...Oregon building trades support minimum wage hike
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ating several thousand jobs.
North America’s Building Trades
Unions recently opened an office in
Houston, where $245 billion in con-
struction projects are on the books along
the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida. In
the next two to five years, he said, there
will be a need for 100,000 to 150,000
skilled construction workers to meet the
demand.
“We’re trying to get a piece of that
pie,” he said.
Following the Great Recession of
2008-09, which resulted in unemploy-
ment in the union construction industry
as high as 60 percent for some crafts,
this spate of growth is music to the ears
of unionists.
According to the most recent data
from the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
construction union trades gained
100,000 members last year.
“I think that 100,000 is just the tip of
the iceberg,” Booker said.
Booker believes union contractors
are well positioned to get a lot of the up-
coming work. “We’re selling the safest,
most highly skilled and trained work-
force in the world — and that’s an easy
sell,” he said. “We’re labor unions, but
we’re also vendors/suppliers.”
Construction union contractors con-
tribute collectively over $1 billion a year
into training. “That’s not federal money,
that’s not federally assisted, that’s not
grants to community colleges. That’s
money that we have collectively negoti-
ated with our contractors; that’s money
that could have been in our members’
pockets, but they chose to invest back
into themselves.”
Another strength, he said, is “our out-
reach in communities where we
work.“There’s no other group that pro-
vides for in their agreements opportuni-
ties into apprenticeship and pre-appren-
ticeship programs for minorities, for
veterans, for women, for other under-
Brent Booker, secretary-treasurer of North America’s Building Trades Unions
(formerly the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO),
speaks at the Oregon Building Trades Convention in Bend.
served communities like we do.”
Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley asked
the building trades for help in his bid for
re-election to a second term. He is being
challenged by Republican Monica We-
hby. A newcomer to politics, Wehby is
a surgeon who is supported by the out-
of-state billionaire industrialists Charles
and David Koch. An organization
funded by the Koch brothers recently
purchased $3.6 million in television ad-
vertising attacking Merkley.
“I’m sure you’ve seem them (the
ads) already,” Merkley said. “Those
Koch brothers, they know what they’re
doing. They’ve tested their ads. They’re
going to make them as ugly and mis-
leading as they possibly can. I wouldn’t
want to vote for myself after seeing
these ads. So I know they’re effective.”
Merkley pointed to his blue collar
roots. His father was a union machinist
whose family grew up in the David
Douglas School District. Merkley still
lives in the district and his children at-
Inside the Koch Bros.’ secret billionaire summit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lauren
Windsor, creative director for American
Family Voices, and executive producer
of The Undercurrent on The Young
Turks Network, talked to sources at the
Koch brothers’ summer seminar held
the weekend of June 14-15 at the luxu-
rious St. Regis Monarch Bay Resort in
Dana Point, California, where she un-
covered the following information:
• According to one source, 300 indi-
viduals — worth at least $1 billion each
— are trying to raise $500 million to
take control of the Senate, and another
$500 million to make sure Hillary Clin-
ton never becomes president.
• This year’s seminar featured a
Who’s Who of Republican political
elites, including: U.S. Reps. Tom Cot-
ton (Arkansas), Cory Gardner (Califor-
nia), Jim Jordan (Ohio), as well as Sen-
ators Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) and
Marco Rubio (Florida).
• McConnell spoke in a discussion
titled “Free Speech: Defending First
Amendment Rights,” presumably in
PAGE 4
reference to his defense of deregulating
campaign finance. McConnell, who is
leading the fight in the Senate against
campaign finance reform, and attending
a political strategy summit where very
wealthy donors are also actively fight-
ing campaign finance reform, illustrates
the power and access of the wealthy
elites versus everyday Americans.
• Michael Lomax, president of the
United Negro College Fund, partici-
pated in the Kochs’ political strategy
sessions — raising questions as to what
is required of him in return for the
Kochs’ recent $25 million donation to
the UNCF.
• Security was tight, featuring check-
points at every entrance to the resort be-
ginning at noon on Saturday, June 14. If
the ideas of the Koch brothers and their
network are beneficial to the American
public, why the need for such extreme
secrecy and security measures?
(Editor’s Note: For the full story and
draft agenda, go to The Nation online
at: http://thenat.in/1smf9fz.)
tend the same high school.
Merkley said Wehby supports the
Koch brothers’ entire agenda — from
the Romney tax plan that would make it
cheaper to ship jobs overseas, to oppos-
ing the Bring Jobs Home Act, Equal
Pay for Women, the Rebuild America
Act, and the creation of the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau.
