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)