...Norm Malbin retires
(From Page 5)
sell Stover to support himself. He later
went to work as a researcher for Ore-
gon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries.
There, he was responsible for determin-
ing state prevailing wage rates on pub-
licly funded construction projects, and
he got to know the building trades. At
night, he attended Lewis and Clark Law
School. When he passed the bar exam
in 1986, then-IBEW Local 48 business
manager Ed Barnes suggested he talk to
labor attorney Don Richardson about a
job. Malbin worked for Richardson, and
two years later, formed a private prac-
tice, doing legal work for unions, in-
cluding Local 48.
The work was steady. Building
trades unions need a lot of legal aid in
large part because they find themselves
having to police their industries, Mal-
bin says — going after low-road
nonunion contractors by helping work-
ers file claims.
“I sued nonunion contractors who
cheated workers out of wages,” Malbin
says. “Union organizers would identify
workers, and say, ‘Why don’t you go
talk to Norm.’ And I would explain to
them what the law is and how they’re
being cheated and what they’re owed.
And if they wanted me to pursue it on
their behalf, I’d be able to do it.”
Larger unions sometimes have in-
house legal counsel, but Malbin does-
n’t know of any other in-house attorney
who provides direct legal services to
members. How it came about was a bit
of a fluke. When Malbin was still in pri-
vate practice, he was doing a lot of work
for Local 48. Malbin made a deal with
then-business manager Jerry Bruce in
1993 to set up regular hours every Fri-
day: He’d come into Local 48 and meet
with union reps, and then be available
to provide free legal advice and assis-
tance to members. Members seemed to
like it, so when Malbin became full-
time, he continued the legal clinics.
In Malbin’s Friday afternoon legal
clinics, he advised Local 48 members
on wills and divorces, helped them cope
with drunk driving arrests, or get
records expunged. And especially dur-
ing bad times, he represented workers
in unemployment hearings.
Malbin also strived to demystify the
law, and to educate workers about their
rights, not just to represent them. A
guide to workers’ rights that he wrote is
available on the web site of the Portland
chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
“I always tell people, as a lawyer,
I’m not smarter than anybody else. I
went to school and I learned three
things: I learned a language called
legalese; I learned a set of rules in the
courtroom so you know when to stand,
when to sit, and when to speak; and I
learned how to go into a library and do
research. That’s really all you learn in
law school.”
In retirement, Malbin says he’d like
to teach high school students about their
rights in the workplace. He’ll also spend
time with family: He and his wife
Wendy have been married 34 years, and
have two sons: Zak, a Boeing engineer
and member of SPEEA; and Ben, a
teacher. They also have two grandsons.
To replace Malbin, Local 48 has
hired Diana Winther, a recent graduate
of Lewis & Clark Law School, as a le-
gal assistant. She’ll assist John Bishop
of the McKanna Bishop Joffe law firm
representing Local 48, and she’ll be-
come in-house general counsel when
she passes the bar exam.
Malbin is handing the labor law con-
ference off to Bishop and the Labor Ed-
ucation Research Center at the Univer-
sity of Oregon.
If he has a parting message for labor,
it’s this: “Too often we’re our own worst
enemy. Witness the jurisdictional dis-
putes we get into, because it’s easier to
try to take work away from another
union than to go into a nonunion world
and try to organize. But all we’re doing
is losing work.”
And one other thing: “We need peo-
ple to stand up for their rights. Most
people don’t know how to stand up for
their rights. Unions help give them the
support.”
...Scott Lucy
(From Page 4)
wages; then to keep their health insur-
ance. “Now workers strike to keep what
they have,” he said.
Lucy believes Boeing and other
large corporations have found a loop-
hole that has unfairly tilted the playing
field in their favor. That loophole is to
coerce states to bid against each other
for the largest corporate subsidies, and
pitting workers against each other, he
said.
“In reality, when corporations get
big tax breaks, it comes at our (the tax-
payers’) expense,” he said. “To me,
that’s unpatriotic behavior.”
Lucy, who lives in Northeast Port-
land, said he’s still getting used to re-
tirement. “It’s definitely a life change,”
he said.
Divorced with two adult children, he
enjoys woodworking, vintage cars and
photography. He recently finished mak-
ing a 9-foot dining room table out of re-
furbished wood from an old barn. The
lumber had been sitting in his basement
for 20 years.
“There are no immediate plans,” he
said. “Though I would like to find
something that helps people.”
Whether that means running for
elected office or volunteering for a com-
munity group, he’s still undecided.
“I haven’t ruled out anything,” he
said.
PAGE 8
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
AUGUST 1, 2014