Labor backs effort to stop discrimination against ex-offenders
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
The Oregon AFL-CIO is joining
with civil rights groups to launch a
campaign to bar employers and land-
lords from asking applicants about their
criminal records on applications. Ad-
vocates will push the City of Portland
to pass an ordinance later this year, and
they’ll lobby for a state law in the 2015
session of the Oregon Legislature. The
effort is part of a national campaign to
“ban the box,” and the labor support
follows a September 2013 resolution
by the national AFL-CIO that criticized
America’s system of mass incarcera-
tion.
The United States now imprisons
more people than any other country on
earth — 2.3 million. The population
behind bars has more than quadrupled
since 1980, thanks in large part to the
“war on drugs” and mandatory mini-
IAM Lodge 63 Guide
Dog Dash slated Aug. 23
The 8th Annual Guide Dog Dash
benefiting Guide Dogs of America
will be held Saturday, Aug. 23.
Sponsored by Machinists Lodge
63, the motorcycle poker run starts at
IBEW Local 48 Union Hall, 15937
NE Airport Way, Portland, and ends
at Machinists District W24 Hall, 25
Cornell Ave., Gladstone.
First riders depart at 9:30.
Registration is $25 per rider and
$10 per passenger. Registration in-
cludes a T-shirt, barbecue lunch, and
music featuring The Mike Branch
Band.
This year’s ride will be held in
honor of Chuck Drake, who had the
original idea for the ride/fundraiser.
Drake passed away last December.
All proceeds benefit Guide Dogs
of America.
For more information, or to regis-
ter, go online at www.iamw24.org/, or
call John Hall at 503-449-0969 or
John Kleiboeker at 503-863-7304.
mum sentencing laws.
Orange may be the new black, as the
title of the hit Netflix TV series sug-
gests, but very few inmates are rich and
white. Prison is something experienced
disproportionately by poor and work-
ing people, and by minorities. That’s
because, when they make bad choices
amid hard circumstances, they’re un-
able to afford the best lawyers.
“We know that our criminal justice
system isn’t just,” said Oregon AFL-
CIO spokesperson Elana Guiney. “Peo-
ple who have money can afford to get
themselves off the hook.”
And the racial disparity in sentenc-
ing is undeniable, Guiney said. Today 1
out of every 106 adult white males is
incarcerated, compared to 1 in 36 for
Hispanics, and 1 in 15 for blacks.
“We are in a system that promotes
mass incarceration, and larger and
larger numbers of people have to deal
with the consequences,” says Midge
Purcell, director of Advocacy and Pub-
lic Policy at the Urban League of Port-
land. Urban League, an advocacy and
service organization for the African-
American community, is taking the
lead on the ban the box campaign in
Portland.
The ban the box movement is about
what happens after prison. The sen-
tence may have been served, but the
punishment continues. Prisoners may
be released jobless and homeless, and
be required by the terms of their release
to find a job and housing, and yet face
overt and legal discrimination by em-
ployers and landlords.
Employers and landlords use the
“have you ever been convicted …”
question on applications to enable blan-
ket rejection of ex-convicts — without
considering the circumstances of the
crime, how long ago it was committed,
or even if the type of crime is relevant.
Studies show that those who answer
truthfully that they’ve been convicted
of a crime get callbacks less than half
as often as equally qualified applicants.
Civil rights advocates say post-re-
lease discrimination compounds the
IN MEMORIAM
R ALPH E. R IGDON , a retired
United Auto Workers (UAW)
member who was active with
the Northwest Oregon Labor
Council retirees, died peace-
fully at home June 18 at the age
of 85.
Born Dec. 20, 1928, in Hub-
bard, Oregon, Rigdon gradu-
ated from Canby High School in 1946,
and served in the U.S. Army from 1952
to 1954. He was a corporal in the
Army’s signal core unit at the Pentagon
during the Korean War.
In 1952, Rigdon was working at In-
ternational Harvester (Milwaukie parts
plant) when workers voted to join
UAW. He became a member of UAW
Local 492, and remained one the rest of
his life. He stayed at International Har-
PAGE 4
vester 16 years, worked at
Chrysler for 24 years as a
truck driver and forklift oper-
ator, and retired in 1992.
He was also a proud De-
mocrat, a devoted member of
St. John the Baptist Catholic
Church in Milwaukie, and a
longtime supporter of the Na-
tional Alliance on Mental Illness
(NAMI).
He is survived by Jeanne, his wife of
60 years, as well as six children, nine
grandchildren, and two great-grandchil-
dren. A funeral Mass and celebration
were held July 1 at St. John the Baptist
Catholic Church. Donations may be
made in Ralph’s name to NAMI or Ore-
gon Health and Science University
Knight Cancer Institute.
Urban League staffers H.P. Nyanga and Alexandria Jones-Patten gather
signatures in support of a “ban the box” ordinance June 28 at the annual
Good in the Hood music and food festival in North Portland.
economic harm to ex-convicts and their
families, and leads to greater recidi-
vism.
