...Strike over at Daimler trucks
(From Page 1)
A helping hand from the Laborers Union
Terry Healy, Northwest regional manager and a vice president of the La-
borers International Union, presents a check for $5,000 to John Riha (wear-
ing shorts). John is the brother of Laborers Local 296 member Randy Riha,
who died of a heart attack July 20, 2011, while working at Intel Fab Z in Hills-
boro. He was 54. The money is from the international union’s Charitable
Foundation Fund. The fund was established in 2008 to help the families of
Laborers killed on the job. It was the first time since the fund was established
that a Local 296 family member has received a check. At the time of his death,
Randy was taking care of a younger brother who has a mental disorder. “He
had a big heart,” John Riha said. Randy Riha joined the Laborers Union in
1978 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He became a member of Local 296 after moving
to Portland in 1986. The check presentation was made at a Local 296 union
meeting July 17. Also attending the meeting were David Hayes (left), assis-
tant regional manager of the Laborers, and Bob Abbott (right), an interna-
tional representative. Local 296 Business Manager Ken Morgan is standing
to the right of John Riha. “I can’t believe it. This is just awesome,” John Riha
said. “Everyone has been great. It affected a lot of guys.” Healy said that
when a worker is killed on the job, it is very emotional for everyone. “Families
are going through some very tough times at that point. We’re proud that our
union is able to do this for the families,” he said.
Oregon AFL-CIO confab in Bend Sept. 27-29
BEND — Union leaders and ac-
tivists, mark your calendars for Sept.
27-29 and the 53rd biennial Oregon
AFL-CIO Convention. The convention
will be held at The Riverhouse Hotel
and Convention Center: 3075 N Busi-
ness 97, Bend.
Registration opens Friday, Sept. 27.
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That evening a Welcome Party will be
held. Convention business gets under
way Saturday morning, Sept. 28.
The popular Union Label Show is
scheduled Saturday evening.
For more information, call the Ore-
gon AFL-CIO at 503-224-3169, or
from Salem call 503-585-6320.
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month for full-family coverage.
Unchanged from the previous con-
tract, the new contract provides for 14
paid holidays a year (including an an-
nual plant shutdown between Christ-
mas and New Year’s) plus three to six
weeks of paid vacation annually.
The new contract ends the com-
pany’s obligation to provide post-65 re-
tiree health insurance (insurance that
supplements Medicare coverage). The
111 most senior Machinists members
will be affected by that; their less-sen-
ior co-workers didn’t have that benefit,
under the previous contract. The work-
ers would still get the coverage if they
retire before Jan. 1, 2014. To replace
the company-provided coverage would
cost $38 to $323 a month in the Port-
land area, according to a union esti-
mate.
The union negotiating teams recom-
mended that members vote to approve
the company’s modified offer.
“Even though we were in a position
to hurt them, there weren’t signs the
company was going to move in a direc-
tion that would be advantageous to
members,” Kear said.
The vote was close in the Machin-
ists’ case: 225 to 209.
No union members crossed the
picket line to work during the 22-day
strike, but Daimler began using striker
replacements July 15 — brought in by
Strom Engineering of Minnetonka,
Minnesota, a company that specializes
in providing labor during work stop-
pages. The week before the strike
ended, union picket captains estimated
150 strikebreakers were crossing the
picket line daily. If the use of replace-
ment workers was intended to frighten
strikers, Kear said it didn’t have that ef-
fect. The replacement workers were
withdrawn July 22 after union mem-
bers ratified the contract.
After walking through the plant,
Kear said it appeared that the replace-
ment workers did nothing but make a
mess. No trucks were completed, and
members returning to their work sta-
tions found components that were built
incorrectly, like brakes that had airing
put in backwards.
Striking unions had begun working
with Portland Jobs With Justice to plan
a mass strike support rally July 29.
With the strike over, the rally was can-
celled.
Bread-and-butter issues were front
and center during the dispute, but it was
clear in several union meetings that re-
spect was also an underlying issue. At a
joint meeting July 17 of the two strik-
ing unions, chief steward Dwain Pan-
ian said the union bargaining team
made it clear to management that
workers feel they haven’t been listened
to, haven’t been thanked, and haven’t
been treated with respect. The com-
pany demonstrates its attitude in small-
scale morale-busters, like foul-smelling
employee bathrooms, taking away
safety glass cleaner on the shop floor,
and ending the practice of providing
Gatorade on scorching summer days
— in a plant without air conditioning.
Now that union members are back on
the job, the company will have a
chance to improve morale — if it
chooses to address those issues.
Bradken foundry:
No contract, a year after union vote
CHEHALIS, Wash. — Military and corporate contracts
are the bread and butter of Australian-owned Bradken Engi-
neered Products, but when it comes to signing a contract with
its Chehalis, Washington, foundry workers, the company ap-
pears to be dragging its feet.
The Chehalis foundry makes metal products used in rail,
transit, mining, industrial, military, energy and power genera-
tion industries. Workers there voted to join the International
Association of Machinists (IAM) Aug. 10, 2012.
Ending arbitrary pay was a top priority when workers be-
gan meeting with management to bargain a first-time union
contract in November. Then this spring the company disclosed
its official pay scale. Workers compared it to their actual
wages, and were shocked to see that wages varied up to $10 an
hour for the same job, and that new hires were sometimes paid
more than the long-time workers who trained them.
But bargaining has produced no contract thus far in nine
months of meetings. Machinists District Lodge W24 Rep Joe
Kear said talks move slowly even on minor things. The com-
pany has agreed to “just cause” discipline and a grievance
process. But its wage proposal is to keep the status quo, a set
of practices workers can’t make sense of.
And the company doesn’t act like it’s in a hurry; Kear said
management has generally been available to meet only twice
a month, and has canceled five meetings since November.
The foot-dragging may have had the effect of unifying
workers around the union banner, however. The August union
vote was 48 to 44. But in May, 81 of about 100 workers signed
a petition asking management to speed things up and sign a
contract providing fair wages, dignity and respect.
Sammy Williams, 26-year-old Bradken worker who oper-
ates a sand reclamation machine, didn’t think much of unions
when organizers and co-workers came knocking on his door
last year. But Williams says he decided to give the union a
chance, and since then management has driven him firmly into
the union camp. He learned that the company’s wage policy
was supposed to have started him at $12 an hour, but he had
started at $10.15. He now serves on the union bargaining com-
mittee.
Since at least February, Bradken workers have been reach-
ing out to the wider community for support, starting with a
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
To build labor support for their campaign for a first
contract, Bradken workers attended the July 25-27
convention of the Washington State Labor Council.
Pictured above is Darren Wright, a member of the union
bargaining committee, at the Bradken information table,
talking to Kristen Beifus of the Washington Fair Trade
Coalition.
resolution of support by the Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central
Labor Council.
On May 6, they received a letter of solidarity from the
heads of two Australian unions — the Australian Manufactur-
ing Workers Union and the Australian Workers Union. Brad-
ken is heavily unionized in its home country.
“Our two unions have met with the Australian CEO and
MD of Bradken,” they wrote. “At that meeting, we demanded
that the company negotiate a fair contract with the IAM im-
mediately.”
The two sides were next scheduled to meet July 30, after
this issue went to press.
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