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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 2016)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | February 19, 2016 | PAGE 5 ...Union campaign crushed at Portland Specialty Baking From Page 1 door policy was announced, in which workers could tell com- pany president Josh Richardson about their concerns. Some workers got raises. Meanwhile, the company ag- gressively curtailed union ac- cess to the workers. Not only were union organizers not al- lowed into the plant to talk to workers, but they were ordered off the property. The plant is lo- cated in a corporate industrial park between Sandy Boulevard and I-84. For about a week after the union campaign went pub- lic, union organizers would show up to leaflet and talk to workers. But Richardson, the company president, repeatedly confronted them and called the police. On Jan. 22, Gresham po- lice arrested lead organizer Trent Leon-Lierman and booked him on charges of second degree criminal trespass. On arraign- ment, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office de- clined to press charges, but Leon-Lierman’s arrest was the last time organizers showed up on site — two weeks before the election. And union efforts to get workers to meet outside the workplace were frustrated by a sudden ramp-up in hours. Work- ers were ordered to work 60 “I asked [the company president], ‘Have you been inside the homes of your workers and seen their children huddled in their coats because they can’t afford heat? We have.’ ” — Bakers Local 114 president Terry Lansing hour weeks. On the day a union meeting was scheduled, some were called in to work an extra shift. There were other factors con- tributing to the union loss. Portland Specialty Baking’s workforce is overwhelmingly comprised of immigrants and refugees, divided into pockets of different nationalities and lan- guage groups. NLRB election notices, for example, were trans- lated into Arabic, Burmese, Chukkese, Khmer, Laotian, Nepalese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Within each lan- guage group, line foremen tended to be the most senior leaders, and they formed the core of the company’s anti- union effort. Leon-Lierman thinks those supervisors may have proved decisive in appeal- ing to workers to give the com- pany a chance to improve. Lastly, very few of the Port- land Specialty Baking workers had any prior experience with unions before. Wages at other unionized bakeries in the Port- land area are approximately double the wages at Portland Specialty Baking, which hover around $10 an hour. Franz Bakery’s role Lansing said it’s unclear what role, if any, unionized Franz Bak- ery played in the campaign. Port- land Specialty Baking makes pretzels, cakes, donuts, bagels, and muffins, but not under its own label; it’s a contract baker making products for Franz, Star- bucks, Safeway, Costco and Winco. Portland Specialty Bak- ing uses machines purchased from Franz. And the industrial park where it’s located is owned by a holding company that lists current and former Franz execu- tives as principal officers. Lansing appealed to Franz president Marc Albers to urge Portland Specialty Baking to re- main neutral and meet face to face. Albers did get Richardson to meet with the union. The half- hour-long informal meeting took place Jan. 28 at the union office — between Richardson and his attorney Jackie Damm of Bullard Law, and Lansing and John Price, the Bakers Union’s international director of organization. “It was an honest attempt by us to go forward positively rather than have an adversarial fight,” Lansing says of the meet- ing. “We asked for the company to be neutral and respect work- ers’ desire to be union.” Lansing asked if Richardson would allow a union representa- tive on site so that employees could hear both sides. Richard- son said no. “I asked him, ‘Have you been inside the homes of your work- ers and seen their children hud- dled in their coats because they can’t afford heat? We have.’” Richardson’s response, Lans- ing says, was to tell the story of an employee who was grateful to get a job at Portland Specialty Baking after being out of work for years. Why unions prefer card check The union reversal at Portland Specialty Baking illustrates the difference between a “card check” process — which unions favor — and a secret ballot union election. Under federal la- bor law, employers must recog- nize and bargain with a union if the majority of workers want to be union-represented. Unions can demonstrate that majority support by presenting signed au- thorization cards from workers, in a process known as card check, but it’s up the employer whether to accept that method or not. Employers who want to fight a union invariably insist on a secret ballot election overseen by the NLRB, because it gives them time to campaign against the union. In short: Portland Specialty Baking could legally have recognized the union based on the cards signed by its work- ers — and gotten busy negotiat- ing a first contract. Instead it fought an extraordinarily one- sided battle against the union – in that management had nonstop access to workers, while union organizers weren’t even allowed on the property. Despite the loss, Lansing and Leon-Lierman say the union will continue to engage with workers at the plant, and could try again in the future if worker opinion shifts. “We’re certainly not walking away. That wouldn’t send a good message, nor would it be the right thing to do,” said lead organizer Trent Leon-Lierman. Richardson declined to return calls from the Labor Press. Justice Scalia’s death may mean reprieve for public sector unions Based on questions justices asked when the Court heard oral argument in the case Jan. 11, it looked like there was a 5-4 ma- It would be considered bad form jority in favor of over- for union leaders to turning a previous court publicly celebrate the decision that declared it death of conservative constitutional for public U.S. Supreme Court sector unions to require Justice Antonin Scalia, dues or some equiva- but privately, there’s a lent. Currently, under pervasive sense of hav- the 1977 Abood deci- ing dodged a bullet. sion, the question is left That bullet, aimed by up to the states. union foes at the heart Scalia’s Feb. 13 of organized labor, was Antonin Scalia death means the Court 1936-2016 a pending case called is now more likely split Friedrichs vs. California Teach- 4-4 between conservative and ers Association. Plaintiffs are liberal judges. But that’s not cer- asking the Supreme Court to im- tain. The Court is supposed to pose so-called “right-to-work” issue a decision by June, but if status on all public employees in it’s split, then the lower court the United States, arguing that decision upholding the status requiring public sector union quo stands. It’s also possible the members to pay dues — even Court could order the case to be though they benefit from union re-argued next year, after a new contracts — would violate the justice is appointed. First Amendment. The Friedrichs case looked like it was going to be a 5-4 vote
