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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 5 ... Airport worker earns minimum wage, for eight years From Page 1 The Port may indeed be an excellent working environment, for managers. Executive Direc- tor Bill Wyatt’s $394,440 public employee salary puts him in the top 1 percent of income earners. But the point of all the union heat at Port board meetings was to bring PDX closer to other West Coast airports that have raised standards for those on the bottom. UNITE HERE sur- veyed over 100 concessions workers last fall and found one in four on food stamps, one in six on Medicaid, and a median wage of $9.30 an hour. In October, Wyatt told board members he’d bring them a “so- cial equity” proposal to vote on. But in the draft proposal his staff HOW THE PORT OF PORTLAND WELCOMES PUBLIC INPUT: “Sorry there weren’t enough seats for every- body, but we didn’t expect such a big crowd,” said Port of Portland Commis- sion Chair Jim Carter Feb. 11 as mem- bers of the public packed the board room. [The front two rows had been reserved in advance for Port man- agers.] “Unfortunately, I guess you have to stand,” Carter continued. “We are going to take up the ‘workplace initiative’ last on the agenda.” Every month for nearly a year, unionists have waited hours to speak for three minutes to ask the Port for better working conditions for airport service workers. presented Feb. 11, known as the “PDX Workplace Initiative,” the word “equity” was nowhere to be found. Port of Portland public affairs director Kristen Leonard, re- turning a phone call from the Labor Press, explained that the “equity” component will come later in a multi-year process. As NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT To craft a policy to help the poorest, the Port hires a consultant at $197 an hour The Port of Portland hasn’t done much to help impover- ished airport workers, but its new “social equity” initiative is already benefiting some high-paid consultants. Last August, the Port agreed to pay $34,869 to a Eugene sustain- ability consultancy to conduct a “social equity audit.” Good Company, the consultancy, will “define and recommend opportunities to further inte- grate social equity considera- tion into Port program, prac- tices, partnerships, and plan- ning.” The contract for that work specifies a project man- ager at $197 an hour, a lead re- search associate at $117 an hour, and an administrative support person at $70 an hour, plus reimbursement for airfare, lodging, and meals as needed. The company will also con- duct “external interviews, community outreach, and a presentation to Port” and is supposed to complete the work by April 15. Leonard outlined in her Power- Point presentation to the board, the “Port Strategic Plan Social Equity Initiative Timeline” will start with a “Social Equity As- sessment” this year, followed by “Implement Workplace Initia- tive Strategy” and “Refine So- cial Equity Priorities” in 2016. Finally, in 2017, the Port would “Develop Social Equity Plan” and “Begin Implementation.” At the monthly board meet- ings, Port executives won’t stop talking about how Travel + Leisure magazine rated PDX as America’s #1 airport (in 2013). But back on the ground, PDX is an airport full of workers who can’t afford air travel, or even necessities like health insurance or electricity. During public comment at the end of the Feb. 11 meeting, Kasil Kapriel, an immigrant worker from Mi- cronesia, told board members that she had to turn to the Immi- grant & Refugee Community Organization for help with her electric bill. That’s because after eight years at her job helping wheelchair-bound airline pas- sengers, she still makes mini- mum wage. “We shouldn’t have to depend on public assistance if we work at the nation’s best airport,” Ka- priel told board members. “Eight years and still at mini- mum wage? That’s disgusting,” reacted International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 8 President Bruce Holte, one of two union members on the nine- member board. Board Chair Jim Carter — a former top lawyer at Nike — added his own comment later on: “It’s easy to react, ‘oh my God, eight years at minimum wage.’ Carter said at the meet- ing. “It’s more significant to fig- ure out why that’s happening, and in that individual situation, what it is about the workplace, themselves, the culture, the chal- lenges that they have, to address these things. It is not a simple solution.” During Leonard’s Power- Point presentation, Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Cham- berlain, the other labor voice on the board, sat with his arms folded. “As written, it doesn’t lift workers,” Chamberlain told the Labor Press by phone after the meeting. “And it doesn’t recog- nize that many of the policies at the Port … come at a cost to the workers.” The board will next meet March 11, and a vote on the pro- posal is scheduled for April 8.
