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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 3, 2015)
PAGE 4 | July 3, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ...Instafab owner says he’s ready to meet with striking workers From Page 2 an email address. It’s visible to the web administrator, but not to the reading public. And “Truth be told” listed the email address of … company owner Bruce Perkins. Using an online identity to speak about yourself while pre- tending to be another person is known as “sock-puppeting.” The most famous example is Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who was exposed in 2007 after he used an alias to post more than 1,100 entries on a Yahoo Finance bulletin board—praising Whole Foods for its brilliant management, and trashing his company’s compe- tition. Still, I couldn’t be 100 per- cent sure our sockpuppeteer was Bruce Perkins himself; it could have been someone close to him, or even an imposter listing his address. Then Bruce Perkins emailed me from the same address to complain that one of his com- ments hadn’t been approved. It put the Labor Press in an awkward position. As a newspa- per, we can’t collaborate in the deception of our readers. It was time to end the deception. When I reached Perkins by phone Friday, June 19, he con- fessed to the sockpuppeting, and was apologetic. I suggested he could continue the online con- versation—using his real name. We made plans for me to inter- view him the following week to hear his side of the story. Then on Monday I got an email from him saying that on the advice of his attorney, he wouldn’t be talking to the Labor Press after all. The strikers were not so hesi- tant. Later Monday I met with five of them at a Southeast Port- land cafe. Tall, proud, lean, tat- tooed, and tanned from the out- door work, they seemed like Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 re-elects Al Shropshire Neely, and Craig Weis- Al Shropshire was re- mann. In Region 2, Brad elected to a second term Archuleta defeated two as business manager/fi- other candidates, and nancial secretary-trea- Rick Two Bears was re- surer of United Associa- elected in Region 3. tion of Plumbers and Dave Hauth, Rick Fitters Local 290. Hindman and Chris Mc- Shropshire, 61, is a Nicholas were re-elected 40-year member of the union. He started his ca- Al Shropshire to the Finance Commit- tee, in a six-person race. reer as a pipefitter in Ramon Ramon and Randal 1973 working in ship repair at the Portland shipyards. In 1979 he Nelson, Jr. were elected to the passed the pipefitters exam for Pipefitter Examining Board in a building trades construction and seven-person race. subsequently worked on commer- Russell Hill and Rick Stauffer cial and industrial jobs. He garnered the most votes for worked for the union as a business Plumber Examining Board. agent for several years, starting in Erv Garrison and Eric Fan- 1993. He also has served on Local ning ran unopposed for ACR 290’s joint apprenticeship training Examining Board. committee and he’s been a jour- Barry Sather and Peter neyman instructor at the training Bakker were unopposed for Oil center. Burner Examining Board. In other Local 290 election re- And Jim Eastman and Bill sults, Robert Porter was re-elected Duke ran unopposed for Metal president, and Gil Freeland was Trades Examining Board. Local 290 represents about re-elected vice president. John Feeney was elected to a 4,100 members working in all first term as recording secretary, branches of the piping industry in and Melissa Nash was elected to construction, industrial, and at shipyards in Oregon, Southwest a first term as inside guard. Eight members ran for two Washington, and four counties in seats on the local’s Executive Northern California. Board representing Region 1. The All terms of office are for three winners were incumbent Teresa years. seriously hard workers, the kind of guys you’d be proud to call your co-workers or employees. And each had stories that would make you think twice about working at Instafab. Yet to a man, they said they’re not out to destroy the business that treated them poorly. All they’re asking for is a decent living, and a more respectful work environment. Actually, you don’t need me to tell you what they want, be- cause they wrote it up them- selves and presented it in person to Instafab general manager Will Filbeck on Feb. 27: “We the employees of Instafab hereby demand: Water on every job, dry shacks on every job, safety and other training, med- ical paid by Instafab, a retire- ment plan, and area standard wages.” [Dry shacks are tempo- rary structures on construction sites that allow workers to get out of the elements for a few minutes while they take their breaks.] It’s gotta take some guts to walk into a boss’s office with a list of demands. But these men did have some backup walking in with them: Robert Camarillo, who’s not just a business rep at Iron Workers Local 29, but the president of the 20,000-strong Columbia-Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council. Instafab didn’t respond to the demands. That’s when they—a group of nonunion workers— went on strike. They took up picket signs and went outside and picketed, at the office and at job sites. And for that they were fired. Here’s how one termination let- ter, written March 6 on Instafab letterhead, put it: “Instafab con- cludes that you have quit based on your no-show to work after Feb. 27, 2015. You have been terminated from employment as of Feb. 27 due to no-show.” Legally, that could be a prob- lem for Instafab. A federal law known as the National Labor Relations Act declares it to be the policy of the United States to encourage the “practice and procedure of collective bargain- ing,” and makes it a civil offense for an employer to discharge a worker simply for exercising their right to strike. The fired Instafab strikers filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, and the federal agency is considering seeking a federal court injunc- tion ordering their reinstate- ment. As “Truth be told,” Perkins wanted to talk to the strikers. He reiterated that offer when he took me up on my suggestion to comment under his own name. And in an email to me, he said he’s ready to meet with the strik- ers. Strikers say they’re happy to meet with him. They can be reached, care of Iron Workers Local 29, at 503-774-0777. Danger ahead for public sector unions ing challenged in the case known as Friedrichs v. Califor- nia Teachers Association. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that asks whether it’s constitutional for public sector unions to charge “fair share” fees to non-mem- bers to cover the costs of repre- sentation. Under a 1977 Sup- reme Court case known as Abood v. Detroit Board of Edu- cation, such fees have been con- sidered allowable. But that’s be- No more minimum wage managers n’t been updated since 1975. Now, the Department of Labor is proposing to raise it to $50,440, with yearly raises after that. It’s estimated that 5 million people could get a pay bump be- cause of it: most because they convert to hourly and get paid overtime. It also could lead to additional hiring. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is furi- ous. The new rule could take ef- fect before President Obama leaves the White House. NATIONAL Heard about the employer scam where they make you a “man- ager” so they can work you long hours without paying you over- time? Incredibly, that’s been le- gal as long they pay a salary of $23,660 a year, a figure that has-
