Inside
MEETING
NOTICES
See
Page 4
Volume 115
Number 14
July 18, 2014
Portland
West Coast ports remain
open as ILWU continues
negotiations for new deal
Members of SEIU Local 49 employed at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in North Portland rallied July 9 for a fair contract.
The action was called to protest Legacy’s most recent offer — raises below inflation and limits on overtime.
Contract expires for 570 SEIU support
workers at Legacy Emanuel Hospital
“We’re here to say no way to lower
pay,” declared Service Employees In-
ternational Union (SEIU) Local 49 of-
ficer Caitlin Doherty July 9 at a rally
outside North Portland’s Legacy
Emanuel Hospital. Doherty is a sterile
processing tech at Legacy, and a mem-
ber of the union bargaining team.
More than 100 members, staff, and
supporters of Local 49 rallied at Daw-
son Park, following a brief march ac-
companied by a drum and a purple vu-
vuzela. The action was called to protest
Legacy’s offer in negotiations over a
new union contract — raises of 1.5
percent a year, and limits on overtime.
Legacy is proposing to limit work-
ers to three overtime shifts per two-
week pay period. It also wants to end
the practice of giving the most senior
certified nurse assistants first pick at
“daily flexing” (the option to leave
work early when a ward has few pa-
tients). And it wants managers to have
the right to schedule employees to
work every weekend.
The union’s previous contract with
Legacy, which expired June 30, covers
about 570 workers in dozens of sup-
port occupations at the hospital.
Doherty said the union wants a
wage increase that at least keeps up
(Turn to Page 3)
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Though the six-year union contract
between International Longshore and
Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the
multi-employer Pacific Maritime Asso-
ciation (PMA) expired July 1, union
members continue to load and unload
ships on West Coast ports. Neither side
is publicly discussing progress in the
talks, which have been under way since
May 12. Key bargaining issues include
how to deal with new technologies like
robotics that will reduce the need for
workers, and how to maintain health
benefits after 2018, when the Afford-
able Care Act’s so-called “Cadillac” tax
kicks in.
The ILWU-PMA contract covers
nearly 20,000 longshore and clerk
members at 29 West Coast ports. It’s
the largest contract for the 37,000-
member union, which represents dock
workers in California, Oregon, Wash-
ington, Alaska, and Hawaii.
The PMA bargaining takes place as
ILWU members remain locked out of
grain export terminals in Portland, Van-
couver, and Seattle. The companies op-
erating those terminals, which have
locked out ILWU members since Feb-
ruary 2013, aren’t part of the PMA. The
grain terminal operators are demanding
that ILWU give them the same conces-
sions it gave to their competitor EGT in
Longview, Washington. Those conces-
Supreme Court rules state contract can’t require
home care workers to pay ‘fair share’ union dues
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Several late June decisions by the U.S. Supreme
Court could affect the labor union movement, but by
far the most significant was its June 30 decision in a
case called Harris v. Quinn. (See July 4 NW Labor
Press, “Supreme Court Sides With Radical Right in
Illinois Home Care Worker case.”)
The 5-4 decision in Harris v Quinn split along
partisan lines, with the five Republican-appointed
justices in the majority and the four Democratic ap-
pointees dissenting.
The court struck down an Illinois requirement that
home care aides working for state Medicaid clients
pay union dues or “fair share” agency fees to the state
employees union that represents them. The union in-
volved in the case was Service Employees Interna-
tional Union (SEIU). The majority of justices said it
was because home care workers aren’t “full-fledged
public employees.” Medicaid pays their wages, but
the home care workers are hired by and overseen by
the Medicaid patients they serve.
Gene Mechanic, a Portland-based labor attorney
who represents public sector clients, including Ore-
gon’s SEIU Local 503, said state laws that contradict
Harris v Quinn could remain on books for decades
and not be enforced, or they could be amended. But
it’s clear that in Oregon and elsewhere, the decision
creates a “right-to-work” situation for unionized
home care workers: Union contract provisions that
require them to pay union dues or a fair share equiv-
alent will become unenforceable in court.
That’s a challenge for Oregon AFSCME, which
represents 1,400 licensed child care providers who
unionized in 2007 through a similar law to the one
in Illinois. It’s an even bigger blow to SEIU Local
503, which represents 19,000 Oregon home care
workers, 3,500 adult foster care providers, and
4,000 childcare providers.
Local 503 Executive Director Heather Conroy
said the Court’s decision applies in an immediate
(Turn to Page 5)
sions include 12-hour shifts without
overtime pay, the right to have man-
agers run the control room, a company-
approved hiring list separate from the
regular ILWU hiring hall, and the right
of employers to do union work in the
event of a work stoppage.
Fears that PMA might ask for the
same concessions have not been borne
out, however. Neither ILWU nor PMA
appeared to be getting ready for a strike
or lockout. The two sides have issued
joint statements about the negotiations,
without going into detail. On July 7, the
sides announced a three-day break
from negotiations while ILWU took
part in further negotiations with the
Northwest grain exporters.
ILWU kept negotiating with PMA
past the contract expiration in 2008,
too, and the two sides were able to
reach an agreement that preserved
health benefits, gave raises of $5 an
hour over six years, and lessened the
impact of technological change on
members. That settlement followed
much-more-heated bargaining in 2002,
which culminated in PMA employers
locking out ILWU members for 10
days — until then-President George W.
Bush asked a federal court to order em-
ployers to end the lockout.
This year’s ILWU bargaining posi-
tions at the PMA negotiations were de-
termined in February and March at a
two-week meeting in San Francisco of
delegates from every West Coast port.
At that meeting, delegates heard from
representatives of dockworker unions
from around the world, who pledged
their support in the event of a dispute.
The meeting established that priorities
include fair raises, and maintaining
health care and retirement benefits.
“Longshore members and clerks
have made it clear that they want a con-
tract with stronger safety provisions,
more secure benefits, greater respect
for ILWU jurisdiction, and a reasonable
approach to new technology,” said
ILWU President Bob McEllrath in the
March 2014 issue of The Dispatcher,
ILWU’s newspaper.
Technological change is once again
threatening to decimate ILWU ranks. A
case in point: In June, 180 dockworkers
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