SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 117, NUMBER 3
IN THIS ISSUE
LABOR 100 YEARS AGO A look back at the front page
stories of the Oregon Labor Press, Feb. 5, 1916. | Page 9
A digital version of the front page can be seen on our
web site at www.nwlaborpress.org
Mayoral debate p.3 Meeting Notices p.6
PORTLAND, OREGON
FEBRUARY 5, 2016
Workers at Portland Specialty Baking ready for union vote
Taken totally by surprise, company wages
an intense — and formulaic — anti-
union campaign
By Don McIntosh
Associate editor
On Monday, Jan. 11, two dozen workers
at Portland Specialty Baking surprised
company president Josh Richardson in
his office, announced that they and their
co-workers intend to form a union, and
asked him to respect their choice. By the
end of the week, they had their answer:
The company lawyered up, hired a
union-busting consultant, and began a
cookie-cutter anti-union campaign.
The company employs 180 production
workers at its Gresham industrial bakery
making pretzels, cakes, bagels, and
muffins for Starbucks, Franz, Safeway,
Costco and Winco. It’s an overwhelm-
ingly immigrant workforce, with pay
hovering around $10 an hour.
Workers had been meeting with union
organizers for up to eight months, yet not
a whisper of that ever reached manage-
ment’s ears. If that doesn’t show how lit-
tle the company knows its workforce,
T
Workers at Portland Specialty Baking are voting on whether or not to form a union with
Bakers Local 114.
this does: It put out anti-union fliers in
English, despite the fact that as many as
12 languages are spoken on the shop
floor. [By contrast, the union campaign
has spent over $14,000 on interpreters,
and puts out its written messages in five
here’s a lot at stake for working people
in the month-long session of the Oregon
Legislature that began Feb. 1. Labor lobby-
ists and legislators are hopeful that a major
increase to the minimum wage may pass, as
well as bills to crack down on wage theft and
give cities the right to mandate the construc-
tion of affordable housing. Here are some of
the top items legislators will discuss between
now and March 5:
languages.]
“We believe having a union at Port-
land Specialty Baking would change our
culture, and not in a good way,” one
company flier says. “Instead of all work-
ing together, it could turn into ‘us’ versus
Oregon Legislature:
A lot at stake for
working folks
Minimum wage
Thanks to a union-backed 2002 ballot meas-
ure, Oregon’s minimum wage now stands at
$9.25 and rises with inflation. But it’s still so
low that a single worker working full-time
year-round qualifies for food stamps. Ore-
gon lawmakers failed last year to raise the mini-
mum wage. But the prospect of not one but two bal-
lot measures has stiffened their spines. One ballot
measure would raise the wage to $15 over three
years; the other would raise it to $13.50 over two
years, and lift a state ban on local jurisdictions go-
ing higher. On Jan. 14, Gov. Kate Brown an-
nounced her own proposal: a two-tiered raise in the
minimum wage over six years. Under her proposal,
by 2022, the minimum would rise to $13.50
statewide and $15.52 in the Portland metro area
(within the urban growth boundary.) Brown’s pro-
posal doesn’t lift the ban on local minimum wages.
Wage theft
The law says employers have to pay employees at
least minimum wage for hours worked, with paid
breaks, time-and-a-half for overtime after 40 hours,
and the “prevailing” wage and benefits on govern-
ment construction projects. But the law only works
if it’s obeyed, and evidence is mounting that there’s
‘them,’ and we don’t want that to hap-
pen.”
Other elements of the company’s mes-
saging follow the usual formula: Try to
scare workers with what-ifs, plead with
workers to give the company another
chance to make things better without a
union, and emphasize union dues, while
ignoring the union wages that might
make those dues a bargain.
By week two, management was hold-
ing mandatory-attendance anti-union
group meetings almost daily before each
shift, and summoning workers one by
one to meet with managers during the
work day.
The union campaign is led by organ-
izers dispatched by the national and state
AFL-CIO. Bakers Local 114, the union
the workers want to join, represents
workers at other industrial bakeries in the
area. Its members at Franz, Safeway,
Bimbo/ Oroweat, and Kroger are paid
wages more than twice what workers at
Portland Specialty Baking make.
Over 100 Portland Specialty Baking
workers have signed union cards, and
Turn to Page 4
an epidemic of employer wage and hour
violations known as “wage theft” — espe-
cially in construction, restaurant work, and
agriculture. Last year, lawmakers were
asked to crack down on wage theft, but in-
stead they backed down, under pressure
from employer groups. This time, led by
labor lawmakers like State Sen. Michael
Dembrow, a bill is being reintroduced that
contains the least controversial elements of
last year’s rejected bills. Business lobbyists
representing Associated Building Indus-
tries and Associated Oregon Industries still
testified against it at a Jan. 13 pre-session
hearing, but labor unions and allies are
making it a bigger priority. The bill would
require employers to provide workers with detailed
pay stubs spelling out pay rates, hours worked, and
any deductions. Employers would have to maintain
those records for three years, and make them avail-
able within 45 days upon request by employees.
The bill would give the state Bureau of Labor and
Industries the power to require repeat offenders to
post a bond guaranteeing their workers will be paid.
It would also free up funds to increase enforcement,
Turn to Page 2