But a reform movement is gaining
momentum. The Portland campaign is
part of a wave of ban-the-box legisla-
tion appearing before state legislatures
and city councils in 2014. At least six
cities now prohibit private employers
from asking about criminal history
early in the application process: Balti-
more, Newark, San Francisco, Buffalo,
Philadelphia, and Seattle.
In Portland, more than 40 groups
have endorsed the campaign so far, in-
cluding four labor organizations: Ore-
gon AFL-CIO, Northwest Oregon La-
bor Council, Roofers Local 49, and
United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 555. Oregon AFL-CIO field or-
ganizer Jess Giannettino is reaching out
to other local labor unions to support
the campaign.
The campaign is training speakers,
putting together a speakers bureau, and,
with support from the Oregon Bus
Project, gathering signatures on a peti-
tion.
“We think [the signature campaign]
will show the depth of feeling in the
community around employment and
housing discrimination for people with
previous arrest records and convic-
tions,” Purcell said. “We’ll also use it
as an organizing tool to talk to people
in the community about this issue.”
Ban the box advocates are drawing
up draft language for what they’re call-
ing the “Fair Chance for All” ordi-
nance. The ordinance would allow ap-
plicants to explain their previous
convictions at the interview stage, if
they’ve been deemed otherwise quali-
fied. Employers could still ask for a
criminal background check, but they
couldn’t ask about it on the initial job
application, and they would not be al-
lowed to deny applicants solely based
on their criminal convictions unless
they determine that there is a direct re-
lationship between an applicant’s crim-
inal history and a particular job.
Landlords, meanwhile, couldn’t re-
ject an applicant based on a criminal
record unless they determine that an
applicant poses a threat to other ten-
ants. The ordinance would not override
any law that bars people with certain
convictions from working in particular
occupations, such as caring for children
or the elderly, handling financial trans-
actions, or commercial driving. To en-
courage employers and landlords to
consider people with criminal records,
the ordinance would clear them of any
legal liability if the employee or tenant
later commits a crime. The ordinance
would apply to establishments with five
or more employees.
The campaign will hold a commu-
nity forum July 15 at 6 p.m. at High-
land Church, 7600 NE Glisan St., Port-
land, and advocates are particularly
encouraging those impacted by post-
sentencing discrimination to attend.
Unionist acquitted of trespass
charge in right-to-work protest
Painters Local 10 Vice President
Wyatt McMinn was acquitted June 27
of a charge of first degree criminal
trespass. The charge stemmed from a
protest of a “right-to-work” strategy
session held last September in Van-
couver, Wash. (See NW Labor Press,
Sept. 20, 2013, “Union members
protest right-to-work strategy ses-
sion.”)
McMinn was one of about 50 labor
unionists who showed up in work
clothes and hard hats carrying picket
signs and a bullhorn at a Sept. 5,
2013, meeting at Clark College organ-
ized by the Evergreen Freedom Foun-
dation and the Cascade Policy Insti-
tute. The two anti-union groups were
discussing how to pass so-called
“right-to-work” laws in Oregon and
Washington, which aim to weaken
unions by barring any contract from
requiring workers to pay dues.
Most of the protesters picketed out-
side the “Northwest Employee Free-
dom” event, but a handful entered and
disrupted the meeting, arguing with
presenters and chanting “hey hey, ho
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
ho, union busting’s got to go.” Police
were called.
A YouTube video posted by the
Freedom Foundation documents the
arrest. A least six police officers enter
the room. Vancouver Police Depart-
ment Sergeant David Henderson gives
the order: “Everybody who’s not sup-
posed to be here, get out, now,” and
then goes around telling men in union
T-shirts to leave, while ignoring men
in suits.
“I feel like you’re profiling me,
sir,” McMinn says. “You’re under ar-
rest if you don’t get out right now,”
Henderson answers, and less than two
seconds later, moves to handcuff
McMinn.
The video proved to be useful evi-
dence: Announcing the acquittal,
Clark County District Court Judge
John Hagenson said McMinn didn’t
have time to leave, and thus was not
guilty of trespassing.
The mystery was why the police
responded in such numbers, and why
the Clark County district attorney
chose to prosecute such a case. First
degree criminal trespass is punishable
by up to a year in jail up to a $5,000
fine, or both. Retired letter carrier Jim
Cook, one of about 20 unionists who
came out to show support for
McMinn at the trial on June 27, said it
appeared neither the arresting officer
nor the prosecutor knew who the pro-
testers were. Cook said they repeat-
edly referred to ILWU, the Interna-
tional Longshore and Warehouse
Union, which engaged in large-scale
civil disobedience and disruptive
protests in Southwest Washington in
2011. But McMinn is a member of the
International Union of Painters and
Allied Trades, not ILWU. Some of
those protesting at Clark College were
ILWU members, but most were mem-
bers of building trades unions.
After his trial, McMinn called his
acquittal a small victory for demo-
cratic rights and for labor rights.
“I’m not guilty of anything but ex-
ercising my right, and your right, to
free speech,” McMinn said.
Online extra: Watch video of the ar-
rest at http://bit.ly/1lJIBrz
JULY 4, 2014