Inside
MEETING NOTICES
See
Page 17
Volume 115
Number 16
August 16, 2013
Portland, Oregon
Council. Call Kathy McUne at 541-664-0804 for more informa-
tion.
Labor Day
PICNICS
Labor Day – Monday, Sept. 2
Every year, labor organizations throughout Oregon hold La-
bor Day picnics. Check with your union local to see if it is par-
ticipating. Here is a list of picnics taking place :
BEND — Solidarity Day Picnic at Pioneer Park in Bend.
12:30 – 3:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Central Oregon Central La-
bor Council. Contact Linda Bradetich at 541-350-0965 or Steve
Williamsen at 541-678-0235 for more information.
EUGENE/SPRINGFIELD — John Lively Picnic Shelters,
behind SPLASH, at 6100 Thurston Road in Springfield. Noon –
4 p.m. Please bring a side dish. SPLASH will be open for fami-
lies that wish to swim. Sponsored by the Lane County Central
Labor Council and Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network. Con-
tact ESSN at essn@efn.org for more information.
Hamburgers, hot dogs, and politicians will be in abundant
supply at union-sponsored Labor Day picnics throughout
the state. Above, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley grills hot dogs for
union members at last year’s picnic at Oaks Park in
Portland. Assisting him is Jeff Anderson, secretary-treasurer
of UFCW Local 555. Check out the list of picnics at right for
the location nearest you.
MEDFORD — TouVelle State Park, 8425 Table Rock Road,
Central Point. The fun begins at 11 a.m. with speakers. Lunch
will be served from noon to 2 p.m., followed by music by Broad-
way Phil & Shouters and Patrick Tovatt. Donations accepted, and
there is a $5 charge for parking. Tables are limited, so bring your
own chairs. Sponsored by the Southern Oregon Central Labor
NORTH BEND — Ferry Road Park in North Bend. Noon
– 2 p.m. Sponsored by the Southwestern Oregon Central Labor
Council. Free barbecue, but asking for donation of non-perish-
able food items for the needy. For more information, contact
Robert Westerman at 541-756-3907 or by email at ibew932@
frontier.com, or Megan Rivas at 541-756-0579, ext 6311, or
email at mrivas@ufcw555.org.
PORTLAND — Oaks Amusement Park in Southeast Port-
land. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., with a program at 1 p.m., featuring U.S.
Sen. Jeff Merkley. Food scrip sells for 50 cents. A hamburger
with chips is 3 scrip; a hot dog with chips is 2 scrip; chili is 1
scrip and beer is 4 scrip. Deluxe ride bracelets are $9. All are
welcome to attend, whether your union is reserving a spot or not.
Sponsored by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council. Call 503-
235-9444 for more information.
The Oregon Pacific Railroad Shuttle Train will transport peo-
ple ($3 per person roundtrip) to and from Oaks Park from 8:30
a.m. to 7 p.m. Parking will be available at the Portland Opera,
211 SE Caruthers St., and in the vicinity of SE Ivon and 4th St.
SALEM — Riverfront Park in Salem. 11 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Sponsored by Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Council.
Cost: two food items per person or donation to the food bank. For
more information and/or to RSVP, call Judy by Aug. 20 at 503-
362-7057 or e-mail her at jsugnet@att.net.
PIRG fundraising group
It’s official — UFCW rejoins AFL-CIO on trial for labor violations
CHICAGO (PAI) — Citing the
AFL-CIO’s new dynamism and ac-
tivism, the United Food and Commer-
cial Workers (UFCW) formally re-
joined the national labor federation
Aug. 8, leaving the Change To Win la-
bor federation.
The re-affiliation vote by the
union’s Executive Board, meeting in
Chicago, came four days before
UFCW’s convention opened there.
UFCW President Joe Hansen said
his union’s leaders realized the “para-
mount need for more labor unity” as a
result of the 2010 election, where la-
bor got clobbered in congressional and
state gubernatorial and legislative elec-
tions. He said the subsequent attacks
on workers brought UFCW into direct
strategic partnership with the AFL-
CIO and the entire labor movement.
“Our shared campaign revealed a
dynamic and revitalized AFL-CIO
and made it clear it was time for the
UFCW to re-double our efforts to
build a more robust and unified labor
movement,” said Hansen, who held
the top post as chair of Change to
Win.
UFCW, with 1.3 million members,
was a key component of Change To
Win, the coalition of unions — Team-
sters, Farm Workers, Carpenters, La-
borers, Service Employees, and
UNITE HERE — that broke away
from the AFL-CIO. One key com-
plaint the unions voiced was the AFL-
CIO emphasized politics too much
and organizing too little.
UFCW’s return to the AFL-CIO
follows that of the 500,000-member
Laborers Union and the 265,000-
member UNITE HERE.
Only the 1.4-million member
Teamsters Union, the 2.1 million-
member Service Employees, and the
5,000-member United Farm Workers
Union remain in Change to Win.
The 500,000-member Carpenters
Union left the group in 2009 for inde-
pendent status.
Teamsters President James Hoffa
succeeded Hansen as chair of Change
to Win.
Hansen said UFCW will remain
active in Change to Win’s Strategic
Organizing Center, and will “bring
our AFL-CIO partners into collabora-
tion with private-sector unions in an
effort to build more power for work-
ers.”
In the Pacific Northwest, UFCW
locals have maintained affiliations
with AFL-CIO central labor councils
in Oregon, and with the state AFL-
CIO in Washington, through Solidar-
ity Charters.
National AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka welcomed UFCW
back, calling it “great news for work-
ers living in the ‘new normal’ of the
low wage economy. A stronger, more-
unified grassroots movement of work-
ing men and women is exactly what’s
needed to raise wages for workers and
rebuild an American middle class. To-
gether we are stronger. It’s as simple
as that.”
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
In a hearing room at the downtown
Portland offices of the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB), managers
for the Fund for the Public Interest tes-
tified under oath Aug. 6-7 that firing
union activist David Neel was business
as usual.
The Fund for the Public Interest,
based in Boston, is the money-raising
arm of the national PIRG network and
its affiliated green groups, like Envi-
ronment Oregon. Neel, a telephone
fundraiser in the Fund’s Portland call
center, became an outspoken union ac-
tivist when he and co-workers voted to
join Communications Workers of
America (CWA) Local 7901 in Octo-
ber 2011. But Neel violated some Fund
policies, testified Pat Wood, national
director of the Fund’s Telephone Out-
reach Program. Neel didn’t stick to the
script he was given, Wood said, and he
failed to “triple confirm” a donor’s
pledge. So Neel, a top fundraiser with
18 months experience at the Fund, was
fired, by phone, on his way to work
Nov. 6, 2012.
The NLRB — the independent fed-
eral agency that administers U.S. labor
law — didn’t buy that explanation of
Neel’s firing when it investigated. The
agency issued a formal complaint
against the Fund Feb. 27 saying Neel
was fired because he engaged in union
activities. Now, having heard two days
of testimony, federal administrative law
judge Margaret Brakebusch will decide
which version of events to believe.
Neel says the Fund offered to settle
the case the day before trial, offering a
back pay settlement that would have to-
taled about $20,000 — if he would
waive his right to reinstatement. But
Neel wanted his day in court, and a
chance at vindication.
Neel is the only fired Fund for the
Public Interest call center worker to
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