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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2014)
...Labor peace at City of Portland Deborah Barnes, a vice president with the Oregon Education Association, is running for the open seat in House District 41. Union member runs for open seat in Oregon Legislature Union member Deborah Barnes is running for state representative in Ore- gon’s House District 41. She hopes to succeed Democrat Carolyn Tomei, who announced in March that she would not seek re-election after serv- ing seven terms in the Legislature. HD 41 covers Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Sell- wood and the Eastmoreland neighbor- hoods of Southeast Portland. Barnes’ opponents in the Demo- cratic primary in May are Kathleen Taylor, attorney Ted Roe, and Kaliko Castille. [Castille dropped out of the race on April 2 and endorsed Barnes.] The winner will face Republican Tim- othy McMenamin in the November general election. McMenamin was the only Republican to file for the race. De- mocrats hold a nearly 13,000-voter reg- istration advantage in HD 41. (McMe- namin lost to Tomei two years ago by a margin of 72 percent to 28 percent.) Barnes, who teaches broadcasting and social media at the Sabin-Schel- lenberg Professional Technical Center in Milwaukie, is president of the North Clackamas Education Association and serves as the Region 1 vice president of the Oregon Education Association (OEA). Before becoming a teacher she worked as a broadcast news reporter/ anchor in Oregon and was president of the Portland local of the American Fed- eration of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). Barnes grew up in a union house- hold. Her late father was an active member of United Food and Commer- cial Workers (UFCW) Local 555. Barnes served two four-year terms (2002 to 2010) on the Milwaukie City Council, and in 2009 she lost a bid to be mayor by 25 votes. Barnes has been endorsed by her union — the North Clackamas Educa- tion Association and OEA — and by UFCW Local 555; Service Employees International Union Local 503; Oregon Council 75 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Em- ployees; Clackamas County Firefight- ers; the Oregon Nurses Association; the Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters; and Portland Association of Teachers. Taylor has been an auditor in local and state government, a court-ap- pointed special advocate for at-risk children, a member of the Portland Public Schools budget review commit- tee, and a volunteer staffer for Tomei. She is endorsed by the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council; Iron Workers Local 29; the Joint Council of Teamsters No. 37; and the International Brotherhood of Elec- trical Workers Local 48. (From Page 1) wrapping our heads around was: ‘What are you referring to?’” Wheaton said. “We’re talking about bargaining unit work, so how can we be performing the work if we don’t have the proper equip- ment and skills?” DCTU members were concerned that the City might let equipment fall into disrepair, or decide not to train workers on new equipment, in order to use that exception and outsource their work. “So we put language in to protect against that,” Wheaton said. Section 6.2.1 of the new agreement says “Bargaining unit work shall not include work that the bargaining unit employees do not possess the skills or have the appropriate equipment to per- form.… The City shall continue to pro- vide employees with the necessary equipment and training to perform work that is a logical and reasonable advancement of the work covered by this agreement, provided the money to pay for the necessary equipment and/or skills is either within the bureaus’ budget and they are authorized to spend it in this manner or the expenditure is approved by City Council.” The new contract covers about 1,600 City workers and runs through June 30, 2017. After the first raise, cost- of-living raises will range from 1 to 5 percent, corresponding to increases in the Consumer Price Index. Portland City Council was expected to approve the contract at its April 30 session, after this issue went to press. Unlike most contract settlements, this one did not include voluntary reso- lution of pending legal charges. Both sides have unfair labor practice charges before the Oregon Employment Rela- tions Board, including charges by each side that the other side committed “bad faith bargaining.” If the charges are not withdrawn, given that the contract is now settled, the likely remedy would be a posting on workplace bulletin boards. Wheaton said he’s hopeful City will try a different strategy next time. “The City’s approach to bargaining — of waiting until mediation and threatening to implement a horrible ‘last best and final offer’ — was de- signed for a labor dispute. It was not designed to reach a cooperative agree- ment,” Wheaton said. “We spent so much time arguing over one sentence, and were on the verge of striking over one sentence. I think some elected’s eyes have opened and realized this has got to change.” K&O Contracting will pay workers $65,000, faces 3-year debarment in BOLI settlement Aloha construction company K&O Contracting will pay 17 employees $65,000 and will be ineligible to bid on public works contracts for the next three years, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) announced April 18. The settlement comes after a wage and hour investigation of two Marion County projects: South Salem High School and Pioneer Village. An earlier complaint with BOLI’s Wage and Hour Division in March 2012 alleged misclassification of work- ers as carpenters rather than sheet metal workers under Oregon’s prevailing wage laws. As part of the wage and hour complaint, BOLI and the U.S. De- partment of Labor investigators inter- viewed workers about potential viola- tions. During the investigation, BOLI discovered allegations of whistleblower PAGE 12 retaliation such as reduced hours, re- moval from projects and failure to re- hire returning workers. The settlement places corporate en- tities K&O Contracting, LLC, KO Con- struction, LLC — and principals Marco Rojas and Mauricio Rojas-Osornio — on the list of nearly 100 firms that may not work as contractors or subcontrac- tors on public projects during their de- barment. “This settlement directs $65,000 into the pockets of Oregon workers and adds to the state’s growing list of com- panies ineligible for taxpayer funded projects,” said Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian. “Public projects should not subsidize firms that try to gain un- fair advantage by skirting the rules.” The agreement also directs $5,000 in civil penalties to BOLI. NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS MAY 2, 2014
