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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 2015)
PAGE 2 | February 20, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ... Unitarian Union NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS From Page 1 (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor: Michael Gutwig Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Cheri Rice Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $13.75 per year for union members, $20 a year for all others. Send a check for that amount, indicating mailing address and union affilia- tion, to P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213. For 25 or more subscriptions, group rates of $9.60 a year per person are available to trade union organizations. Call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When or- dering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call 503-288-5537 1638 NE Broadway, Portland IRS PROBLEMS? • Haven’t filed for ... years? • Lost records? • Liens - Levies - Garnishments? • Negotiate settlements. • Prepare offer in Compromise. Call Nancy D. Anderson Enrolled Agent NPTI Fellow/America’s Tax Expert LTC-1807 www.nancydanderson.com 503-244-2577 140 the Catholic Archdiocese of Port- land and at Oregon Catholic Press have been unionized for decades. And Highet says even the fed- eral rules may be changing. A De- cember court decision more tightly defined the religious ex- emption: Purely religious workers like ministers wouldn’t have the right to unionize, but other work- ers, like groundskeepers or clerical staff, might. At First Unitarian Church of Portland, 17 of 19 employees were in favor of the union: five admin- istrative staff and 12 sextons (church workers who clean and maintain building and grounds and operate audiovisual systems). De- spite the initial rejection, the union supporters kept on pressing their right to unionize. “We’re doing this because we care that the church walks its talk,” said Sunday School administrator Nicole Bowmer, one of the leaders of the union effort. “If we didn’t care deeply about our jobs, we would choose an easier road of quitting and leaving.” Bowmer spoke with the Labor Press in November, but said then that she and her co-workers weren’t yet prepared to go public, because of concern that church leaders’ refusal to recognize the union would lead some members to leave the church. Two weeks after approaching the church ex- ecutive team, the workers made the first of several appeals to the church board. When that too went nowhere, in early February they began to contact members of the congregation they believed would be sympathetic, such as David “After 81 days of being told no, it was the congregants that made this happen.” — Nicole Bowmer Delk, a member of the church’s Economic Justice Action Group, and a retiree of AFSCME Local 3135. “It’s outrageous for a church that values love and human rights to say ‘no’ to employees’ efforts to freely associate by forming a union,” Delk told the Labor Press. With word getting out, Sinkford outlined his stance in a Thursday, Feb. 5, post on his blog: “We do not believe it is in the best interest of our church to have employees cut off from direct communication with management,” he wrote. “We believe that such an action would dramatically change the way we function at the church, taking us from a covenantal and relational basis to a contractual relationship and making the relationships be- tween management and staff more and more adversarial.” That afternoon the Labor Press left a message for Sinkford. Two days later, Sinkford reversed course, emailing employees on Saturday to announce that the church will recognize the union. “The executive team has weighed the social justice issues and our faith’s long-held support of people’s right to organize, with how it would affect our ability to serve our congregation and its mis- sion,” he wrote in the email, which the workers shared with the Labor Press. “While we continue to ques- tion whether unionization is the best way to achieve the goals we share, we also recognize that a continued conflict will drive us fur- ther apart and begin to change the nature of members’ relationship with their church. Congregants come to First Unitarian to be nour- ished spiritually and to live out their values in the world, not to be forced to take sides in a conflict.” Sinkford didn’t talk about labor in Sunday services the next day, but Bowmer says workers got hugs and thumbs-ups from mem- bers of the congregation who had heard. “After 81 days of being told no, and then four days of emails from congregants, we know it was the congregants that made this hap- pen,” Bowmer said. “They took a stand on the right side of history on workers’ rights, and we’re grateful to them for taking that stand.” Returning a second call from the Labor Press, Sinkford ex- plained the about face. “The issue was becoming extremely divisive in our community, with people lin- ing up pro and con,” Sinkford said. “It just felt like there was more damage potentially being done than we were willing to maintain.” Sinkford said there’s no dis- agreement about the need for raises for the lowest paid employ- ees. For their part, workers say they want better wages for the least-paid, more affordable health care for all, written job descrip- tions, and the security of having conditions spelled out in a binding agreement instead of subject to change at any time. “This is new territory for me and for the church and I think for our employees too,” Sinkford said. “So we’re looking forward to sit- ting down and getting started.” ONLINE EXTRA To see the blog post explaining why the church wouldn’t unionize, and the email three days later explaining why it would, go to: ow.ly/J1r9j