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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 20, 2015)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | February 20, 2015 | PAGE 3 ... Kitzhaber lauded for labor record IN MEMORIAM From Page 1 Robert Stanfill 1995 to 2003, Kitzhaber set a state record for vetoes. With Republi- cans in control of both legislative chambers in 1995, 1997, and 1999, Kitzhaber vetoed bills that would have: established a sub- minimum wage for tipped em- ployees; rolled back the state’s family leave law; cut capital gains taxes for wealthy individuals; barred Oregon’s farm workers’ union from using boycotts; lim- ited non-economic damages for workers killed on the job; and low- ered penalties on employers who don’t pay employees their final wages. He also used veto threats to dodge attacks on the prevailing wage law and proposals to priva- tize prisons and mass transit. Kitzhaber did sign a few bills that ended up giving unionists heartburn, including a 1995 change to the public employee collective bargaining law, a 2003 law pre-empting local minimum wage ordinances, and a 1999 bill that would have moved the state’s electric power industry toward deregulation (luckily for Oregoni- ans, the Legislature was able to re- verse it after Enron price manipu- lation caused an electricity price crisis in California’s deregulated electricity market the following year). Kitzhaber also sometimes Nov. 26, 1923 - Feb. 4, 2015 HAPPIER TIMES: Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, with First Lady Cylvia Hayes at his side, signs legislation at the 2013 Oregon AFL-CIO convention. crossed labor, though he made no secret of it when he did. In partic- ular, he antagonized public sector unions with cuts to public em- ployee pensions. In 2013, he won a law capping retirees’ cost-of-liv- ing increases, and then convened a special legislative session to make further cost-of-living cuts, while giving away over $500 mil- lion in new tax breaks to owners of certain kinds of businesses. He alienated teachers unions at times, signing a charter school bill in 2009, and in 2013 a set of edu- cation reforms opposed by the Oregon Education Association (OEA). Kitzhaber’s support for teacher pay-for-performance pro- posals were one reason OEA, the You need a lawyer who understands how your union disability benefits and your Social Security disability benefits will fit together. American Federation of Teachers- Oregon, and Oregon School Em- ployees Association endorsed his opponent in the 2010 Democratic primary. Kitzhaber intervened to bring about labor peace from time to time. He arranged a 2002 meeting that led the farmworkers union to cease its boycott of NORPAC, brokered an end to the 2002 nurses strike at Oregon Health & Science University, and got the University of Oregon administration to drop legal objections to a faculty union in 2012. In 2014, he got sponsors to withdraw an anti-union right-to- Turn to Page 8 Longtime Plasterers Local 82 leader Bob Stanfill passed away Feb. 4 at the age of 91. Stanfill served 16 years as executive sec- retary-treasurer of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Coun- cil. He retired from that post in 1984. Stanfill began his labor union career in 1946 after World War II service in the U.S. Army Air Corps, (now the U.S. Air Force). He used his Federal GI Bill ben- efits to enroll in Local 82’s plas- tering apprenticeship program. He was elected business agent and financial secretary of Plasterers Local 82 in April 1956. In that job he was instru- mental in establishing a health and welfare plan, vacation plan, and pension plan for the mem- bership. In 1959, he helped form the non-profit Plasterers and Lathers Administration Office, which still exists today. During his career, Stanfill served as president of the Port- land Building Trades Council (later renamed Columbia Pacific BCTC). He served as vice pres- ident of the Union Labor Retire- ment Association, which built the Westmoreland, Marshall and Kirkland Union Manors that provide affordable apartments for hundreds of retired workers. He also was among the hun- dreds of delegates to the 1956 merger convention in Portland that produced the Oregon AFL-CIO. In the mid-1970s he was appointed by Gov. Bob Straub to the first State Building Codes Advisory Board. The board established a uniform building code for all cities and counties in Oregon. Stanfill was inducted into La- bor’s Hall of Fame in February 2001. The Hall was a program of the now defunct Northwest Oregon Labor Retirees Council. R OBERT L ESTER S TANFILL was born on Nov. 26, 1923, in the Rose City and grew up in southeast Portland in a family of eight sons and one daughter. His father, Bill, worked as a union grain miller. Stanfill is survived by his wife of 42 years, Pinky; children Barbara Hess, Cheryl Hem- mingsen, Karen Bilyeu, Jeff Woods, John Petty, Bob Petty, and Laura Abernathy; 16 grand- children; 15 great-grandchil- dren; and two more on the way. Hemmingsen is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555; Bilyeu is a member of Office and Profes- sional Employees Local 11; and Woods is a member of Plumbers and Fitters Local 290.
