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April 3, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
...Astoria: A Look Back in Time
From Page 3
Staff there were union members
once upon a time, but no more.
Salmon runs, already in de-
cline from over-fishing, irriga-
tion, and small hydroelectric
dams, were decimated by the
big dams constructed in the
1930s and 1940s. And in the up-
per Columbia stretching into
Canada, salmon runs were
wiped out altogether by the
Grand Coulee Dam, completed
in 1942 without fish ladders.
In 1950, the cannery owned
by the Union Fishermen’s Co-
operative Packing Company
was sold to Peter Pan Seafoods.
It closed, and was later destroyed
by fire. Where the cannery once
The City of Astoria constructed the Garden of Surging Waves to memo-
rialize the contribution of Chinese workers.
stood, today sits a luxury bou-
tique hotel, with rooms starting
at $179-a-night, the Cannery
Pier Hotel features an authentic
Finnish sauna and an indoor mu-
seum about Astoria’s cannery
heyday.
The Columbia River Fisher-
man’s Protective Union survives
as a group promoting conserva-
tion.
The Columbia River Packers
Association — the employer
group formed to compete with
the cooperative cannery — lives
on after multiple corporate
mergers in the name of one of its
brands, Bumble Bee. Just not in
Astoria. Bumble Bee, Astoria’s
last working cannery, closed in
1980. A run-down free-admis-
sion museum commemorates it
now, on Pier 39 at the east end
of Astoria, along with a wall
bearing the signatures of hun-
...IBEW Local 125 pickets PacifiCorp
From Page 1
eliminated the defined benefit
pension plan in favor of a 401(k)
savings plan, and increased
health insurance premium co-
pays from a 90-10 (employer-
employee) split, to 80-20, and
more recently to 74-26. Addi-
tionally, higher deductibles are
taking even more money out of
workers’ pockets.
As a result, Eri says Pacific
Power has the lowest wage and
benefits package of any utility in
IBEW Local 125’s jurisdiction.
This race to the bottom is driv-
ing down the pool of skilled line-
men at the company — the ones
who perform high-risk work di-
rectly on the electrical system, in-
cluding high-voltage transmis-
sion and distribution lines.
Several union members walk-
ing the informational picket line
told the Labor Press that veteran
linemen are leaving for jobs at
other utilities, and that newly-
minted journeymen coming out
of the apprenticeship training
center are going to work for
everyone but Pacific Power. The
high turnover rate has led to lots
of forced overtime — from 400
to 600 hours a year.
“Berkshire has no blood,
sweat or tears invested like we
do,” said Brian Penfield, a 20-
year employee. “We’re losing a
lot of talented younger guys
who see no reason to stay here,”
Bargaining has been ongoing
since September. Talks have
narrowed down to wages and
medical. Eri said there are no
takeaways currently on the
table, but wage increases don’t
come close to making up for the
concessions workers have taken
in the past.
At press time, the sides were
in their second day of bargain-
ing with a federal mediator.
There was no word on how
those talks were going.
dreds of Astorians who used to
work there.
By the time the Chinese Ex-
clusion Act was repealed in
1943, Astoria’s Chinese num-
bered just over 100. The last
Chinatown buildings on Bond
Street were torn down in August
1941 to construct U.S. Route 30.
In 2012, the City of Astoria con-
structed the Garden of Surging
Waves, a monument to com-
memorate the contributions of
the Chinese to Astoria’s history.
It’s located at the intersection of
11th Street and Duane, next to
the American Legion hall.
Today, scattered through As-
toria’s historic downtown, pub-
lic trash cans are decorated with
images from old-time salmon
can labels. The town’s biggest
industry is tourism. And its wa-
terfront past is part of the allure.
ABOVE: Liisa Penner, archivist
with the Clatsop County Historical
Society, points to a set of Sanborn
fire insurance maps that show a
densely packed Chinatown where
U.S. Route 30 sits today.
BELOW: View from the parking
lot of the luxury Cannery Pier Ho-
tel: Pilings are nearly all that re-
main of the canneries that once
ran the length of Astoria’s water-
front.