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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 2013)
Portland-based Boilermakers Local 500 consolidates with Local 242 in Spokane Who’s On Our Side? By Tom Chamberlain O n Nov. 1, more than 800,000 Oregonians got a little hun- grier. That’s because $40 billion was cut from the Federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) this month. The federal program provides money to buy food for 47 million Americans. SNAP funding was increased by $40 billion as part of the 2009 fed- eral stimulus legislation. From an economic standpoint, the spend- ing increase made sense in 2009. It still makes sense today, too. Every SNAP dollar spent gener- ates $1.80 for the American econ- omy. The $40 billion in SNAP funding has a $72 billion impact on the American economy, and in the pockets of workers. This cut actually hurts our economy. While our economy is slowly recovering and jobs are being cre- ated, those jobs tend to be low- wage jobs that will not support a family. They’re Walmart and Burger King jobs. Eighty percent of SNAP fami- lies have at least one family mem- ber employed. On average, SNAP spends approximately $1.40 per meal. The $40 billion cut results in the loss of billions of meals for poor, but working, people. To put this into perspective — for an average family of four, the cuts will result in 21 fewer meals per month. Who receives SNAP benefits? 21 percent of Oregonians who live in poverty ($11,500 for an individ- ual, $23,500 for a family). And 87 percent of recipients live in house- holds with children, seniors or people with disabilities. In fact, 1 in 4 U.S. children live in a house- hold that receives food stamps, and 1 in 5 households with chil- dren still report sometimes not having enough money to buy food. 900,000 recipients are veter- ans. Whether you and your family suffer from hunger or not, you are impacted. Hunger results in higher risks for mental disorders, iron de- ficiency and other nutritional defi- ciencies, headaches, stomach aches, respiratory illnesses and in- creased hospitalization. All told, in 2010 hunger-related health care costs were estimated at $130.5 bil- lion. Hungry kids have a harder time succeeding in school, and are 50 percent more likely to miss school days, leading to staggering disad- vantages like being twice as likely to be suspended and 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade. Proponents of the cuts state that the increase in SNAP funding was designed to stimulate the economy and give relief to unemployed families, and now that our econ- omy is on the rebound it is time to end the SNAP stimulus compo- nent. The problem is that 93 percent of the economic gains since the beginning of the Great Recession have gone to the top 1 percent. Job creation has not been in middle class jobs. Low-wage jobs are swelling the ranks of the work- ing poor. The shedding of the mid- dle class public sector at the fed- eral, state, and local levels has only compounded our economic problems. For far too many, the Great Recession isn’t over. If the neocons and the corpo- ratists continue to advance an agenda of low-wage jobs in ex- change for increased wealth to the 1 percent, the demands for social safety net programs like SNAP will only increase. This is exactly the wrong time for Congress to be defunding our social safety net. One just has to walk the streets of Portland and see the swelling ranks of the homeless to understand that our people are hungry, cold, and ill, and our government is failing them. It is time to contact your sena- tor and congressperson. It’s time to ask what side they’re on. And frankly, it’s time to do nothing less than demand that they restore the SNAP cuts. Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call 503-288-5537 1638 NE Broadway, Portland PAGE 10 of Congress accountable for their hos- tile statements about Latino immi- grants,” he said. The Senate previously passed leg- islation to bring 11 million undocu- mented people out of the shadows. That includes 7.5 million undocu- mented workers, who would be imme- diately covered by labor law. That’s important because some em- ployers exploit their workers by under- paying them and employing them in substandard conditions, threatening to call immigration officials on any work- ers who stand up for themselves. Oth- ers use the threat of firing U.S. workers and hiring undocumented workers to replace them in order to drive down wages and benefits and to kill union or- ganizing drives. Trumka stressed the justice of com- prehensive immigration reform, de- nounced the daily deportation of 1,000+ undocumented workers whom the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service picks up, and EE R F said the ads would put pressure on GOP lawmakers to pressure their lead- ers for an up-or-down vote. If comprehensive reform comes up on the House floor, Trumka and the others said, it would pass with over- whelming Democratic support, plus a handful of Republicans. Despite majority support nation- wide, House Republicans won’t con- sider the comprehensive bill. They are proposing a piece-by-piece plan, which does not include a path to citi- zenship. The TV ad campaign will run on Spanish-language stations in Atlanta, Orlando, Denver, and Bakersfield, Calif., Trumka said. The ads urge law- makers to push their leaders for the vote. The subtext is the political con- sequences if they don’t. Hispanics, now the largest minority, voted in huge numbers in 2012 and the off-year 2013 elections, and voted overwhelmingly Democratic. Recession. Keffeler met with the Oregon boil- ermakers in October to explain the con- solidation. Keffeler told the Labor Press that he hopes to maintain the Portland training center located at 2515 NE Co- lumbia Blvd. He has reached out to Boilermakers Local 104, which repre- sents workers at the shipyards, in regard to sharing the training facility. Local 104 is headquartered in Seattle, but has a satellite office in Vancouver. Keffeler also wants to maintain an affiliation with the Oregon Building and Construction Trades Council. Several members from Oregon at- tended Local 242’s union meeting and barbecue in Spokane Nov. 9. Keffeler’s goal is to hold bi-monthly informational meetings in Portland starting next year. He said the work picture for Boiler- makers looks strong in the months ahead. “We have a lot of work on the books, it just hasn’t broke yet,” he said. “We’re going to survive.” BARGAIN COUNTER Free classified ads to subscribers DEADLINE: Friday prior to publication Published 1st and 3rd Fridays Now accepting e-mails Send to: Michael492@comcast.net Mail to: NWLP, PO Box 13150, Portland OR 97213 (Please include union affiliation) Tom Chamberlain is president of the Oregon AFL-CIO. AFL-CIO steps up pro-immigration reform drive with $1 million ad buy WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — The AFL-CIO is stepping up its drive to pass comprehensive immigration re- form with a two-week, $1 million-plus television advertising blitz targeting nine House Republicans. In a Nov. 6 telephone press confer- ence, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the point is to force House Republican leaders to let law- makers vote on the comprehensive re- form bill before the end of this year. Unions and their allies won’t accept anything less than that, he warned. “The TV ad campaign has two main objectives: To spur House Republicans into action on immigration reform this year, and to hold Republican members SPOKANE — Portland-based Boil- ermakers Local 500 has consolidated with Spokane-based Local 242, an- nounced Business Manager Mark Kef- feler. The consolidation boosts Local 242’s membership to nearly 550 shop and field construction boilermakers, with jurisdiction in Eastern Washington starting at the Canadian border, in Southwest Washington to Longview, and in Oregon. Local 242 was established in 1960. It maintains a large training center in Spokane and is politically active in the state. At the time of the consolidation, Lo- cal 500 — chartered on July 1, 1984 in Salem — represented approximately 200 field construction boilermakers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Its business manager, Darin McCarthy, had been out on medical leave since February, following complications from back surgery. 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