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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 2016)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | January 15, 2016 | PAGE 5 ...Mayor Iron Workers’ Camarillo takes job with international From Page 2 trade deals like the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, which unions oppose. But you never know where someone who’s asking for your vote to- day will end up tomorrow: Earl Blumenauer, who votes for such deals, was once a member of Portland City Council. Neither Bailey nor Wheeler had any- thing critical to say about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Gas tax: Both candidates say they favor a local gas tax to pay for additional road maintenance — as long as voters approve. But Bailey says it should be temporary, while Wheeler says the City should first show the public that it’s spending existing transportation dollars wisely. Jobs: Mayors don’t create or eliminate recessions, which are caused by national and global forces. But they can make a dif- ference on construction jobs, which are related to land use de- cisions and public investments in infrastructure. I asked each candidate for their positions on several recent union-backed de- velopments that foundered amid controversy. Pembina propane terminal: Neither candidate was clear on what they’d have done, but Wheeler faulted Hales for changing his mind on the project. “I’m hearing in the midst of plenty, I’m hearing more and more concern about the change of dynamics in our community,” said Portland mayoral candidate Ted Wheeler, above, at a Jan. 7 conference for apartment investors. West Hayden Island industrial land: Wheeler says a compromise with the Port of Portland is still possible. I-5 bridge over the Columbia River: Bailey took flak from environmental allies when he voted in the Legislature to fund it. Wheeler, as treasurer, found problems with the project’s financial assumptions. In the end, it was the Republican-led Washington state Senate that halted the project by failing to approve funds. Union endorsements: Six labor organizations have en- dorsed Wheeler for mayor so far — the Columbia Pacific Build- ing Trades Council, IBEW Lo- cal 48, Communications Work- ers of America Local 7901, Bricklayers Local 1, Cement Masons Local 555, and Carpen- ters Local 271. All those en- dorsements were made while Hales was still running, and be- fore Bailey entered the race. De- spite that, union leaders I spoke to said they’re sticking with Wheeler — for his competence, greater experience, and for his record at the county putting to- gether projects that put union members to work. Most of the same unions endorsed Bailey — for county commission — but the backing doesn’t transfer to a bid for mayor. As yet, he has no union endorsements, but he only formally launched his campaign Jan. 9. AFSCME will interview candidates next week and make an endorsement decision Jan. 26. ONLINE EXTRA See how the candidates answered questions – in their own words – at nwlaborpress.org/2016/1/mayor/. Robert Camarillo of this job,” said Camar- Portland-based Iron illo, who will travel Workers Local 29 has throughout the Pacific been hired as an organ- Northwest and Alaska izer by the International to assist locals with or- Association of Bridge, ganizing campaigns. Structural, Ornamental The Columbia Pa- and Reinforcing Iron cific Building Trades Workers. His first day Council appointed Bob was Jan. 4. Carroll, a business rep Camarillo In accepting the new for IBEW Local 48, as job, Camarillo had to step down president. as president and business agent At Iron Workers Local 29, of Local 29, and as president of vice president Shane Nels was the Columbia Pacific Building appointed president, and will Trades Council. succeed Camarillo as business “I resigned from everything agent. so that I could focus full time on ...High Court could radically diminish public-sector unions From Page 1 the Friedrichs case, the Court is being asked to rule that public employees shouldn’t be re- quired to pay for collective bar- gaining either — even though they benefit from the contract and a majority of their co-work- ers have voted for union repre- sentation. When the Court heard oral ar- guments in the case Jan. 11, the lawyer for the anti-union side ar- gued that when you are talking about public employees, even something like collective bar- gaining is inherently political, because the salaries and benefits that the union is negotiating come out of the public budget. In response, the Court’s lib- eral justices mostly addressed the practical consequences of overturning 40 years of legal precedent. “There are tens of thousands of contracts with these provi- sions,” said Justice Elena Ka- gan. “Those contracts affect mil- lions of employees, maybe as high as 10 million.” Central to the Abood decision was the Court’s acknowledge- ment of the “free rider” prob- lem: People may not want to pay for something if they think they can get it for free. Chief Justice John Roberts seemed to dismiss that as a con- cern, telling California state at- torney Edward Dumont: “If your employees have shown overwhelmingly that they want collective bargaining, then it seems to me the ‘free rider’ con- cern … is really insignificant.” “Many people can want something,” Dumont replied, “but if they are given a choice, they would prefer to have it for free, rather than to pay for it.” The Friedrichs case follows closely a case from two years ago, Harris v Quinn, in which the court barred state-paid home care workers from any require- ment to pay union dues. The court didn’t rule on the First Amendment question then, con- cluding instead that the home health aides were not actually public employees. Justice Samuel Alito wrote the opinion for the majority in the 5-4 rul- ing, and spent most of the ruling calling Abood into question. That opinion is what prompted Friedrichs — a tailor-made case in which anti-union groups re- cruited California teachers as plaintiffs, and then rushed the case through the courts in hopes of challenging Abood at the Supreme Court. The union position was sup- ported by more than 24 briefs filed by hundreds of individuals and groups representing all lev- els of government, public offi- cials, civil rights organizations, academic experts, and others. Multnomah County Commis- sioners Jules Bailey and Judy Shiprack were among 28 public officials and 27 cities and coun- ties that signed one such “friend of the court” brief urging the Court not to overturn Abood. The Court will issue its deci- sion by the end of June.
