SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 116, NUMBER 17
INSIDE
Kapstone strike
Team Labor
Union meetings
Free classifieds
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PORTLAND, OREGON
SEPTEMBER 4, 2015
Oregon is a leader on leave, and Bonamici is a star
Anti-union group targets
Oregon public sector unions
The labor secretary says Obama
would like to do many things,
but Republicans won’t let him
Billionaire-funded group tells
home care workers to save
money by quitting their union
By Don McIntosh
Associate Editor
U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas
Perez and his Secret Service es-
cort popped into Portland Aug.
26 to chat about paid leave with
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and
Congresswoman Suzanne
Bonamici.
As a reporter for the North-
west Labor Press, it’s not every
day I get face-time with a cabi-
net member, a governor, and a
congresswoman, so I wanted to
make the most of it.
Perez’ Portland visit was the
last stop in a five-city “Shared
Prosperity for A Stronger Amer-
ica” tour. Such tours are becom-
ing an annual ritual for the Sec-
retary of Labor — seeking local
media coverage for President
Obama’s plans and accomplish-
Photo by Andrea J. Wright, courtesy of U.S. Department of Labor
Obama’s top labor enforcer:
Laughing Planet burrito chain owner Franz Spielvogel, Rep. Suzanne Bonam-
ici, and Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez pose for a selfie with Laughing
Planet manager Aubrey Chamber, whose six weeks of upcoming employer-
paid maternity leave prompted the officials’ visit to the Portland cafe.
ments in the weeks leading up to
Labor Day.
This year, two of the five tour
stops were in districts of Con-
gressional Democrats who infu-
riated organized labor by voting
for Fast Track. Fast Track is a
law that will make it easier for
Congress to approve corporate-
friendly trade deals like the pro-
posed Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Bonamici was one of the 28
House Democrats who voted for
Fast Track (out of 188) June 18,
and it was her staff that organ-
ized the Portland event. [Perez
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The Evergreen Freedom Foun-
dation — a hard-line anti-
union group that has afflicted
unions in Washington state —
has now opened up shop in
Oregon, with an office, a law-
suit, and plans to harass public
employee unions.
As Freedom Foundation
mouthpiece Jeff Rhodes put it
on a blog post, “making life
miserable for government em-
ployee unions” is what his
group does best. Evergreen
Freedom Foundation has 26
staff members, a daily online
radio show, and funding from
an array of right-wing founda-
tions. Its CEO, Tom McCabe,
is well-known to Washingtoni-
ans as the former head of the
anti-union Building Industry
Association of Washington.
Its Oregon outpost incorpo-
rated July 22, filed a lawsuit
against the state’s largest union
Aug. 12, and opened a Salem
office Aug. 13.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S.
District Court against Service
Employees International
Union (SEIU) Local 503, at-
tempts to capitalize on last
year’s Harris v. Quinn deci-
sion by the U.S. Supreme
Court. In that 5-4 decision, the
court said state-paid home care
workers in Illinois who don’t
want to be union members
couldn’t be required to pay any
“fair share” dues equivalent to
cover the representational
costs of the union. Harris v.
Quinn created a “right-to-
work” situation for unionized
home care workers: They get
the benefit of the union-nego-
tiated contract terms, but can
opt out of paying any of the
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LONGTIME COMMITMENT TO OREGON
Oregon Building Trades Council celebrates 75th anniversary
The Oregon State Building and
Construction Trades Council
celebrated its 75th anniversary
with a gala banquet Aug. 21 at
the Oregon Convention Center
in Portland.
The celebration was in con-
junction with the Council’s an-
nual convention Aug. 20-21.
More than 500 guests at-
tended the banquet. Among
them were Gov. Kate Brown,
Labor Commissioner Brad
Avakian, Attorney General
Ellen Rosenblum; numerous
Democratic and Republican
state legislators, city and county
commissioners; and representa-
tives from business and labor
communities.
Presenting partners for the
event were NECA/IBEW, Nike,
and Jordan Cove Energy Proj-
ect.
Keynote speaker Matt Ship-
ley, Oregon manager of con-
struction for Intel Corp., praised
union construction workers for
their ability to meet Intel’s every
need at the massive Ronler
Acres campus in Hillsboro.
“Intel builds some of the most
complex projects on the planet,
and we do it with some of the
most skilled craftspeople in the
world,” he said.
Gov. Brown said labor’s rich
tradition of apprenticeship train-
ing has served Oregon well for
over 75 years — and it will con-
tinue to serve Oregon in the fu-
ture,
“Unions helped build the
middle class,” she said.
John Mohlis, executive secre-
tary of the Oregon State Build-
ing Trades Council, said con-
struction unions’ history of
passing traditions and best prac-
tices from one generation to the
next — through apprenticeship
training — has allowed the
trades to become a leader in the
region.
“Training is what sets the
union trades apart from all oth-
ers,” he said. “And we do it with
not one penny of cost to the tax-
payer.”
The Oregon Building Trades
Council was chartered on March
25,1940, in Portland, Oregon.
John O’Neill of Iron Workers
Local 29 was the first secretary,
serving from its inception until
late 1948, when he left to take a
job as general organizer for his
international union.
O’Neill was succeeded by
Volney Martin, a member of
Painters Local 10. Martin was
the Council’s first and only pres-
ident up to that point. He also
was the first full-time paid offi-
cer. During its first decade the
elected leadership of the Coun-
cil was an unpaid, part-time
post. It wasn’t until the early
1950s that affiliates decided to
employ a full time executive
secretary. Martin remained in
the post until August 1958,
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