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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2014)
CWA gets bare-bones contract with Fund for the Public Interest Workers at a Portland call center run by the Fund for the Public Interest fi- nally have a union contract — two years and four months after joining Commu- nications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7901. Fund for the Public Interest, head- quartered in Boston, runs street, door- to-door and telephone fundraising for state “public interest research groups” like OSPIRG and a spinoff network of state environmental groups like Envi- ronment Oregon. It also has contracts to do fundraising for groups like Human Rights Campaign. In spite of those groups’ progressive reputation, the Fund is an abusive em- ployer, churning through and terminat- ing personnel at a prodigious rate. That’s what prompted its Portland call center workers to unionize, but the Fund didn’t stop being an abusive employer just because federal law told it to bar- gain in good faith with employees. In fact, CWA contended in charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), managers used the Fund’s existing draconian rules to elim- inate union supporters one after another — firing them for trivial offenses, or more commonly for missing fundrais- ing quotas. The Fund fired the worker who first called the union, all eight of the workers who presented the original union petition to a manager, all four workers who volunteered on the union’s initial bargaining team, and several who replaced them, for a total of at least 13 supporters fired — in a call center that employs about 25. But as thousands of American workers have learned, the NLRB is a toothless bureaucracy when it comes to stopping employers from firing union activists. Proving a worker was fired for sup- porting a union isn’t easy. CWA filed multiple charges protesting the firings, but only one charge went anywhere: Af- ter an August 2013 hearing, a federal administrative law judge ordered that fired union activist David Neel be rein- stated with back pay. The Fund ap- pealed the judge’s order, and offered to reinstate Neel pending resolution of the appeal. But the Fund also told Neel he’d be terminated if the Fund won its ap- peal. That wasn’t the unconditional re- instatement offer CWA believed the judge ordered. Neel, who now does similar fundraising work for the Oregon Working Families Party, declined to ac- cept, holding out for an unconditional offer in the event he wins the appeal, which is still pending. The Fund may have thought the union effort would peter out, but it did- n’t. When union supporters were fired, their pro-union coworkers waged short strikes to protest — and trained and ori- ented new hires. CWA Local 7901 Pres- ident Madelyn Elder said a pro-man- agement employee tried to circulate a State to include apprenticeships in education goals SALEM — The Oregon Legislature has amended the state’s 40-40-20 Edu- cation Plan to include state-registered apprenticeships. The plan sets a goal to ensure all Oregonians have a high school diploma or equivalent by 2025, and that the vast majority have some form of degree or certificate beyond a high school educa- tion. The goal is that 40 percent will have a bachelor’s degree or higher, 40 percent will earn an associate’s degree or post-secondary credential, and 20 percent will have a high school diploma or equivalent. The legislative and rule-making in- tent was to include non-college educa- tion programs in the “middle 40” of the goal, but it wasn’t clear what programs were included. At the Oregon AFL-CIO convention in Bend last September, delegates passed a resolution directing the state labor federation to pursue legislation that would ensure that apprenticeship training was part of the “middle 40.” It just so happened that then-state Rep. Michael Dembrow (D-Portland) was a delegate at the convention. Dem- brow is a community college instructor and member of the American Federa- tion of Teachers. Dembrow, now a state senator, talked up the resolution to his col- leagues. State Rep. Chris Gorcek (D- Troutdale), a community college in- structor representing a district with many apprenticeship training centers in it, took interest in the idea and ap- proached the Oregon AFL-CIO about drafting a bill. House Bill 4058 made clear that ap- prenticeship programs registered with the State Apprenticeship and Training Council were to be included as a post- secondary credential. The bill passed in the House 59-0, and passed in the Senate 29-0. “By explicitly including registered apprenticeship programs in our educa- tion goals, we are ensuring that no mat- ter how students learn, they know there is a path for them after high school into a good career — be it through college or an apprenticeship program,” said Tom Chamberlain, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO. Current and former workers at Fund for the Public Interest Portland call center staged a short strike and protest Oct. 11, 2013, the two-year anniversary of their vote to unionize. Protesters marched outside the headquarters of OSPIRG, one of the nonprofit groups that the call center workers raise money for. petition to dump the union, but no coworkers would sign. But contract negotiations consisted of stonewalling. Telephone fundraising director Pat Wood flew out to Portland once a month from Boston, and said “no” to union proposals, even those as trivial as automatic payroll deduction. Over the course of two years of negoti- ations, the Fund refused to agree to the most basic union contract rights, such as not disciplining workers without “just cause,” or the requirement that