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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2015)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | May 1 , 2015 | PAGE 9 Cowlitz Tribe casino will be union built LA CENTER, Wash.—The Cowlitz Indian Tribe has signed a project labor agreement (PLA) with the Columbia Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council, Operating En- gineers Local 701, and the Car- penters to build its new casino here. The PLA requires general contractor Swinerton Construc- tion to use union contractors and subcontractors. According to the Cowlitz Re- sort project website, the resort —located just west of Exit 16 off of Interstate 5—will consist of a casino of up to 134,150 square feet, restaurants and re- tail stores comprising up to 260,225 square feet, up to 147,500 square feet of conven- tion and entertainment space, and a hotel with 250 rooms. There will be parking structures for 7,250 vehicles and an RV park for 200 recreational vehi- cles. The PLA covers just the first phase of the project, which is the $160 million casino. The tribe wants to break ground early next year. It is expected to create an estimated 250 to 300 construction jobs. Willy Myers, executive sec- Turn to Page 11 ...Uber unleashed in Portland From Page 12 the placards that until last week they were required to post — and leave the price-gouging, aka “surge pricing” to the company that invented it, Uber. [Uber has applied for a patent on its method of “dynamically adjust- ing prices for service.”] Fish, meanwhile, objected to Uber’s user agreement, which says the company is legally re- sponsible for nothing that hap- pens to drivers and passengers who connect via its service. The ordinance at least takes a stand against that, saying Uber’s waivers of legal responsibility will have no force or effect in the City of Portland. [Thus Uber passengers can sue the company if they’re injured in Portland.] The ordinance says all TNC drivers must have a city business license, so Fish asked Uber and Lyft representatives whether they’d bar drivers who don’t have the business license. “That’s something we would work on,” hedged Uber general manager Brooke Steger, to audi- ble shock from the crowd. “I didn’t realize that was a squishy,” Fish replied. Even the representative of Lyft—the TNC that plays the role of lawful and eco-conscious good guy to Uber’s bully-boy — waffled in her answer. But when pressed by Saltzman, she pledged that drivers wouldn’t be allowed to operate on its plat- form in Portland without a busi- ness license. [The issue is an es- pecially sensitive one for Portland: Just 5 percent of those listing rentals on Airbnb have obtained the required city permit nine months after the city legal- ized it.] At the final hearing, taxi com- pany representatives criticized many instances of unequal treat- ment under the proposed rules: Taxis have to have cameras in- stalled, for the safety of drivers and passengers; TNCs don’t have to. TNC drivers can start right away, with four months to complete training and certifica- tion after getting a permit; not taxi drivers. TNC companies like Uber and Lyft get unlimited entry into the market for a flat $20,000 permit fee; taxi compa- nies like Radio Cab pay per-ve- hicle and per-driver, totaling up to $150,000. Will the extra fee money buy extra enforcement, Fritz asked? No plans for that, said Novick aide Bryan Hockaday. “So we’ll have a thousand more drivers,” Fritz said, “and no more enforce- ment.” Fritz, whose husband was killed in a car crash last Septem- ber, was especially fierce criti- cizing the ordinance for inade- quate insurance requirements: Taxis have to have at least $500,000 in liability coverage, but TNC vehicles as little as $50,000. In the end, Fritz and Fish voted no, but Saltzman joined Novick and Hales to approve the resolution 3-2. “Nobody has assured me this isn’t a race to the bottom on wages,” Saltzman said as he de- clared his vote. “That said, we’re just going to have to find out in the next 120 days.” IN MEMORIAM Helen Nickum Feb. 4, 1928 - March 29, 2015 Helen Nickum, who worked 18 years as a sec- retary for Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Lo- cal 757, died March 29 at the age of 87. Nickum was on a field trip at Maryhill Museum on March 27, when she fell on some stairs and hit her head, and lost conscious- ness. She was life-flighted to Emanuel hospital, but never re- gained consciousness, and died two days later. Nickum was born to a union family in Portland in 1928. Her father was a union ironworker and her uncle was a Painters Union business agent. After graduating from Jeffer- son High School in 1945, Nickum got a job in the Portland shipyard as a secretary for the son of local ship and steel mag- nate Henry Kaiser. She studied business and mathematics at the University of Oregon, and later earned a bach- elor’s degree in secretarial sci- ence at Oregon State College in 1950. She worked as a legal secre- tary, and became active in the Democratic Party as a precinct committee-person, volunteering for Adlai Stevenson’s unsuccess- ful presidential campaigns, and for the successful campaign of Richard Neuberger for U.S. Sen- ate. When Neuberger won, Nickum asked him for a job and was hired. That assignment be- gan nearly two decades of life and work in Washington, D.C., where she worked for Oregon Congresswoman Edith Green and for the Demo- cratic National Commit- tee. She opened a temp secretarial agency in the 1960s, doing work and printing jobs for govern- ment agencies. She closed the business in 1971 and returned to Portland. She took a job at U.S. Bank, but after three years, left and joined a successful class ac- tion gender discrimination law- suit. She became active with the local women’s movement, and with groups like Common Cause and Friends of the Co- lumbia Gorge. After a seven- year stint at CH2M Hill, she was hired at ATU in August 1987, working first for financial secre- tary-treasurer Tony Bryant and then, for Ron Heintzman. At Local 757, Nickum was a member of Office and Profes- sional Employees International Union Local 11. She retired in March 2006 with a union pen- sion and health benefits. In retirement, she volunteered for the Oregon Historical Soci- ety, and transcribed 267 hours of recorded interviews for the Ore- gon Labor Oral History Program of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association. She is survived by nephew Phil Rudolph, a retired TriMet bus operator; two grand nieces, and a cousin. Broadway Floral for the BEST flowers call 503-288-5537 1638 NE Broadway, Portland (Authorized and paid for by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council)
