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.