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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2015)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | June 5 , 2015 | PAGE 9 From Page 1 working people’s lives better and more fair. Whether it’s get- ting a pathway to citizenship and eliminating a broken immigra- tion system that hurts people and drives your wages down, or eliminating mass incarceration so that a whole generation of black men don’t get disenfran- chised from society, or eliminat- ing pay discrepancy, so that women get paid a dollar for a man’s dollar, rather than 78 cents. We’re all about lifting up the lives of working people, and the best and the most enduring way to do that is with collective bargaining and with a contract on the job. Organizing is the lifeblood of unionism. Collec- tive bargaining built the middle class. But inequality is surging in America today. It doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to be an economy, a country, that does real well for the top couple percent but the rest of us get left behind. We don’t have to be a country where racism can pre- vent people from getting oppor- tunities, or any other ism that stops people from getting more of the American Dream. We know we can have a more just society, an economy of rising wages and shared prosperity, not just for a few of us, but for all of us. Together, we’re going to turn America right-side up. We’ll start shrinking the gap between the rich and the rest of us. We’ll bring justice to America’s tax system. And we’ll end the era of corporate trade deals like TPP (the Trans-Pacific Partnership). Think about this: The real wages of 90 percent of working people have been falling for al- most 40 years, while corporate profits keep rising. They’re at record levels. It’s time for us to get a raise. It’s going to take unity. We’re going to rise to- gether, because if we don’t rise together, none of us will actually rise. It’s like Whac-A-Mole: If they see one group of workers rise up, they’ll want to whack them. What do you think the as- sault on public employees is all about? First they came after pri- OPEN FORUM Vietnam vet objects to TPP trade deal To The Editor: I’m a Vietnam veteran who objects to the Republic of Viet- nam being afforded trade equal- ity with our country through the proposed Trans-Pacific Partner- ship trade agreement. I am distressed that our politi- cians care so little about the ul- timate sacrifice paid by so many Americans in the attempt to se- cure liberty and democracy for the people of Vietnam that they would enter into this treaty to victimize the citizens of that country, just so some transna- tional corporate executives can make more money than they will ever be able to spend in their lives. Corporations currently oper- ating in Vietnam are operating as criminal enterprises using slave and prison labor, and those workers who are paid, suffer at sub-human wages with no envi- ronmental or wage protections. These corporations are fund- ing the regime’s oppression of the people, and the creation of chemical dumps and polluted waterways that the regime ig- nores at the peril of death and disease for local inhabitants. They have continued these prac- tices with impunity, while “ne- gotiating” with “our” corporate lawyers for inclusion in the “treaty.” We are expected to compete with these conditions? There is no compelling reason to lower our standards to compete with criminals oppressing their peo- ple! By the way, 58,000 Ameri- cans that U.S. politicians sent to that country were killed. I flew with about 30 of them who died in the back of my helicopter, so I take this personally. Now, all these politicians who talk often about “honoring our heroes” care nothing for ei- ther as they do the bidding for their really rich patrons—no matter the cost to “We the Peo- ple” or the sovereignty of our constitutional democracy. The shame of it all is that they’re selling us veterans out so cheaply. They think they’re such big shots, while we actually have homeless schoolchildren and homeless vets in this coun- try, which only shows these politicians don’t know what they’re doing. vate sector employees, indus- trial workers, whacking us — closing plants, taking pensions, taking health care, lowering your wages. And then they came after the public employ- ees. They came after the build- ing trades. And they came after the maritimes. Everybody will get your turn in the barrel if we don’t stick together. We have to have to lift all of us up if any of us are going to get very high. Right now, brave workers at Target and Walmart are organiz- ing without even the protection of a union on the job. And these workers, more than 2 million, have won raises this year, be- cause they demanded a raise and we supported them. Money in the pocket of workers; that’s what we stand for. Working people need relief. We need it now: Raising wages, shared prosperity. We’ll march for it. We’ll organize for it. We’ll picket for it. We’ll vote for it. We’ll fight for it. And we will win for it, because of your ef- forts. Let’s go back and kick some ass for the working class.” One thing for sure, if you join the military nowadays you are a fool—unless you’re happy to die for a corporation! I’m sorry for that, but my dad was a World War II veteran and he’d feel the same way. Christopher Warren Plumbers and Fitters 290 Portland, Ore. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Northwest Labor Press wel- comes letters to the editor. Letters should be 300 words or less and should include contact info as well as which union you belong to. Send to editor@nwlaborpress.org or Attn: Editor; PO Box 13150; Portland, OR 97213. Photos courtesy of Oregon Food Bank ...Organizing is front and center Letter Carrier Pamela Durley with volunteer Doug Phillips at Creston Post Office. Letter Carriers deliver more than the mail More than 4,000 letter carriers in urban and rural areas of Ore- gon and Southwest Washington delivered 1.2 million pounds of food to the Oregon Food Bank on May 9—part of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Wrapping up its 23rd year, the food drive is held on the sec- ond Saturday in May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. On that day, postal cus- tomers are asked to leave bags of non-perishable food next to their mailboxes for letter carriers to pick up. The bags are then dropped off at post offices, where volunteers sort through the food and load it into ship- ping containers. From there, the food is taken to the Oregon Food Bank for distribution. The amount of food collected nationally was not available at press time, but typically it’s around 70 to 75 million pounds. Donated food stays in the community where it was col- lected. The Oregon Food Bank col- lects and distributes food through a network of four Ore- gon Food Bank branches and 17 independent regional food banks serving Oregon and Clark County. The Food Bank net- work helps nearly 1 in 5 house- holds fend off hunger. Oregon Food Bank also leads statewide efforts to increase resources for hungry families and to eliminate the root causes of hunger through advocacy, nutrition ed- ucation, garden education, and helping communities strengthen local food systems. For more information, go to oregonfoodbank.org. Caregivers at Sacred Heart in Springfield unionize SPRINGFIELD—Frontline care providers at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Cen- ters—Riverbend and University District—voted 524-367 May 29 to be represented by Service Employees International Union Local 49. It is the largest health- care election to take place in Oregon for nearly two decades. The bargaining unit consists of 1,100 certified nursing assis- tants, emergency room techs, monitor techs, housekeepers, food service assistants, patient access representatives, surgical support aides and others. Issues in the campaign in- cluded chronic short-staffing, affordable healthcare, fair wages, and respect on the job. Nurses at the hospital are rep- resented by Oregon Nurses As- sociation, and doctors are mem- bers of Pacific Northwest Hos- pital Medicine Association. Sacred Heart is part of Van- couver, Wash.-based Peace- Health, a not-for-profit health care system with medical cen- ters in Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The company is in the midst of a massive shakeup in its executive ranks, with five top officers leaving.
