Northwest labor press., May 17, 2013, Image 1

Inside
MEETING
NOTICES
See
Page 6
Volume 114
Number 10
May 17, 2013
Portland
Machinists get election
at Precision Castparts
IBEW Local 48 celebrates 100th anniversary
Clif Davis (right), former business manager of IBEW Local 48, and Tim Gauthier, executive manager of
Oregon-Columbia National Electrical Contractors Association, check out electrical artifacts at the May 13
opening reception of the “NECA/IBEW Local 48: 100 Years of a Powerful Partnership” exhibit at the Oregon
Historical Society. The display includes a 100-page research book broken down decade-by-decade, as well as
a Douglas fir presentation board connected with knob and tube wiring that summarizes the historical
highlights. There are interactive tools, displays of equipment from days gone by, and the artistry of conduit
bending. In conjunction with the 100th anniversary, the IBEW 9th District Progress Meeting is being held in
Portland May 13-17. A gala dinner is slated at the Oregon Convention Center May 17. The Oregon Historical
Society is located at 1200 SW Park Ave., Portland.
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
On June 6 and 7, a group of 2,306
employees at Precision Castparts Cor-
poration (PCC) will vote on whether to
join the International Association of
Machinists (IAM). It will be Oregon’s
largest private-sector unionization vote
in decades — in fact, the largest since
1996, the last time PCC workers voted
on unionization.
PCC is a big supplier to the aero-
space and power generation industries.
It makes complex metal components
for General Electric, Boeing, Airbus,
Rolls Royce and United Technologies,
and is the world’s leading manufacturer
of airfoil investment castings used in jet
aircraft engines. While the company
has operations worldwide, the union
vote will take place in 12 buildings at
five locations in Portland, Milwaukie,
and Clackamas, Oregon.
IAM represents workers at Boeing,
a key PCC customer, as well as at PCC
subsidiaries like Wyman-Gordon Com-
pany in Texas.
“The power to change your life is in
your hands,” union leaders tell about 50
PCC workers at a May 10 union organ-
izing meeting. For a month, the union
hall has been humming with activity, its
parking lot full, as the union revs up its
election campaign. This meeting, at
3:30 p.m., is the third such session held
at the Machinists hall in Gladstone that
day — one for each shift.
In the course of an hour-long dis-
cussion at the meeting, hope for some-
thing better is unmistakable, even if
workers don’t agree on every detail.
Workers have questions. How much
would dues be?
That would depend, union leaders
reply. Boeing machinists can pay $80 a
month or more in union dues. But then,
they can also earn $42.36 an hour, and
a portion of those dues goes to a strike
fund that they’ve used to protect some
of the highest pay and benefits in the
aerospace industry.
For workers unaccustomed to
unions, the meeting is an introduction
to strange customs, like calling each
other “brother” and “sister,” and talk of
“solidarity.”
How can we be sure that smaller lo-
cations will get as a good a deal in ne-
gotiations, asks a worker from PCC’s
Deer Creek annex in Milwaukie. “Sol-
idarity,” a co-worker answers. “We’re
all going to have to be our brothers’
keepers.”
“And sisters,” pipes up someone
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Second foreign grain handler locks out longshoremen
A second foreign-owned grain han-
dling conglomerate operating at tax-
payer-supported ports along the Co-
lumbia River has locked out its local
workforce and replaced them with out-
of-state workers.
On May 4, Columbia Grain, owned
by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation,
locked members of the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union
(ILWU) Local 8 out of their jobs at the
Port of Portland’s Terminal 5. The
company accused the longshore of
“working to rule” and demanding too
many equipment safety inspections,
which was taking too much time. As
many as 75 jobs daily are impacted.
The action follows the Feb. 27 lock-
out of members of ILWU Local 4 by
Matsui-owned United Grain at the Port
of Vancouver. Local 4 represents about
200 longshore workers, all of whom
rotate to fill 44 jobs at the grain termi-
nal. The company claimed its action
was justified because an individual
union member allegedly damaged
equipment at the grain terminal two
months earlier. The company says it
has video evidence of the sabotage, but
has yet to release it. The individual
they accused was dismissed prior to the
lockout.
“There is no justification for lock-
ing out the entire ILWU workforce —
aside from anti-union retaliation,
which is illegal,” union officials said.
ILWU Local 4 has filed unfair labor
practice charges against United Grain
for retaliation.
Both United Grain and Columbia
Grain are part of an employer bargain-
ing group — the Pacific Northwest
Grain Handlers Association. The
ILWU has worked under the agree-
ment dating back to the 1930s. The
agreement also covers grain terminals
owned by Netherlands-based Louis
Dreyfus Commodities in Portland and
Seattle, and U.S.-based TEMCO ele-
vators in Portland, Tacoma, and
Kalama.
The Grain Handlers’ collective bar-
gaining agreement expired Sept. 29,
2012, and all of the employers except
TEMCO imposed a concessionary
agreement in December. Despite hav-
ing rejected the proposal by a 94 per-
cent margin, longshore workers de-
cided not to strike, and continued
working under terms of the imposed
contract
TEMCO, on the other hand, contin-
ued to negotiate with the union and
reached an agreement that was ratified
by the membership in February 2013.
The ILWU says rather than bargain
to reach a fair contract, the foreign-
owned grain terminal operators are
locking out workers.
Bruce Holte, president of ILWU
Local 8, said Columbia hired replace-
ment workers last fall, when talks were
in the early stages, indicating that the
company never intended to reach
agreement.
“Unfortunately, Marubeni-Colum-
bia Grain has done what it’s wanted to
do all along, and locked out local
workers who have made this company
profitable for decades,” said Holte,
who also is a Port of Portland commis-
sioner. “Rather than reach a fair agree-
ment, the company has hired an out-of-
state strikebreaking firm, attorneys and
a publicist to make allegations against
local workers who simply want to do
our jobs and support our community.”
Pickets at both the Port of Portland
and Port of Vancouver are hammering
on how the foreign-owned companies
are profiting from local taxpayer in-
vestments while ruining local union
jobs that pay good wages and benefits.
A flier handed out at Port of Van-
couver picket lines says Mitsui, owner
of United Grain, “makes huge profits
by using Washington’s public ports,
highways and railroads.” It points out
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