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.”