Inside:
MEETING NOTICES
See
Page 6
Volume 115
Number 13
July 4, 2014
Portland, Oregon
Supreme Court sides with
Radical Right in Illinois
home care worker case
In a 5-to-4 decision, the U.S.
Supreme Court on June 30 ruled that
home health aides working for state
Medicaid clients in Illinois don’t have
to pay “fair share” agency fees to the
state employees union that represents
them, if they don’t want to be union
members.
The court split along ideological
lines, with the five conservative justices
in the majority and the four Democratic
appointees in dissent.
Justice Samuel Alito’s majority
opinion in Harris v Quinn said Illinois
violated the home care workers’ First
Amendment rights to free speech by re-
quiring them to pay “agency fees” to
the Service Employees International
Union (SEIU). “A state may not force
every person who benefits from this
group’s efforts to make payments to the
group,” he wrote.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom
Chamberlain said the decision was an-
other in a string of recent attacks on
unions. “Make no mistake — the orig-
inal case was supported by groups
seeking to take power away from work-
ing people,” he said.
Rebecca Sandoval, president of
SEIU Local 503’s Homecare and Per-
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Staples boycott grows
The AFL-CIO, teachers’ unions, and others support postal workers’
boycott of the office supply chain after it contracts with the U.S.
Postal Service to staff mini-post offices inside its stores.
P HOTOS BY B ETTE L EE
Dozens of protesters carrying signs and banners marched
inside a Staples store in Northeast Portland June 20, where
they attempted to present a petition signed by 500 Portland
residents who have pledged to boycott the office supply stores.
The protesters are angry because Staples signed a no-bid,
sweetheart deal with the U.S. Postal Service to staff postal
counters inside its stores — at the same time the USPS is elim-
inating public post offices and reducing work hours.
A pilot program was launched in 82 stores last October
(none in Oregon). USPS plans to expand the scheme to all of
Staples’ 1,500 locations nationwide starting in September. Sta-
ples employees who work full time earn about $18,000 per
year and receive minimal training on how to handle U.S. Mail,
said Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal
Workers Union, which is spearheading the ‘Don’t Buy Sta-
ples’ campaign.
The AFL-CIO bolstered the boycott campaign with its en-
dorsement last month. The California Federation of Teachers
was the first to sign on to the campaign in April, followed by
the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)-Michigan and
AFT-New Hampshire. On June 23, delegates to the Northwest
Oregon Labor Council voted to join the boycott. The American
Federation of Teachers is expected to consider a ‘Don’t Buy
Staples’ resolution at its national convention this month.
Teachers play an especially important role in the boycott,
(Turn to Page 3)
New dry dock could
mean hundreds of jobs
at Portland shipyard
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Thirteen years after America’s
largest floating dry dock floated off to
The Bahamas, the company that sold
it is bringing a new one to the same
spot in Portland’s Swan Island indus-
trial area.
Vigor Industrial — formerly
known as Cascade General — has ex-
panded greatly since 2001, when it
sold Portland’s Dry Dock 4 for $26.5
million to satisfy a lender that called
in a loan. In the last decade, the com-
pany has purchased shipyards in Seat-
tle, Tacoma, Everett, and Ketchikan.
Now it’s investing $40 million for a
new dry dock — 960 feet long, 186
feet wide between the wing walls, and
capable of lifting 80,000 long tons.
That’s just 22 feet shorter than Dry
Dock 4, which is now in use at the
Grand Bahama Shipyard in The Ba-
hamas.
The new dry dock, under construc-
tion since early 2013, is being made
by Daoda Marine Heavy Industry
(Turn to Page 12)