SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 117, NUMBER 1
IN THIS ISSUE
RETIREMENT Insulators Local 36 Business Manager
Stan Danielson retires after 30 years at the helm | Page 2
THE RETURN OF KURT SCHRADER After his Fast Track
vote, the Congressman visits the House of Labor | Page 8
Meeting Notices p.4 Classifieds p.7 Steelworkers p.8
PORTLAND, OREGON
Beer hauler moves to
bust Teamsters union
2015 in review
As chronicled in 24 issues of the
Northwest Labor Press, the Year
2015 can be remembered for
two labor fights that will have
impacts for years to come. Na-
tionally, the fight was over Fast
Track: Labor went all in to de-
feat it, but it passed Congress
anyway, paving the way for eas-
ier passage of more trade agree-
ments that will send jobs over-
seas.
But in Oregon, 2015 will be
remembered as the year workers
won the right to sick leave:
Starting Jan. 1, 2016, they’ll get
40 hours of sick leave per year
Turn to Page 3
Giving Back
Members of IBEW Local 48 donate warm
clothes and blankets to Union Gospel Mission
(TOP) Local 48 Organizer
Aaron B. Strong sorts
through clothes at Union
Gospel Mission. (ABOVE)
Business Rep Terry Reigle
and apprentice Samer
Obeid, left, unload a van
stuffed with clothes and
blankets donated by
IBEW members. (RIGHT)
Apprentice Kennitha
Wade dishes up food for
Portland’s homeless.
JANUARY 1, 2016
A group of young union members — part of IBEW Local 48’s
Reach out and Energize Next-gen Electrical Workers, or RE-
NEW—spent the last two months collecting warm clothes and
blankets from fellow union
members. On Dec. 19, a half
dozen members of RENEW
delivered two van-loads of
items to the Union Gospel
Mission in downtown Port-
land. The evening before,
they washed and dried all
the clothes at a local laun-
dry. At the Mission, the
electricians, many of them
apprentices, sorted the
clothes by gender and
racked them by size. Later,
they helped the Mission
serve a warm lunch to the
homeless. IBEW volunteers
were Brett Letourneau,
Samer Obeid, Kennitha
Wade, Kim Cole, Terry Rei-
gle, Aaron B. Strong, and
his girlfriend Kapuanani
Foster, who works at the
City of Portland. RENEW
was established in 2011
to inspire the next gener-
ation of IBEW members
to become active in their
local union by focusing
on issues important to
younger workers. The Lo-
cal 48 group meets
monthly at the union hall.
By Don McIntosh
Associate editor
Teamsters Local 162 is facing
what more and more looks like a
union-busting effort by General
Distributors Inc.—a regional dis-
tributor of beer, wine, cider, and
water based in Oregon City.
When truck drivers, ware-
house workers, and sales em-
ployees learned that the prof-
itable company would seek $1.5
million a year in concessions
from them in their next union
contract, they voted 59 to 5 to
strike, and about 80 members of
Teamsters Local 162 walked off
the job Nov. 17. In response, the
company threatened to perma-
nently replace them.
“If we do not hear from you
or if you do not report to work at
your regularly scheduled time,
unfortunately you will be subject
to being permanently replaced as
an employee of General Distrib-
utors, Inc. without further no-
tice,” wrote general manager
Steve “Tiny” Irwin in a Nov. 19
letter to strikers.
The threats were real, and
they took a toll: About 20 union
members crossed the picket line
and returned to work, alongside
about 30 replacement workers
hired by the company.
For 16 days, the remaining
strikers held out, inspired by
support from customers, com-
munity members, and other
unions. Alameda Brewing
owner Matt Schumacher deliv-
ered 14 dozen chicken wings to
the picketline. Others heard
about the strike on the news and
brought coffee and donuts. And
other Teamster locals showed
support: Local 305 delivered a
pickup full of food, Local 206
gave $25 gift cards to each pick-
eter, and Local 324 members
drove from Salem to walk the
line. One Local 162 trustee,
Coca-Cola driver Joe Simon,
even took a week of vacation to
join the picket line. By week
two, strikers were also receiving
$400 a week from Local and in-
ternational union strike funds.
But the company was giving
every indication that it intended
to permanently replace the strik-
ers. When the two sides met
Dec. 2 to negotiate with the as-
sistance of a federal mediator,
Turn to Page 7
Congress delays Cadillac tax
Labor has two more years to kill
the tax on costly health plans –
Obamacare’s most hated feature
Congress voted Dec. 18 to delay
the beginning of the so-called
“Cadillac tax” by two years —
to 2020. The Cadillac tax, which
is part of the 2010 Affordable
Care Act, is a 40 percent excise
tax on the amount of employer
health care premiums above
$10,200 a year for individual
coverage or $27,500 for family
coverage. It was scheduled to
take effect in 2018. In theory, it’s
supposed to force employers to
restrain health insurance cost in-
creases, but unions argued all
along that it would cause em-
ployers to shift costs to workers
through higher co-pays and de-
ductibles. Employer surveys
from the Kaiser Family Founda-
tion confirm that employers are
already doing that in order to
avoid triggering the tax.
Now, the AFL-CIO and other
critics of the tax will have two
more years to fight for its per-
manent repeal in Congress.
The Obama Administration
opposed the delay, but it passed
as part of a much larger bill that
funds much of the federal gov-
ernment and also makes a vari-
ety of tax credits permanent, in-
cluding credits for wind and
solar development. The bill also
placed a two-year moratorium
on Obamacare’s existing 2.3
percent tax on medical devices.