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