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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 2015)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 116, NUMBER 22 INSIDE Election results Apprenticeship Meeting Notices Classified ads PORTLAND, OREGON NOVEMBER 20, 2015 Obama releases text of his Pacific trade deal Commissioners vote to oppose any future oil, coal, or natural gas terminals, or the shipment of oil by rail through Portland this is the most progressive agreement ever negotiated,” Lee told the Labor Press. “The truth is most of the ‘progress’ was made by George W. Bush, a Re- publican president. They took that and added some pretty in- significant tweaks to it.” TPP is the largest free trade agreement the United States has ever negotiated; it would elimi- nate tariffs and create uniform foreign investment rules in 12 Pacific Rim nations. TPP would marry developed democracies Turn to Page 8 Leaders and supporters of the labor-community coalition Fair Shot for All gather Nov. 12 at the Voz MLK Workers Center to announce the group’s 2016 legislative agenda. Union coalition gets ready for Round Two The labor-community coalition that helped pass Oregon’s paid sick leave law this year an- nounced Nov. 12 that it will push a minimum wage increase and tougher laws on wage theft and racial profiling when the Oregon Legislature meets again in February 2016. The coalition — Fair Shot for All — includes the Oregon AFL-CIO, Service Employees Local 503 and non-profit groups like Causa, Family Forward Oregon, and Voz Workers Rights Education Project. Ear- lier this year the coalition won passage of four out of five of its priorities: besides sick leave, Portland City Council: No new fossil fuel infrastructure The veil is off the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and it’s not pretty By Don McIntosh Associate Editor Now that the gag order is off, Thea Lee can speak. Lee, the chief international economist at the national AFL-CIO, was one of a handful of official labor ad- visors that by law the Obama Administration had to include in the trade negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Lee could see initial U.S. pro- posals — even when members of Congress couldn’t — but she couldn’t talk about them; they were classified. Now, with agreement announced Oct. 5 and the text released Nov. 5, she can. “Barack Obama [is] saying 2 3 4 6 ““Many workers don’t report wage theft out of fear of losing their jobs. That’s something I’ve seen first-hand.” — Sheet Metal Local 16 member Darrin Boyce that included “ban the box” and racial profiling laws, and a state- sponsored retirement savings system that will debut in 2017. But its top priority — raising the minimum wage — was stopped by Oregon Senate Pres- ident Peter Courtney (D-Salem). It’s not clear Courtney has changed his position, but the coalition will try again when the Legislature holds its one-month short session in February. If law- makers again fail to raise the wage, the group will have five more months to gather signa- tures on a ballot measure that would raise it to $13.50 and lift Turn to Page 7 In unanimous resolutions passed Nov. 4 and 12, Portland City Council ended all possibility of large-scale fossil fuel projects in Portland. The resolutions are a re- sponse to a series of proposals to construct marine terminals in the Pacific Northwest to trans- port fossil fuels. Other local ju- risdictions have also voted against proposed oil, gas, and coal terminals, including Van- couver, Washougal, Hood River, The Dalles, Mosier, and Steven- son, but the Portland resolutions go much further. The first resolution, spon- sored by Commissioner Amanda Fritz, puts the City on record opposing any proposed project that would increase the amount of crude oil transported by rail through Portland and Vancouver. The second, spon- sored by Mayor Charlie Hales, is a blanket ban on approving any new infrastructure whose purpose is to store or transport fossil fuels in or through Port- land or its adjacent waterways. The resolutions don’t have the force of law. Rather, they de- clare City Council’s objective, with legally binding city code to be worked out later by city plan- ners and then brought back to Council for approval. Several building trades union officials spoke against the reso- lutions, but overall, public testi- mony was overwhelmingly in support, and several other union leaders spoke in favor. “Portland’s businesses and residents are moving away from fossil fuels, and we must, be- cause we have been told we have only a little time to make a difference in climate change,” said Hales, opening discussion of the resolutions Nov. 4. Hales was one of 60 mayors from around the world who met this summer with Pope Francis to talk about climate change. Hales said the pope’s message was this: There’s very little time left, but it’s not too late to avoid a 5 degree centigrade change in the world’s average tempera- ture, a rise which would trigger catastrophic climate change. At the Nov. 4 City Council hearing, climate activist Bill McKibben, leader of the cam- paign to block the Keystone XL pipeline project, joined by skype from Washington, D.C., where he’d held a rally with U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), announc- ing the introduction of a bill to halt new oil, natural gas and coal leases on federal lands or coastal waters. “Portland will go down as a leader among all jurisdictions if it does this.” McKibben said. But not everyone saw it that way. Willy Myers, executive secretary-treasurer of the Co- lumbia Pacific Building Trades Council, told City Council the state of Oregon relies on fossil fuel — the vast majority of which comes through Portland — to operate transit systems, heat and light homes and grow and harvest crops. “The negative impact on the middle class of these resolu- tions, by opposing infrastruc- ture, will be devastating,” Myers said, “and will add to wage in- Buy union this year? Union-made may be the ultimate hard-to-find gift, but we’ve got 10 suggestions on Page 7 for those who want to vote for union jobs with their union dollars. Turn to Page 5
