Working America signing up
workers for health insurance
Oregon’s new online insurance ex-
change may be broken, but the AFL-
CIO is moving ahead to sign up unin-
sured individuals for health insurance
through its community group Working
America.
Working America regional mobi-
lization director Kim McMurray says
the group has signed up 600 people so
far in Oregon, including taxi drivers
with Union Cab and employees of sev-
eral restaurants. Working America has
also held several enrollment fairs in the
basement of the Oregon AFL-CIO of-
fices — in which individuals meet in
person with insurance brokers chosen
by the group.
The local effort is part of a national
campaign by Working America, in
partnership with the UnionPlus bene-
fits program. Individuals who sign up
for individual health insurance through
Working America become members of
Working America, and have access to
a free 24-7 phone service to help sched-
ule doctors appointments.
McMurray said the group hopes the
effort will help build relationships with
food service workers in particular. A
Working America member coordinator
has been reaching out to restaurant
owners, and the group sends brokers
out to sign employees up for coverage.
Oven and Shaker restaurant will be the
next to hold an enrollment event, Jan. 7.
The next open-to-the-public event
will be Jan. 13 at the Radio Room,
1101 NE Alberta St., Portland. Sign-up
for the event is online at www.working
americahealthcare.com.
Because of delays in the rollout, the
deadline for uninsured individuals to
enroll for 2014 has been extended until
March 31.
Oregon AFL-CIO hires Nafisah
Ula to bolster union organizing
The Oregon AFL-CIO has hired a
research specialist to augment its or-
ganizing program. Nafisah Ula was re-
cruited to the state labor federation
from the national AFL-CIO’s Center
for Strategic Research, where she spent
two-and-a-half years doing research to
help affiliated unions organize new
members. She’ll do similar work in
Oregon — researching the structure of
private sector companies, for instance,
identifying who the decision-makers
are, and helping workplace organizers
build lists of workers.
Ula, 27, grew up in Laramie,
Wyoming, a daughter of immigrants
from Bangladesh. From an early age,
she noticed and was bothered by eco-
nomic inequality. At University of
Apprenticeship
Opening
Michigan Ann Arbor, she became an
activist for racial and economic justice,
and spent summers working for the la-
bor movement. She conducted research
for the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center in
Durban, South Africa in conjunction
with United Students Against Sweat-
shops. And she served as an apprentice
organizer with UNITE HERE in a food
service worker campaign in San Jose.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in so-
ciology from University of Michigan
and a masters degree in political theory
from the University of Chicago, she in-
terned at the Workers Rights Consor-
tium, an international labor rights mon-
itoring group and then went to work as
a researcher for Service Employees In-
ternational Union Local 32BJ, a
120,000 member union of janitors and
security guards. She joined the national
AFL-CIO in January 2011.
National Labor College in Silver
Spring, Md. will close in April
SILVER SPRING, Md. (PAI) —
The National Labor College (NLC) in
Silver Spring, Maryland — the only
college in the United States with an ex-
clusive mission to serve the educational
needs of the labor movement — will
close this year because of financial dif-
ficulties.
“I am deeply saddened to report that
the Board of Trustees directed me and
the college’s officers to develop a plan
to close the college,” the institution’s
president, Dr. Paula Peinovich, said in a
statement posted on its website. “The
college has been facing significant fi-
nancial difficulties, and the board re-
luctantly decided to accept the in-
evitability of our closure.”
Peinovich said NLC will offer a
spring semester from Jan. 6 to April 18,
2014, with a full range of courses for
the 260 students already registered.
[Last fall the college had 599 online
students.] The college still is exploring
the option of an 18 month teach-out,
whereby students could take courses at
other institutions and transfer them
back to NLC.
NLC will hold a commencement
and closing convocation ceremony on
April 26, 2014.
The labor college has been an inde-
pendent, degree-granting institution for
17 years, tracing its history back to the
George Meany Center for Labor Stud-
ies.
In an interview with the Washington
Post, Peinovich said the college be-
came burdened by debt incurred in a
major renovation at its 47-acre campus
that began in 2003. Part of that renova-
tion included the construction of a
72,000-square-foot conference center
named for Lane Kirkland, the late
AFL-CIO president.
The center, dedicated in 2007, was
unable to generate enough revenue to
erase the debt, Peinovich said, and even
failed to cover its own operating costs.
Peinovich, who came out of retire-
ment to run NLC after previously run-
ning a private for-profit online college,
said the college owed about $30 mil-
lion when she took over in 2010.
At the time of her hiring, she was
the college’s fourth president in five
years.
There had also been high turnover
in other top administrative offices.
NLC employed 58 faculty and staff
members and had an annual operating
budget of $12 million, Peinovich said.
Most of the full-time faculty, repre-
sented by the Washington-Baltimore
Newspaper Guild, took buyouts when
the college offered them. The Guild
also represents part-time faculty there.
The AFL-CIO and individual
unions are the college’s primary finan-
cial support, with the labor federation
contributing about $5 million a year.
The AFL-CIO also has provided bridge
loans to the college in recent years.
AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka told the federation’s Executive
E
E
FR
Oregon’s minimum wage
increased to $9.10 an hour
on Jan. 1, 2014
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PAGE 6
Council during a meeting at the college
several years ago that the fed could not
continue subsidizing the NLC. Trumka
also chairs the college’s board of
trustees.
In 2012, trustees put the campus up
for sale and planned to make the col-
lege an entirely online institution.
The Washington Post reported Dec.
19 that college trustees had approved a
letter of intent to sell the 47-acre cam-
pus to Monument Realty. A sale price
has not been announced, but proceeds
will help cover the college’s debts.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
uniforms, aviation, hats, helmets, swords,
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BUYinG US & world coins to add to col-
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coLLectoR, cash paid, old fishing
tackle, wood plugs, reels, creels, salmon
fishing photos, etc. 503-775-4166
coLLectoR PaYS cash for older toys,
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WincheSteR MoD. 12 16 gauge 98%,
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RetiRee DoWnSiZinG hunting guns,
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JANUARY 3 2014