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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2014)
Corvallis native Nelson elected president of Flight Attendants union WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — United Airlines flight attendant Sara Nelson, a native of Corvallis, Ore., has been elected president of the Associa- tion of Flight Attendants (AFA) by the union’s Board of Directors. AFA is an affiliate of Communications Workers of America (CWA). Nelson defeated Veda Shook, who also has ties to Oregon. Shook, a flight attendant at Alaska Airlines, lived in Portland for 15 years before moving to Washington, D.C., after winning elec- tion as an international vice president. Shook was elected president of the in- ternational union in January 2011. Nelson is an 18-year United Airlines flight attendant and has served as inter- national vice president since Jan. 1, 2011. Prior to that she led external and internal communications for United’s flight attendants. She also coordinated AFA-CWA’s “Chaos” (Create Havoc Around Our System) campaign, con- centrating on member mobilization. Nelson grew up in Corvallis, and earned a bachelor’s degree from Prin- cipia College with majors in English and Education before joining United Airlines. She lives in the D.C. area. “We can raise our voices in many ways, and my job as a union leader is to make sure our voices are heard,” she said. Labor attorney Susan Stoner pens 4th book Labor union attorney Susan Stoner has published the fourth in a series of historical mystery novels that tell the story of a fictional trade union spy in early 1900s Portland. In Black Drop, President Theodore Roosevelt is journeying cross-country by train to Portland. While detective Sage Adair investigates a white slavery ring, he learns of a plot to assassinate the president and frame union leaders for the killing. Though characters and scenarios are fictional, the settings are real and are based on Stoner’s exten- sive historical research into Portland’s seedy underbelly and the trade union politics of the era. Timber Beasts, the first in the series, deals with the savage exploitation of loggers. Land Sharks, the second, has to do with the Portland “underground,” where men were shanghaied and placed in service aboard ocean-going ships bound for China. Dry Rot, the third volume, features a losing strike and a true-to-life story of construction fraud that led to the collapse of a city bridge. Stoner, who is staff attorney at Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, will read from Black Drop at Powell’s on Hawthorne, June 12 at 7:30 p.m. Rep. Herrera supports policies that offshore living wage jobs To The Editor: For the fourth year in a row, Wash- ington U.S. Rep. Jamie Herrera Beut- ler has held a Southwest Washington Jobs Fair, representing herself as a champion of jobs and the economy. Her record, however, speaks differ- ently. Instead of supporting policies that would create living wage jobs here, Rep. Herrera continues to sup- port policies that benefit the corpora- tions that are off-shoring our jobs. With regard to jobs, especially manufacturing jobs, AWPPW cur- rently has the lowest levels of employ- ment in pulp, paper, sawmills and ply- wood mills than at any time in the last 20 years. U.S. plant sites continue to close; the equipment dismantled, then shipped overseas and brought back on- line producing the very same products that were being manufactured here. Rep. Herrera is proud of the fact that raw log exports from the Pacific Northwest are at record highs. This should come as no surprise to anyone because Rep. Herrera continues to support a U.S. trade agenda that results in the export of our raw materials such as logs, coal, oil and natural gas, along with exporting our family wage jobs. In fact, the workforce at every pulp and paper manufacturing plant site in Rep. Herrera’s Third District has been approved for the Department of La- bor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. To be TAA certified, workers must be directly impacted by imports or by a shift in production of their firm to any country with a free trade agreement with the United States. The impacts reach far and wide. When jobs are off-shored, the flood of unemployed workers drives down wages and benefits in all sectors. We’ve had 20 years of NAFTA- style free trade, and the results are in: These so-called free trade agreements are hurting workers. Far too many families here in Washington have suf- fered by having their livelihoods shipped overseas because of bad trade policies. No job fair can reverse the off- shoring; we need trade policies that promote family wage jobs. Yet Rep. Herrera remains trapped O PEN F ORUM in an outdated vision for trade. She continues to support the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is being negotiated with a dozen Asian and Latin Ameri- can countries. Corporations have had a place at the negotiating table through some 600 approved trade advisers, but the text of what would be the largest free trade agreement in U.S. history has been kept secret from the rest of society. Rep. Herrera even supports lower- ing Congressional oversight by pass- ing Trade Promotion Authority, also called fast-track legislation, which would limit Congress to a simple up or down vote of the finished agreement, with limited debate or public input. The Trans-Pacific Partnership in- cludes countries like Vietnam and Malaysia, where workers are paid even less than workers in China. U.S. em- ployers would have to compete with products made in sweatshop working conditions and with few environmen- tal or safety protections. Rep. Herrera invited Weyerhaeuser and Georgia Pacific — two companies notorious for offshoring jobs — to re- cruit at the job fair. Walmart, equally notorious for maintaining a workforce that relies on tax dollars to support their basic needs such as food and health care, also was there. Is this the best Rep. Herrera Beutler can do for the workers in her district? Rep. Herrera Beutler shouldn’t sup- port the so-called “free trade” agree- ments that off-shore our jobs. She should be a job creator, not a pawn for corporations like Weyerhaeuser, Kap- stone, and the Koch-owned Georgia Pacific Corporation. If any Congressional rep wants to have credibility with regard to U.S. jobs and to reducing our national deficit, they need to address our failed trade and economic policies and our trade deficit. Greg Pallesen Vice President Association of Western Pulp & PaperWorkers Portland IRS PROBLEMS? • Haven’t filed for ... years? • Lost records? • Liens - Levies - Garnishments? • Negotiate settlements. • Prepare offer in Compromise. Call Nancy D. Anderson Enrolled Agent NPTI Fellow/America’s Tax Expert LTC-1807 www.nancydanderson.com 503-244-2577 JUNE 6, 2014 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 11
