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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2013)
IN MEMORIAM L ARRY K ENNEY , former president of the Washington State La- bor Council, passed away May 14 at his home in Seattle after a long illness. He was surrounded by his wife, former Rep. Phyllis Gutiérrez Kenney, and his chil- dren. He was 82. L AWRENCE K ENNEY was born May 15, 1930, in Chicago. Kenney was raised in the Bremerton area, where he graduated from Bremerton High School in 1947. He worked for 17 years as a newspaper and job shop printer. He was an activist in the Inter- national Typographical Union. He served a six-year apprenticeship at the San Francisco Chronicle and worked at The Seattle Times and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. While working at the P-I, Kenney attended the University of Washington, where he earned his de- gree in economics. After graduation, he worked as a certified public account- ant. Kenney was hired by the Washing- ton State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, in 1969 to serve as research director. He was elected secretary-treasurer in 1980, serving with then-President Marvin Williams. In 1986, Kenney was elected WSLC president, a position he held un- til 1993. In June of 1986, Kenney and the WSLC voted to use the Labor Press as a source of communication for its affil- iated local unions and trade councils. WSLC published a one- or two-page newsletter once a month in the Labor Press. The action resulted in a name- change for the newspaper — from Ore- gon Labor Press to Oregon/Washing- ton Labor Press — to reflect the broader coverage. In 1987 the name was changed again to Northwest Labor Press. $17 a month coverage includes: After retiring from the WSLC, Ken- ney served on the Washington State Board of Tax Appeals from 1993-99 and on the executive board of Energy Northwest since 2000. “Larry Kenney’s work and life made a difference to the labor move- ment whether it was through strength- ening the workers’ compensation sys- tem, running the first minimum wage initiative in 1988, which included farm workers and tipped employees, or re- minding us of the importance of the ju- dicial system on working peoples’ lives. I will miss Larry Kenney. He will be missed,” said WSLC President Jeff Johnson. A longtime member of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, Kenney previously served on Gov. Booth Gard- ner’s Council of Economic Advisors, the Governor’s Commission on Ac- countability and Efficiency in State Government, the Economic Develop- ment Alliance of Washington, and many other boards, commissions and civic organizations. He was a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Account- ants and the Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants. Kenney is survived by his wife, Phyllis; two children, Karen Brooks and Brian Kenney; eight stepchildren; 21 grandchildren, and nine great- grandchildren. A public memorial service was held June 1 in Seattle. J AMES N ESBIT S WANBECK , a 48- year member of Plumbers and Fitters Local 290, passed away April 14, four days shy of his 85th birthday. Swanbeck was born April 18, 1928, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada. He grew up in Vancouver, B.C., and after high school enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy. He married Lillian Honey on Oct. 20, 1950, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They moved to Portland in 1965. She preceeded him in death in 2008. “My father would always say the two best things he did in his life was to marry my mother and to join the union,” said his daughter, Susan Gib- son. Swanbeck is survived by his daugh- ter, and two grandchildren. Low Prices! www.legalshield.com/info/randallnix JUNE 7, 2013 Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6 ‘Like’ this: Workers’ rights get an update in the age of social media By DON McINTOSH Associate Editor Once upon a time, complaining about work might have gotten you sympathy or advice. In the era of Facebook, it can get you fired. Em- ployers all across the country are disciplining and firing workers for things they say — outside of work and on their own time — on web- sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. But as employers increasingly try to police employees’ after-hours speech online, state legislatures and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) are stepping up to draw the line about what’s protected. Seven states have passed laws barring companies from asking employees or job applicants for their social net- work passwords, with Oregon the latest to do so. And in the last year, the NLRB has targeted companies for “over- broad” social media policies that vi- olate the National Labor Relations Act. That law guarantees workers rights to unionize — or even just take “concerted activity” for the purpose of “mutual aid or protec- tion.” The NLRB’s foray into social me- dia began with Dawnmarie Souza, an emergency medical technician in New Haven, Connecticut, who was refused union representation during a Nov. 8, 2009, interrogation. Souza went