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