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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2014)
Labor liaison Smith Warner Machinists to vote on second Boeing offer headed to state Legislature Smith Warner was well Barbara Smith Warner, la- known in labor circles prior bor liaison to U.S. Sen. Ron to joining Sen. Wyden’s staff Wyden (D-Ore.), has been ap- in March 2009. She worked pointed the new Democratic for the national AFL-CIO as state representative for Oregon a state legislative issues co- House District 45. ordinator and as a campaign The Multnomah County director against several anti- Board of Commissioners on union ballot measures spon- Dec. 19 chose Smith Warner, sored by Bill Sizemore. 46, to replace Michael Dem- B ARBARA S MITH From 1993 to 1996 she was brow. In November, those W ARNER the Western Regional field same county commissioners appointed Dembrow to the state Senate coordinator for the National Association to fill the unexpired term of Jackie of Letter Carriers. Smith Warner was campaign direc- Dingfelder in District 23. Dingfelder re- signed mid-term to join the staff of Port- tor for former labor commissioner Dan Gardner, a member of IBEW Local 48. land Mayor Charlie Hales. Dembrow is a longtime union ac- She also has worked as campaign di- tivist and former president of the Amer- rector for Forward Oregon and Future ican Federation of Teachers-Oregon, PAC, and on the re-election campaigns Portland Community College Faculty of Wyden, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, and Federation Local 2277. He was first U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer. Commissioners chose Smith Warner elected to the House in 2008. unanimously to represent District 45, which includes parts of Northeast Port- land, the city of Maywood Park, and the Parkrose area. She was one of three nominees submitted by the Democratic Party of Oregon. The other contenders were Thomas Sincic and James Woods. Smith Warner stressed to commis- sioners her commitment to education and health care reform, as well as her many community connections ranging from her two children’s school (Beverly Cleary) and the Rose City Park Neigh- borhood Association to the Children’s Book Bank and St. Andrew’s food pantry. Smith Warner told the Labor Press she will work to expand the idea of “wraparound care” in Gov. John Kitzhaber’s health care transformation to other areas such as housing, job train- ing (including union apprenticeships) and mental health. Smith Warner will resign from her job as Wyden’s labor liaison. Her last day is Jan. 5. She will be sworn in as a state representative on Jan. 15. Members of Machinists District 751 in Puget Sound and District W24 in Portland employed at Boeing Co. have been ordered by their international union to vote on a second contract pro- posal the company made Dec. 12. Boeing has threatened to move pro- duction of the new 777X to another state if workers don’t agree to the deal. The vote was scheduled for Jan. 3, just a day after Boeing’s assembly workers returned from their annual two-week holiday break (and after this issue of the Labor Press went to press). Machinists District 751 is “emphat- ically recommending that members re- ject the offer,” as it is largely un- changed from one that members turned down by a 2-to-1 margin on Nov. 13. Boeing is demanding an eight-year contract with drastic concessions in re- tirement and health care benefits, and wage increases of only 1 percent every other year, in return for what District 751 says are vague promises of mak- ing Washington the home for the new 777X jet. “The only guarantees this contract makes are that future Machinists won’t have a defined benefit pension, current Machinists will pay more for health care, and everyone will have sharp lim- its on their future earnings,” said Dis- trict 751 President Tom Wroblewski. Boeing sweetened its cash offer, adding a $5,000 lump sum bonus in January 2020 to a $10,000 ratification bonus that was offered in the first pro- posal. The company also withdrew its earlier demand to slow the wage pro- gression for new hires. The offer reverts to the status quo, which is that new hires can reach the top of the pay scale in six years (and not 16 years as previ- ously proposed). Machinists are currently working under a contract that doesn’t expire un- til September 2016. That agreement has been in place since 2008. In a letter to all Boeing Machinists, International President Tom Buffen- barger said Jan. 3 will be the “final vote” on a contract. He said the union “must take the threat seriously” that Boeing will leave Washington (if the contract is rejected). He wrote that given the fact several states have ten- dered serious offers and incentive pack- ages to the company, “the timeline for the Puget Sound area is expiring.” Prior to the union vote on Nov. 13, the Washington Legislature in a special session granted Boeing a $8.7 billion tax incentive package through 2024. It is the largest state tax subsidy for a pri- vate corporation in U.S. history. Part of SeaTac’s $15 minimum wage measure struck SEATAC, Wash. — In a Dec. 27 rul- ing, a judge struck down SeaTac’s voter-passed $15-an-hour minimum wage for airport workers, but upheld it for hotel and transportation workers outside the airport. King County Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvas ruled that under state law, the Port of Seattle has exclusive ju- risdiction over SeaTac Airport. Thus, the airport is not subject to ordinances passed by the City of SeaTac, the 27,000-resident municipality that en- compasses the airport. Voters in SeaTac had passed in November — by 77 votes — the highest-in-the-nation min- imum wage by ballot initiative. The ini- tiative also gave hospitality and trans- portation workers other rights, including paid sick days and the right for employees of contractors to keep their jobs when the contract changes hands. The Yes for SeaTac campaign — the coalition of unions, community groups, and churches that crafted the initiative — said it would file an expedited ap- peal to the Washington Supreme Court. For now, about 1,600 hotel and parking lot workers who work within the City of SeaTac get raises to $15 an hour, but an estimated 4,700 baggage handlers, car rental workers, and others who work in the airport itself will have to wait for the results of a legal appeal. This wasn’t Darvas’ first time ruling on the SeaTac ballot measure. Last summer, she agreed with an attempt by Alaska Airlines to keep the measure off the ballot, but that decision was over- ruled by the Washington Court of Ap- peals. This time, Darvas rejected most of the grab bag of arguments made by the initiative’s opponents — that it violates the rule that initiatives must encompass only one subject, that it violates the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause by mistreating out-of-state employers, that it violates state law by letting unaf- fected parties sue employers, or that it is preempted by the National Labor Re- lations Act. But Darvas agreed with the jurisdictional argument: The City of SeaTac may not regulate the airport, because only the Port of Seattle may do that. Why is it that a worker injured on the job is made to feel like they are now “the accused” who did something wrong? Good question! Don’t let them add insult to your injury! P ROUDLY S ERVING P ORTLAND W ORKERS F OR O VER 32 Y EARS PAGE 2 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS JANUARY 3 2014
