Jensen re-elected business
mgr. of Iron Workers #29
IBEW launches organizing
drive at Camas’ Wafertech
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
On Feb. 7, 2013, a worker at
Wafertech in Camas, Washington,
reached out to a union. Portland-
headquartered International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
Local 48 took the phone call, and as-
signed staff organizers to talk to
workers.
Wafertech — a subsidiary of Tai-
wan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company (TSMC) — employs
roughly 500 production workers at a
Camas semiconductor foundry. They
work in a clean room environment
making silicon wafers.
Union organizers hoped to get a
chance to gauge whether workers
were interested without the employer
launching an anti-union campaign.
But Wafertech managers got wind of
workers talking to the union. The
union campaign went public, launch-
ing a campaign web site Nov. 8 —
wafertechworkers.org — to provide
a forum for workers to learn about
and discuss the merits of unionizing.
A Facebook page launched Nov. 19
— Wafertech-Workers-Unite — also
provides updates about the campaign.
In mid-November, the company
JANUARY 17, 2014
held hour-long anti-union meetings
on each shift. Managers showed a
video that outlines the supposed dan-
gers of signing a union authorization
card. On Dec. 6, company president
KC Hsu wrote to workers, saying
Wafertech will best serve customers
and employees without a union.
“WaferTech has empowered
grass-roots ‘Employee Engagement
teams’ to develop improvement
plans,” Hsu wrote, “and these teams
will be reporting their recommenda-
tions in the weeks ahead.”
The union stepped up its effort to
talk to workers. In mid-December,
staff from Local 48 were joined by
staff from Locals 659, 76, 46 and
IBEW’s Ninth District for a four-day
marathon of door-knocking.
IBEW organizer Ray Lister says
Wafertech isn’t a bad employer in
some respects: It provides decent em-
ployer-provided health insurance, a
workplace gym, and paid time off.
But employees have complaints, and
some would like a union to negotiate
improvements. Work is 24-7, and
shifts are 12 hours long, starting at 6
a.m. or 6 p.m. Workers say they’re di-
rected by managers fresh out of busi-
ness school who know nothing about
ORGANIZER RAY LISTER
the industry. And managers change
work rules without any say-so from
the affected production workers.
Turnover is high, Lister said, likely
because wages are low. Until this
month, some production workers
made $10.50 an hour, barely above
Washington’s minimum wage. But
on Jan. 16, the company announced a
sizable raise: as much as $1.50 an
hour for newer and lower-paid work-
ers, and 50 cents an hour for more
senior workers. The raises brought
workers up to a new wage floor of
$12 an hour.
Lister thinks the raises were a re-
action to talk of unionizing.
“We’re still in the early informa-
tive stages of a union campaign,” Lis-
ter said. “These hourly workers don’t
have degrees and are made to believe
they don’t have value. But it takes
four weeks to train and two years to
get up to optimal. They achieve a
level of mastery. We’re trying to get
message out that their work has
value.”
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Kevin Jensen was sworn in Jan. 2 to
a fourth term as financial secretary-
treasurer and business manager of
Portland-based Iron Workers Local 29.
He ran unopposed.
Joe Bowers was re-elected to a sec-
ond term as president and Robert Ca-
marillo was re-elected vice president
of the 1,050-member local, which has
jurisdiction in Oregon and Southwest
Washington. Additionally, the local is
training 175 apprentices.
Both Bowers and Camarillo also
were re-elected as business agents and
as delegates to the Iron Workers Dis-
trict Council.
Others re-elected were Kevin Soto,
recording secretary, and Michael New-
ton, sergeant-at-arms/Executive Com-
mittee/Examining
Committee.
Joining New-
ton on the Execu-
tive Committee
are Shane Nehls,
Kevin Crocker,
Rion Barrett and
Joseph Fields.
KEVIN JENSEN
Joining New-
ton on the Examining Committee are
Camarillo and Jade Worthington.
Trustees elected were Steve Ma-
honey and William Sanders.
Soto, Fields and Joseph Cochran
also were elected to the Joint Appren-
ticeship Training Committee.
All terms are for three years.
Oregon Building Trades Council
endorses Kitahaber for re-election
The Oregon State Building and
Construction Trades Council (OBTC)
has endorsed John Kitzhaber for re-
election as Oregon’s governor.
The council, which represents more
than 25,000 union construction work-
ers throughout the state, cited
Kitzhaber’s economic development
plan, his focus on attracting industrial
sector jobs to the region, his effort to
raise the median income of Oregonians,
and his commitment to bring voca-
tional training back into the classroom,
as their reasons for endorsing him.
“Gov. Kitzhaber shares our core be-
lief that the key to economic growth
and prosperity is the creation of family
wage jobs,” said OBCTC Executive
Secretary John Mohlis.
Kitzhaber, a Democrat, served as the
35th governor of Oregon from 1995 to
2003. He was the first person to be
elected to the office three times when
he was elected to a non-consecutive
third term as the state’s 37th governor
in 2010. Prior to becoming a politician,
he was an emergency room physician
in Roseburg, Oregon.
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