Jack Roy follows Ken Morgan as head of Laborers Local 296
Laborers Local 296 has a new top look for work in 1982, when the Ore-
officer: longtime business rep Jack Roy, gon economy was in bad shape.
When his Texas employer, J.W.
appointed business-manager/secretary-
Bateson, got a construction
treasurer following the retire-
contract on the Portland Vet-
ment of Ken Morgan. Roy
erans Hospital, he moved
served the remaining two
back to Oregon in January
months of Morgan’s term,
1984, and became a member
and ran unopposed for the job
of Local 296.
in May.
In 1997 he went to work
Roy grew up in the Port-
for the non-profit Fair Con-
land area, attended Reynolds
tracting Foundation. Investi-
High School, and followed
gating abuses on prevailing
his dad, a member of Operat-
wage construction jobs, Roy
ing Engineers Local 701, into
uncovered everything from
the building trades. He got his
first union job at age 18, as a KEN MORGAN intentional misclassification
to payment in cash. Hired as
member of Laborers Local
320, the Portland-area heavy highway a Local 296 business representative the
local. He worked for Ross Brothers following year, he put that experience
pouring concrete to construct highway to work for the Laborers. As a union
bridges in Beaverton. Roy says he en- rep, he was responsible for members
joyed the work, which included drilling working under construction contracts
rock and using dynamite to blast rock and at Portland Public Schools and the
and stumps to widen roads. He did that Portland Housing Authority. He also be-
for 10 years, then moved to Texas to came recording secretary, and delegate
to the Oregon and Southern Idaho Dis-
trict Council of Laborers.
Local 296 represents close to 900
members, including construction labor-
ers and hod carriers, shipyard laborers,
weatherization workers, landscapers
and other laborers at school districts and
in public housing, and heavy and high-
way laborers in Southern Oregon. It has
a headquarters a 4545 NE 102nd Ave,
in Portland, and a satellite office in Cen-
tral Point that focuses on heavy high-
way and commercial construction.
Most Local 296 members work un-
der contracts with Associated General
Contractors (AGC) and the General and
Concrete Contractors Association
(GCCA), which are negotiated by the
district council. The current agreements
run through May 31, 2016. Under the
AGC contract, the hourly wage is
$27.44, and total compensation comes
to $40.89.
Those wages and benefits make a
strong argument for construction labor-
ers to join the union; for employers, a
big selling point is access to a ready
pool of skilled labor that doesn’t need
to stay on the payroll after a job is done.
Local 296 union reps get members
placed on jobs, take care of problems
on job sites, enforce the union contract,
recruit new union members, and sign up
Jack Roy is the new business manager at Laborers Local 296.
new contractors. The business manager
also does those things, and oversees
staff of six, including three business
representatives, two office support staff,
and a dispatcher.
“Unionism is a brotherhood,” Roy
says. “It’s a family.”
In Ken Morgan’s case, family is also
union: His son Derick is a Local 296
member.
Ken Morgan, 62, grew up in Buxton,
Oregon, the son of a logger. During the
Vietnam War he served in the U.S. Air
Force as a crew chief repairing F-4 fight-
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ers and other aircraft in Saigon. In the
mid-to-late 1970s, he worked as a union
laborer on highways and pipelines with
Laborers Local 341 in Anchorage,
Alaska. In 1979, he moved to Portland
and joined Local 296. He attended union
meetings, became an Executive Board
member, and was hired as a business
representative in 2006, working for
members on the West side of the Port-
land area. In 2007, he was appointed
business manager to replace Richard
Steward, who died of heart attack.
“I believe in the union,” Morgan
said, “the benefits, and what it does for
our families and for society. If every-
body had union health care and pen-
sions, we wouldn’t have so much need.”
As business manager, Morgan
helped keep the union going through
five years of economic downturn. He
also oversaw a remodel of the Portland
union hall and development of the Local
296 web site, and made it possible for
members to pay dues over the phone.
Morgan says he looks forward to
traveling with his wife Lynn in retire-
ment, a retirement made possible by a
union pension that, unlike some others,
is in good health. Morgan will continue
to serve as a union trustee on the Ore-
gon Laborers Employers Pension Trust
Fund.
All Local 296 officers ran unop-
posed this year. Besides Roy, that in-
cluded: President Gary Moore; Vice
President Earl Browning; Recording
Secretary Zack Culver; Sergeant-at-
Arms J.P. Wedge; Auditors Jeff Olson,
Shon Brinkmeyer, and Scott Hancock;
Executive Board members Paul Askew,
Dago Aranda, and Greg Held; and Dis-
trict Council Delegates Greg Held, Jack
Roy, Gary Moore Jr, and Gary Jackson.
Terms of office are three years.
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AUGUST 15, 2014
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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