“There’s a clear choice between us,”
he said. “We have to make sure that the
billionaire Koch brothers, who do not
share anything in terms of values for
working America, don’t succeed in buy-
ing up the U.S. Senate.”
In addition to Merkley, several
elected officials addressed the conven-
tion, including Labor Commissioner
Brad Avakian; Oregon House Majority
Leader Val Hoyle (D-Eugene); House
Minority Leader Mike McLane (R-
Powell Butte); Speaker of the House
Tina Kotek (D-Portland); and state Sen.
Tim Knopp (R-Bend).
Rep. Hoyle predicted a right-to-
work initiative petition will return to the
state. In March, sponsors of the anti-
union right-to-work initiative agreed to
withdraw their petition in a deal bro-
kered by Gov. John Kitzhaber. In ex-
change, a labor-backed coalition that
sponsored pro-union counter-measures
agreed to drop their petitions. The right-
to-work petition was aimed at public-
sector unions and had been certified and
was collecting signatures.
“If Oregon becomes a right-to-work
state, we lose every single thing that
you’ve fought for, and we cannot afford
to do that,” Hoyle said.
Avakian announced the formation of
a Commissioner’s Scholarship Fund for
the Oregon Labor Candidate School.
The school was created in 2012 by eight
unions to help train union members in-
terested in running for elected office.
Since its inception, 34 union members
from 12 different unions have graduated
from the program. Six graduates cur-
rently hold elected office.
Avakian donated $7,500 from his
campaign fund to start the scholarship
program. He will contribute $2,500 a
year for as long as he holds the office,
and will pass on the tradition to
whomever succeeds him.
The money will be used to help re-
cruit union members and help partici-
pants with travel expenses, child care
expenses, and other financial barriers
that might prevent them from attending
the full program.
“We need the voice of labor in
elected office,” Avakian said. “By cre-
ating more access to attend the full pro-
gram, we will have better representation
of the middle class in our public offices
around the state.”
Sara Ryan, director of the Oregon
Labor Candidate School, told the Labor
Press its board of directors will estab-
lish criteria for using the scholarship
fund that both supports the school and
adds to the successful experience of the
participant. The funds are available to
anyone who has been accepted into the
school for the 2014-15 program year.
Several executive directors from
union contractor associations in Oregon
made presentations at the convention.
They included Tim Gauthier of the Na-
tional Electrical Contractors Associa-
tion; Frank Wall of the Plumbing and
Mechanical Contractors Association;
Jerry Henderson of Sheet Metal and Air
Conditioning Contractors National As-
sociation; and John Killin of Associated
Wall and Ceiling Contractors. Killin re-
cently succeeded longtime director Ed
Charles, who retired. Killin spent the last
11 years as executive director of the
nonunion Associated Building Contrac-
tors (ABC).
The 62 registered delegates passed
resolutions supporting an increase in
Oregon’s minimum wage; approving
the Strategic Investment Program agree-
ment for Intel; for reauthorizing $100
million to fund the 2015-16 Connect
Oregon program; and backing the West
Coast Infrastructure Exchange, contin-
gent that the bill includes prevailing
wage protections.
Delegates passed another resolution
that opposed “wood first” style legisla-
tion, or any other attempts to promote
wood products over other construction
materials. In the same resolution they
supported efforts to increase markets for
all of Oregon’s industries, including
wood, steel, cement, iron, aggregates
and other products.
In political action, the council en-
dorsed the Oregon Equal Rights for
Women Ballot Measure 89. The meas-
ure is a constitutional amendment bar-
ring discrimination based on gender.
Delegates opposed the Open Primary
Ballot Measure 90. The measure, if ap-
proved, would create a top-two system
of general election voting where the pri-
mary ballot allows voters to choose one
candidate from all candidates, regardless
of political party. The top two candi-
dates, regardless of political party, would
then be voted upon in the general elec-
tion.
Both measures are on the Nov. 4,
ballot.
The Building Trades Council gave
$1,000 scholarships to Mary Ann Ellis
of Williams, Oregon, and Daniel Ricker
of Scappoose.
Mary Ann is the daughter of Lennie
Ellis, a member of IBEW Local 659.
She plans to attend George Fox Univer-
sity in Newberg to study biology and
business.
Daniel is the son of Nathanael
Ricker, a member of Cement Masons
Local 555. He will attend Linn Benton
Community College to study construc-
tion and forestry.
The scholarships are funded by Fer-
guson and Wellman Capital Manage-
ment and Quest Investment. Recipients
are selected by Duke Shepard, a policy
adviser to Gov. John Kitzhaber, based
on an application and short essay.
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