represented employees pay union dues. But in February, the Fund dropped its hard line on the requirement to pay union dues, and that was enough. What made the difference, Elder thinks, was union pressure on the Human Rights Campaign, a gay civil rights group, to switch its fundraising to another con- tractor. Elder said once that became a real possibility, the Fund settled. Call center workers ratified a new four-year agreement Feb. 25 in a unan- imous vote. The contract contains no raises or additional benefits, but it cod- ifies existing workplace policies, and addresses worker concerns about pay instability and job security by limiting performance-based pay cuts to $2 an hour per pay period, and giving workers a third missed-quota week, once a year, before being terminated. Elder said that saved one worker’s job right off the bat. The contract contains a grievance procedure consisting of appeals up through four levels of the Fund chain of command. But unlike most union con- tracts, there’s no provision for resolving grievances through binding arbitration. But Elder said that means workers re- tain the right to strike if a grievance isn’t resolved to their satisfaction; most union contracts bar workers from strik- ing during the term of the contract. The CWA-Fund contract runs through February 2018. It covers the Fund’s Portland call center workers, but not its thousands of canvass employees or its call center workers in Sacramento and Boston. Boeing announces plan to build 777X wing in Everett EVERETT, Wash. — Boeing Co. announced Feb. 18 that it will construct a 1-million-square-foot factory in Everett to build the 777X carbon com- posite wing. The company confirmed, too, that the airplane will be assembled in Everett, though it didn’t say where. “This isn’t just a five-year decision or a 20-year decision, this is a 50-year decision,” said Boeing CEO Ray Con- ner at a press conference with Gov. Jay Inslee, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, local politicians, and International Associa- tion of Machinists Aerospace Coordi- nator Mark Johnson. The Machinists Union represents approximately 31,000 manufacturing workers at Boeing plants in Everett, Portland, and Wichita, Kansas. They are members of Machinists District Lodge 751, Machinists District Lodge W24 (Lodge 63), and District Lodge 70. PAGE 4 Conner and the other elected offi- cials praised union members for ap- proving a controversial concessionary contract extension through 2024. Boeing had threatened to leave Washington if the Machinists didn’t agree to the contract extension and if lawmakers didn’t agree to extend tax breaks for the Fortune 500 company. Many union members thought the company was bluffing. After all, plane production, stock prices and profits were at all-time highs. And they still had more than two years remaining on their existing collective bargaining agreement. Lawmakers responded quickly. In a special session called by Gov. Inslee, the Washington Legislature passed a bill giving Boeing $8.7 billion in ex- tended tax breaks over the next 16 years. It also passed new laws that ex- pedited the permitting process for 777X-related construction. It was the largest state subsidy for a corporation in U.S. history. The Machinists weren’t so easy. A week after the Legislature handed Boeing the huge tax break, workers re- jected Boeing’s contract proposal by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. The offer in- cluded ending the defined benefit pen- sion plan and paying more out-of- pocket for health insurance. Shortly after the vote, Boeing put out a request for proposal (RFP) and re- ceived offers from 22 states to build the new 777X. The RFP whipped federal, state and local politicians into near-hys- teria, as they feared the loss of thou- sands of family-wage jobs in the state. Politicians pleaded with the union to go back to the table and make a deal. They got the attention of Machinists international union. Union officials re- turned to the bargaining table, got a NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS slightly better deal (though it still ended the pension plan and increased health insurance co-pays), and ordered a vote — all against the wishes of the leader- ship of District Lodge 751. With pressure to ratify the contract coming from the governor, area may- ors, elected officials, and the media, Machinists on Jan. 3 passed the con- tract extension by fewer than 600 votes. “The Machinists made a very diffi- cult decision,” Inslee said. “We owe re- spect to the Machinists for making a decision that helps the entire economy of the state of Washington.” In a post-ratification-vote interview with the Puget Sound Business Journal, Machinists International President Tom Buffenbarger said he was convinced that Washington was not on Boeing’s final list of sites for the 777X, and that the company might have moved Air Force tanker production to Long Beach, Calif., had the contract exten- sion been nixed. “I did have a fear of it leaving Seat- tle because of the domino effect,” Buf- fenbarger told the Business Journal. “All of these (disputed contract provi- sions) mean nothing if Boeing built the plant somewhere else, because people wouldn’t have had a job.” Conner wouldn’t say how many new jobs will be created, but the Seattle Times reported that during the 777X site-selection competition, Boeing pro- jected the high-tech wing facility alone would provide 2,760 jobs at peak em- ployment in 2024. At the Feb. 18 press conference, Conner said “We’re going to be here. We’re going to start tearing down buildings, and we’re going to start pumping hundreds of millions of dol- lars into this area.” MARCH 7, 2014
