NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | August 7, 2015 | PAGE 3
New leadership at Iron Workers Local 29
Longtime business manager Kevin Jensen retires, Joe Bowers steps in
Kevin Jensen retired June 30 as
business manager and financial
secretary of Iron Workers Local
29.
To serve out the second half
of his three-year term, the
union’s Executive Board ap-
pointed Local 29 president Joe
Bowers. It also appointed vice
president Robert Camarillo as
the new president.
Executive Board member
Shane Nehls was appointed vice
president, and Jason Fussell was
named to the Executive Board.
Headquartered in Portland,
Local 29 is an affiliate of
124,000-member International
Association of Bridge, Struc-
tural, Ornamental and Reinforc-
ing Iron Workers. Their work in-
cludes placing and tying re-bar
in concrete forms, erecting and
welding iron beams, and in-
stalling handrails, windows,
doors and other metal architec-
tural structures.
With 1,318 members, Local
29 has a jurisdiction that extends
to all of Oregon plus six counties
in Southwest Washington. Un-
der the area master agreement,
Local 29 journeyman make
$35.85 an hour plus benefits.
As of 2014, Local 29’s mem-
bership included 649 journey-
men, 182 apprentices, 52 proba-
Joe Bowers, Local 29’s new business manager.
tionary members, and 282 pen-
sioners, plus 153 honorary
members—members who are
permanently disabled or inca-
pacitated as a result of working
at the trade.
That fact speaks to how phys-
ically demanding iron work is;
safety is a big part of the union’s
four-year 6,400-hour appren-
ticeship program.
“There’s not a lot of iron-
workers falling off buildings,”
Jensen says, “but a lot whose
knees, shoulders, and backs are
hurting from doing this trade for
35 years.”
Jensen, 56, is a second-gener-
ation ironworker, the second of
See you at the AFL-CIO
Summer School,
August 7-9, where
Chris Frost has a
workshop on Workers’
Comp. Go online for
more info:
http://lerc.uoregon.edu/eve
nts/summer-school/
five kids of union ironworker
Ralph Jensen.
“We always knew that the
union was what provided us the
lifestyle we had,” Jensen said.
Jensen grew up outside of
Boring, Oregon, and graduated
from Sandy High School in
1977. He joined the union in
June 1978, and became a jour-
neyman in 1981. He worked
many projects over the years, in-
cluding the 30-story PacWest
Center in downtown Portland
and the second powerhouse at
Bonneville Dam.
“One of the most appealing
things about the job,” Jensen
said, “is the ability to look back
Kevin Jensen (right) will finish out his term as president of the Oregon
State Building and Construction Trades Council in August. He is seen
above talking to U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley.
at the end of the day and see
what you’ve done.”
Following the path of his fa-
ther, who served as union vice
president and executive board
member, he got involved in the
local, and was elected to the Ex-
ecutive Board in 1984 and later,
recording secretary and district
council delegate. He worked for
Carr Construction from 1994
until March 2004, when he was
hired as a dispatcher by then-
business manager Jeff Carlson.
When Carlson left as business
manager Oct. 1, 2004, Jensen
was appointed to replace him.
Jensen said he felt fortunate
to be part of the union move-
ment, which is about improving
the lives of working people.
“We not only make lives bet-
ter for our members, but for all
workers in the industry,” Jensen
said. The labor movement’s fu-
ture, Jensen said, “comes down
to members being involved and
caring about what’s happening
in their organization and all of
organized labor. It’s pretty obvi-
ous there’s a concerted effort in
certain parts of the political
spectrum to weaken the union
voice.”
Retiring after 37 years in the
union, Jensen will continue to
serve on the board of directors
of the State Accident Insurance
Fund (SAIF), Oregon’s non-
profit workers’ comp insurer;
then-governor John Kitzhaber
appointed him to a three-year
term in February 2014.
He also will finish out his
term as president of the Oregon
State Building and Construction
Trades Council, which expires
later this month.
Jensen says he wants to get
reacquainted with fishing, hunt-
ing, and golf. He is married with
four grown daughters and three
grandchildren.
Local 29’s new business
manager, Joe Bowers, got his
start on the nonunion side of the
trade and was recruited to the
union in 1996. Bowers, 41, lived
in Saint Croix Falls, Wisconsin
until moving to Oregon with his
family in 1992. Bowers gradu-
ated from the apprenticeship
program in 2000, and worked in
the field at R2M2 before he was
recruited by Jensen as a union
organizer in October 2004. As
an organizer, he met with
nonunion contractors and work-
ers in the industry to pitch the
merits of signing with the union.
Instead of hunting for workers
on Craigslist or the Oregon Em-
ployment Department, union
iron contractors have access to a
skilled and ready labor pool
through the union hiring hall.
“There’s no parallel on the
nonunion side to our training
program,” Bowers says.
In 2005, Bowers was elected
to Local 29’s Examining Com-
mittee, which tests apprentices
when they’re ready to become
journeymen. In 2008, he was
elected vice president, and in
2013, president. He’s also secre-
tary-treasurer for the Iron Work-
ers District Council of the Pa-
cific Northwest, and president
of the Salem Building Trades
Council.
Bowers said he’ll continue to
focus on procuring more work
for members. He’ll also reach
out to nonunion competition and
try to dispel myths they may
have about what it’s like to sign
with the union.