his
church and softball league who had
loaned him money.
But a person whose debts are the re-
sult of fraud can have a hard time qual-
ifying for bankruptcy protection, Ore-
gon AFSCME attorney Jennifer
Chapman said.
In 2011, Sizemore pled guilty to
three felony charges of tax evasion and
spent 18 days in Marion County Jail.
He previously spent a night in Mult-
nomah County Jail in 2008 for con-
tempt of court, after he refused a
judge’s repeated orders to file tax forms
for a group he set up.
In the current bankruptcy filing, he
also listed $10,500 owed to the Oregon
Department of Revenue and $41,000 to
the IRS.
PAGE 9