...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