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July 3, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
‘Unite for the Knight’ helps raise $508 million
Labor and management coalition
part of OHSU effort to raise
$1 billion for cancer research
By Michael Gutwig
Editor & Manager
Last September, seven labor and
business groups held a press
conference at Oregon Health &
Science University’s (OHSU)
Collaborative Life Sciences
Building in Southwest Portland
to announce formation of the
“Unite for the Knight” coalition.
Together, the leaders from or-
ganized labor and management
pledged to reach out to their
memberships, contractors, and
vendors to give a boost to the
Knight Cancer Challenge.
A year earlier, Nike co-
founder Phil Knight and his wife
Penny had challenged OHSU to
raise half a billion dollars for
cancer research. They promised
OSEA to help build
labor movement
in the Deep South
This August, two team of Ore-
gon School Employees Associ-
ation (OSEA) members, led by
staff organizer Elissa Edge, will
spend two weeks in Alabama
helping school employees there
unionize. The state of Alabama
doesn’t legally recognize the
right of public employees to bar-
gain collectively, but that
doesn’t mean workers can’t get
organized and push for im-
provements.
It’s all part of the Back-to-
School Organizing Campaign,
an annual effort by OSEA’s par-
ent organization, the American
Federation of Teachers, to help
build the union movement
among school employees in the
South. Besides Alabama, union
member volunteers will cam-
paign in Louisiana, New Mex-
ico and Texas.
AFT pays the cost of trans-
portation and housing, reim-
burses members up to $65 per
day for meals and incidentals,
and provides pre-training and
on-site training.
It’s the 5th year OSEA has
taken part in the program.
Twenty members will be head-
ing out July 25 and Aug. 1 to
Mobile, Birmingham, and Cen-
tral Alabama.
to match it with $500 million of
their own if OHSU reached the
goal by February 2016.
On June 25, the Knight Chal-
lenge surpassed its goal, and
then some—raising $508 mil-
lion.
“This is the single largest, suc-
cessful, mass campaign in the
history of U.S. philanthropy, and
done in record time,” said Keith
Todd, president of the OHSU
Foundation. More than 10,000
donors responded, and 50 gifts
were for one million dollars or
more. $200 million is in state
bond funding approved by the
Oregon Legislature in Senate
Bill 5703.
The labor-management Unite
for the Knight coalition con-
tributed nearly $1 million.
The coalition was comprised
of the Oregon AFL-CIO, Ore-
gon State Building and Con-
struction Trades Council, Ore-
gon AFSCME Council 75,
Oregon State Fire Fighters
Council, Associated Oregon In-
dustries, the Portland Business
Alliance, and Oregon Business
Council.
John Mohlis, executive secre-
tary of the Oregon State Build-
The United for the Knight coalition got a $21,000 boost from the Oregon
State Fire Fighters Council in March. In the photo above, Kelly Bach, pres-
ident of the Fire Fighters Council, presents a check to Lisa Coussens, as-
sociate director of basic research at the Knight Cancer Institute. The
Knight Cancer Challenge hits close to home for firefighters, as they have
a significantly higher incidence of some cancers due to on-the-job ex-
posure to harmful substances. The contribution was the largest from la-
bor unions participating in the United for the Knight coalition.
ing and Construction Trades
Council, was co-chair of the
coalition. The other co-chair was
Brian Gard, president of Gard
Communications.
Ken Allen, executive director
of Oregon AFSCME, serves on
the OHSU Board of Directors
and was instrumental in putting
the coalition together.
“In the fight against cancer,
we’re all on the same side,” said
OHSU President Joe Robertson.
The billion dollars will allow
the OHSU Knight Cancer Insti-
tute to create the first large-scale
program dedicated to early de-
tection of lethal cancers. OHSU
will build a new, state-of-the-art
cancer research facility, and a
clinical trial center. Ground
breaking is tentatively scheduled
for March 2016, with construc-
tion expected to be complete in
2018.
OHSU already is fast tracking
recruitment of 250 to 300 scien-
tists and physicians to work
there.
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