SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 117, NUMBER 2
IN THIS ISSUE
UNION MEMBER OSCARS Not the Academy Awards,
which began as a way to stop unionization | Page 3
MARTIN LUTHER KING’S UNFINISHED LABOR In
the end, he turned his focus to economic justice | Page 8
Meetings p.4
Classifieds p.7
Union Sportsmen p.6
PORTLAND, OREGON
JANUARY 15, 2016
Who should union members
U.S. Supreme Court case could
back for Portland mayor?
deal blow to public-sector unions
Photo by Rick Reinhard, courtesy of the National Nurses Union
Judging by questions they
asked Jan. 11, it appears that a
5-4 majority of the U.S.
Supreme Court is about to rule
that public employees don’t
have to pay anything to the
unions that represent them.
Such a decision would
weaken public-sector unions
considerably, with far-reaching
consequences for the Ameri-
can labor movement.
In the case — Friedrichs vs
California Teachers Associa-
tion — plaintiffs seek to over-
turn a 1977 Supreme Court de-
cision called Abood vs. Detroit Union protesters from National Nurses United gather outside the U.S.
Supreme Court Jan. 11, the day oral arguments were heard in Friedrichs
Board of Education. In Abood, vs. California Teachers Association.
the Court said that it would vi-
olate the First Amendment if public-sector collective bar- and dues and instead pay a
public employees were re- gaining, union-represented lower “fair share” fee that pays
quired to pay for a union’s po- public employees who object just for bargaining and enforc-
litical speech. That’s why to- to union political stances may ing the union contract. Now, in
day in states that allow opt out of union membership
Turn to Page 5
Bakers demand union recognition
On the morning of Jan. 11, two
dozen workers at an industrial
bakery on Northeast 172nd
Place in Portland did something
they’d never done: They
marched to the company presi-
dent’s office to let him know
they and their co-workers intend
to unionize.
The company — Portland
Specialty Bakery — is a pri-
vately-held contract bakery with
about 180 production workers.
Almost none are paid more than
$11 an hour, and most are within
a dollar of Oregon’s $9.25-an-
hour minimum wage. It’s a di-
verse workforce, with as many
as 10 languages spoken.
The union campaign has been
under way for about a year, with
staff support from the national
AFL-CIO. If the campaign
proves successful, workers will
become members of Bakers Lo-
cal 114, which represents work-
ers at other industrial bakeries in
the area. At Franz, Safeway,
Bimbo/Oroweat, and Kroger,
BOSS, WE HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU: Workers at Portland Specialty
Bakery completely fill the hall outside the company president’s office Jan. 11
to let him know they intend to unionize.
union workers earn $22.75 an
hour plus benefits for similar
work. Portland Specialty Bakery
makes pretzels, cakes, bagels,
muffins, and other products un-
der contract for Starbucks,
Franz, Safeway, Costco, Winco
and other companies.
Visiting their boss, workers
had back-up: Oregon AFL-CIO
President Tom Chamberlain,
State Rep. Chris Gorsek (D-Gre-
sham), and Local 114 Secretary
Treasurer Terry Lansing.
Company president Josh
Richardson listened respectfully
as they and half a dozen workers
explained why they’d come: To
ask the company to voluntarily
recognize the union. If it doesn’t,
the National Labor Relations
Board will conduct an election.
— DM
By Don McIntosh
Associate editor
Unless someone else enters the
race by the March 8 deadline,
we know this much already:
Portland’s next mayor will be an
Ivy-League-educated white
male who graduated from Lin-
coln High School and lives in
Southwest Portland with his
wife and child.
Ted Wheeler and Jules Bailey
have all that in common, and
more. Both say Portland’s
biggest challenges are a lack of
affordable housing and too few
family-wage jobs. Both support
a phased-in $15-an-hour mini-
mum wage for Portland — if
state law is changed to allow it.
And both have spent years cul-
tivating good relationships with
organized labor.
To find out how they differ on
issues that matter to working
people — and delve into their
records — I talked to over a
dozen union leaders and politi-
cal staffers, spent close to an
hour interviewing each of the
candidates, and tagged along to
public events to see what they
say to non-labor audiences.
Neither candidate criticized
the other, but I was struck that
each of them emphasized in
themselves the thing their oppo-
nent is perceived to lack.
Wheeler, 53, emphasizes his
experience. He’s 17 years older
than Bailey, and has a longer ré-
sumé. After getting an econom-
ics degree from Stanford, an
MBA from Columbia, and a
masters in public policy from
Harvard, he worked as an exec-
utive at Bank of America and
then for Copper Mountain Trust,
an investment management
firm. He entered politics in
2006, defeating incumbent Di-
ane Linn to become Multnomah
County Chair. Three years into
his four-year term, he was ap-
pointed State Treasurer by Ore-
gon Gov. Ted Kulongoski after
the death of Ben Westlund. He
was re-elected in 2012, and
sources say he would have run
for governor in 2016 if it
weren’t for the resignation of
John Kitzhaber, which gave
Kate Brown that promotion. So
he challenged incumbent Char-
lie Hales for mayor of Portland
… and was as surprised as any-
one when Hales dropped out of
the race in late October.
Bailey meanwhile — with an
environmental science degree
from Lewis & Clark and mas-
ter’s degrees in public affairs
and urban planning from Prince-
ton — entered politics in 2008
(two years after Wheeler), run-
ning for a vacant state House
seat in Southeast Portland. He
served three two-year terms in
the Oregon House and won a
seat on the Multnomah County
Commission in 2014. Two years
into that four-year job, he’s run-
ning for mayor — at age 36.
While Wheeler emphasizes
experience, Bailey emphasizes
his humble origins: The son of
Turn to Page 2
LABOR 100
YEARS AGO
Beginning with this issue, the Northwest Labor Press will
take a peek back at front page stories from 100 years
ago. On Page 7 you will see a photo of the front page
of the Jan. 15, 1916, Oregon Labor Press, along with an
article that was re-typed for easier reading. A digital
version of the page can be seen on our web site at
www.nwlaborpress.org.