Columbia River Crossing:
Dead in the water
Keys to a new motorcycle
Christine Smith, a member of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage
Employees (IATSE) Local 28, gets the keys to her new Harley-Davidson
motorcycle from Jamie Anderson, sales manager at Columbia Harley-
Davidson. Smith, of Milwaukie, Oregon, was the big winner at the 11th
annual Unions for Kids motorcycle poker run held June 8 in and around
Portland. The event is a fundraiser for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital,
with most of the money is raised through a raffle for a new motorcycle. This
year Unions for Kids donated a record $64,000 to Doernbecher. Unions for
Kids is a nonprofit and all-volunteer organization, with 100 percent of
proceeds going to the kids at Doernbecher. Since its inception, the Poker Run
has donated $390,000 to the hospital.
After eight years and over $170 mil-
lion spent on engineering and planning,
the Columbia River Crossing project is
dead, along with its promise of four to
five years of employment for thousands
of construction workers.
The plan was to have replaced the I-
5 bridge over the Columbia River and
upgraded six nearby highway inter-
changes, at a cost of $3.4 billion. But it
fell victim to Washington legislative
politics.
Oregon lawmakers voted in March
to approve $450 million in bonds for
the project, which was to be matched
by Washington state and a much bigger
contribution from the federal govern-
ment. The project had strong backing
from Washington Democrats in the
House and Senate and from Washing-
ton’s Democratic governor Jay Inslee.
But last December, two Senate De-
mocrats defected and voted to hand
over leadership of the Washington Sen-
ate to the Republican minority.
Republicans opposed the bridge in
part because it would have included
light rail. Including light rail made fed-
eral transit money available to the proj-
ect, which was a necessary part of its
financing. But Clark County residents
have voted several times to oppose
light rail.
Oregon’s funding commitment to
the project passed as a stand-alone bill,
but in Washington, the bridge replace-
ment was one of a series of large proj-
ects, including work on state Highway
167, the North Spokane Corridor, and
Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass.
The total bill for the transportation
package was estimated to be $10 bil-
lion, and to help pay for it, the bill in-
cluded a 10.5-cent increase in the state
gas tax.
Both labor and business groups lob-
bied for the bill’s passage, and it passed
in the Washington House 51-41 on a
second attempt. But Washington Sen-
ate leaders declined to bring the bill to
a vote, both in the regular legislative
session that ended April 28 and in two
subsequent special sessions called by
the governor. At the last-minute, Sen-
ate Democrats tried to use a procedural
maneuver to get a floor vote on the
package, but were unable to get the
votes needed.
When Washington’s second special
legislative session adjourned without
passing the bill, Oregon Gov. John
Kitzhaber declared the project dead in a
press statement.
“Without the funds from Washing-
ton and adherence to the project budget
and schedule, neither state can incur the
further costs of delay,” Kitzhaber said.
“Consequently, project managers have
begun to close down the project.”
“It’s really disappointing, after all the
hard work and effort that so many peo-
ple put into it, that a small minority de-
railed the project,” said John Mohlis,
executive secretary of the Oregon State
Building and Construction Trades
Council. “I honestly have no idea when
it’s going to get going again. We’re now
years and years away from being able
to move forward, and it’s a real disserv-
ice to the entire West Coast economy.”
Kitzhaber said he asked the Oregon
Department of Transportation to review
all of the work on the Oregon side of
the project to determine if any stand-
alone investments could be made to im-
prove safety and reduce congestion on
a smaller scale.
UNITE HERE and Hyatt
reach national agreement
Pact provides contracts
and process for workers
to join unions
Hyatt Hotels Corp. and UNITE
HERE, the union of hospitality workers
in the United States and Canada, an-
nounced a national agreement July 1
that resolves longstanding disputes be-
tween the two organizations. The
agreement creates a framework for the
company and the union to work to-
gether moving forward. Both UNITE
HERE and Hyatt hailed the pact as a
positive step.
The agreement will go into effect
upon the settlement and ratification of
union contracts by Hyatt workers in
San Francisco, Honolulu, Los Angeles
and Chicago. Pending approval, the
contracts will provide retroactive wage
increases and maintain quality health
care and pension benefits. The pro-
posed new contracts would cover
workers into 2018.
A key provision of the agreement
establishes a fair process, which in-
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cludes a mechanism for employees at
a number of Hyatt hotels to vote on
whether they wish to be represented by
UNITE HERE. As part of the accord,
upon ratification of the union contracts,
UNITE HERE will end its global boy-
cott of Hyatt.
D. Taylor, president of UNITE
HERE, said, “We look forward to a
new collaborative relationship with
Hyatt. This agreement shows that when
workers across the hotel industry stand
together, they can move forward, even
in a tough economy. Both organiza-
tions deserve credit for working out this
constructive step forward.”
Last November, UNITE HERE Lo-
cal 8 and Hyatt signed a neutrality
agreement on a proposed Hyatt-
flagged headquarters hotel at the Ore-
gon Convention Center in Northeast
Portland. Mortenson Development Inc.
is asking the Portland Development
Commission, Portland City Council
and the Metro regional government for
a package of public incentives for a pri-
vately-built privately-operated hotel
operation consisting of 600 rooms.
Under the agreement, workers
would be free to join a union of their
choosing, and could do so through a
“card check” process or through a gov-
ernment-administered election.
The Columbia-Pacific Building
Trades Council also has assurance that
the hotel will be built with union labor.
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