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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-