home and posted derogatory comments on her Facebook timeline about her su- pervisor — referring to him as a “17,” ambulance code for a psychiatric pa- tient, and calling him several other names. Her co-workers responded. Souza’s employer, American Med- ical Response (AMR), then fired her for violating its internet posting policy, which forbade “defamatory comments when discussing the company or the employee’s superiors, co-workers and/or competitors.” Her union, Teamsters Local 443, filed a charge with the NLRB. The agency investigated, and determined that she was fired illegally, and also, that AMR’s policy was unlawfully over-broad, because employees would reasonably believe that it prohibited rights that are guaranteed under the National Labor Relations Act. As part of a legal settlement, AMR agreed to revise its policy. It was the NLRB’s first social me- dia case. The agency soon had its hands full with employer policy manu- als. • At Target, an employee handbook barred workers from releasing “confi- dential information” on social media, or anywhere else. “Watch what you say,” the manual commanded. “Don’t have conversations regarding confi- dential information in the break room or in any other open area.” “Never share confidential information with NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS another team member unless they have a need to know the information to do their job. If you need to share confi- dential information with someone out- side the company, confirm there is proper authorization.” The manual even required that workers report to management if they learn that a co- worker shared confidential informa- tion. All these offenses, Target told its employees, “will result in corrective action, up to and including termina- tion,” and “you also may be subject to legal action, including criminal prose- cution.” • A General Motors policy prohib- ited workers from posting videos, pic- tures, or quotes without permission, barred them from posting images of employers logos or trademarks, and required workers to report co-workers for “unusual or inappropriate” social media activity. “Think carefully about ‘friending’ co-workers . . . on external social media sites,” General Motors told its employees. “If you engage in a discussion related to [GM], in addition to disclosing that you work for [GM] and that your views are personal, you must also be sure that your posts are completely accurate and not mislead- ing and that they do not reveal non- public company information on any public site. Non-public information in- cludes: Information that has not al- ready been disclosed by authorized persons in a public forum; and Per- sonal information about another [GM] employee, such as his or her medical condition, performance, compensation or status in the company. Do not incor- porate [GM] logos, trademarks or other assets in your posts. • At Walmart, a policy restricted communications with media and government agencies. In each case, NLRB found that workers would reasonably interpret the policies as prohibiting them from discussing and disclosing their own and co-workers wages and working conditions — and the agency ordered the policies re- moved. Many of the policies can be made legal, however, if they make clear that they don’t bar workers from discussing wages and working conditions with co-workers. The NLRB has been trying to get word out to employers about what’s legal. The rules, outlined in a 2012 agency memo, don’t give workers a blanket legal protection to say what- ever they want about an employer. Social media comments are not protected if they are mere griping, as opposed to “group action.” Nor are complaints protected if they aren’t related to working conditions, or if they’re specifically aimed at other than co-workers. A crime reporter at The Arizona Daily Star was fired, for example, after he tweeted disrespectful com- ments about homicide. NLRB offi- cials found the dismissal legal, saying the posts were individual, not con- certed activity — and weren’t about working conditions. Similarly, after a fire services com- pany fired an employee for criticizing the company on the Facebook page of her U.S. senator, the NLRB found “no evidence of concerted activity” be- cause the employee was acting alone, and wasn’t using the post to reach out to co-workers. It might be legal to fire someone for a post that said, “our customer service sucks.” But if the post said, “our cus- tomer service sucks because of poor wages and understaffing,” that could be protected, because it could be inter- preted as an opening to concerted ac- tivity. The agency looks at it case by case. And cases keep coming. NW Oregon Labor Council awards dinner June 8 The Northwest Oregon Labor Council will host the 16th annual La- bor Appreciation and Recognition Night Saturday, June 8, at Milwaukie Elks Lodge, 13121 SE McLoughlin Blvd. Dinner tickets are $20 per per- son. Raffle tickets also will be sold for $1 each or seven for $5. The dinner and awards ceremony serves as a fundraiser for Labor’s Com- munity Service Agency. For more information, call 503-235- 9444. PAGE 11
