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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2016)
PAGE 4 | February 5 , 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ... Mayoral debate at NW Labor Council From Page 3 WE ARE THE UNION: Thirty-three workers at Portland Specialty Baking pub- licly declare their support for unionizing in a pro-union flier. ...Bakery vote this week From Page 1 three dozen of them turned out to a high-spirited Jan. 16 union organizing meeting. At the meeting, workers laid out why they want a union: better treat- ment, better equipment, better scheduling practices, and better pay and benefits. Safety is also a major issue. Many workers on the bagel bak- ing line have permanent scars from burns, and at least three workers were significantly in- jured by a bagel dough cutting machine before the company in- stalled an emergency stop de- vice. Last March, Oregon OSHA fined the company $28,125 for willfully violating the law after a worker’s hand was crushed in that machine. The agency found that despite a pattern of injuries, the employer continued to ignore safety rules and failed to provide adequate safety training. Since the company refused to voluntarily recognize the union, A company anti- union flier urges workers to vote “no.” the campaign asked the National Labor Relations Board to con- duct a union election. The agency set a vote for Feb. 4 — after this issue went to press. (Editor’s Note: Portland Spe- cialty Baking shows a street ad- dress of 3423 NE 172nd Place, Portland. However, the business is located in Gresham city limits. In 2010, the Gresham City Council granted the company a five-year tax abatement when the company upgraded its pro- duction line with a $1.2 million investment. Portland Specialty Baking saved about $76,000 in property taxes, and paid the city $6,700 in community service fees.) DID THEY WIN? FIND OUT ONLINE We had to send this issue to the printer on Feb. 2, before voting took place on Feb. 4. Visit nwlaborpress. org/2016/01/portland-specialty-bak- ing-vote-results to see if they won. And/or look to our Feb. 19 issue for the full story. counts, where you don’t know who the source of it is,” Wheeler said. “That’s why I signed Eliza- beth Warren’s ‘People’s Pledge.’ I am not taking any third party money; I’m not taking ‘dark money.’ I asked my opponent to sign that pledge with me, he de- clined.” Bailey pushed back. “I think we can recognize a campaign stunt when we see it,” he said. “The reality is that Oregon elec- tion laws are the most transpar- ent in our country. I think its re- ally important that we have candidates who are going to live by their values. My values say that I’m not getting bought by large, huge contributions of ten thousand dollars or more from big developers and big corpora- tions.” Asked what they see as the major cultural difference between state, county and city govern- ments, Bailey said some of the city’s most successful mayors have had a legislative back- ground, such as his. “I think the biggest thing to understand, is being mayor of Portland isn’t about being an ex- ecutive. It’s about being a leader. And someone who is a collabo- rator who can work with City Council to get things done ... it’s “The biggest threat to you is dark money com- ing in through inde- pendent expenditure accounts, where you don’t know who the source of it is. That’s why I signed Elizabeth War- ren’s ‘People Pledge.’ I’m not taking any dark money ... I asked my opponent to sign that pledge with me, he declined.” — Mayoral candidate Ted Wheeler about coalition building,” he said. Wheeler said Portland has a unique form of government. “On one hand, it requires you to be a legislator, on the other hand it also requires you to be a man- ager or a leader. Day one when you’re elected ... you’re put in charge of a bureau or bureaus that may have hundreds of em- ployees, and budgets of one hundred-million-dollar-plus magnitude— in some cases ap- proaching a billion dollars. And you may or may not have man- aged anything larger than a three-person shop. And, so from my perspective, it’s the marriage of the legislative issue with the leadership and the management issue. And there’s a lot of ques- tions when someone is elected mayor. We’ve had successful mayors; we’ve had unsuccessful mayors. I think you already know how I am going to per- form (referencing his time as county chair and as treasurer).” In rebuttal, Bailey said he ap- preciated that Wheeler has been an executive, “including an ex- ecutive at Bank of America. I’m not positive that’s the exact kind of executive experience that we need.” “I was not an executive at the Bank of America,” Wheeler re- torted. “I was 20 years old and I was the research assistant and the guy who knew how to make Lotus 1-2-3 work.” At the conclusion of the hour-long debate the candidates shook hands, said they respected each other, and that they consid- ered themselves friends. “Although we’ve taken some jabs at each other tonight, I hope, mostly good-naturedly,” Bailey said, “I think the House of Labor should feel good about the fact that you have two candidates who I think are both committed to working families.”
