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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 2016)
PAGE 8 | February 19, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PSU won’t fight against a union campaign by its grad students Portland State University (PSU) administrators won’t fight against a union effort among 800 graduate student teaching and research assistants. On Feb. 1, a union delegation called on PSU President Wim Wiewel to remain neutral and not spend university funds to de- lay or frustrate the union effort. PSU Director of Communica- tions Scott Gallagher said via email Wiewel met them in the lobby, listened to them speak, and tried to respond that he and administration would be neutral as required by law. “However, the students and supporters left and wouldn’t let him respond,” Gallagher wrote. On Feb. 5, university provost Sona K. Andrews sent a memo to faculty and staff who oversee graduate student employees, of- fering guidance on the union question. “We acknowledge and re- spect their right to consider this important question without in- terference,” Andrews wrote. Oregon law changed in 2013, the memo says. “Now, PSU cannot take a position or proac- tively provide information to ei- ther encourage or discourage a union.” That means, so long as it’s not disruptive to University operations, graduate assistants can campaign at work on their own time during breaks and be- fore and after shifts, in lobbies, coffee rooms, locker rooms, and public areas, may wear union in- signia, and may use university email and bulletin boards. Grad student teaching and re- search assistants are already unionized at University of Ore- gon and Oregon State Univer- sity. Now they seek to unionize at PSU as well in a joint cam- paign backed by American Fed- eration of Teachers and Ameri- can Association of University Professors. The workers are graduate students who teach courses, conduct research, pro- vide administrative support, mentor students and grade ex- ams. Graduate Employees Union of Portland State University is still in the preliminary phase of the campaign, but expects to seek formal union recognition later this year. HOW TO HELP The Graduate Employees Union of Portland State University is calling on faculty, staff, students, and com- munity members to sign an online petition supporting the union at pdxgeu.org/allies. And be sure to “like” the campaign on Facebook at facebook.com/pdxgeu. Unable to get a first union contract, Machinists withdraw from Bodycote Machinists District Lodge W24 on Feb. 11 formally withdrew as the representative of about 40 workers at a Bodycote plant in Camas, Washington. Workers there voted 22-16 to unionize on June 14, 2014, but the union was never able to reach agree- ment with the company on a first union contract. Negotia- tions were limited to a once-a- month fly-in by a company at- torney based in Oklahoma, and even with the final meetings as- sisted by federal mediator Dar- rell Clark, the two sides never agreed on any substantive eco- nomic issues. “The company stalled us out forever and a day,” District Lodge W24 union rep Will Lukens told the Labor Press. UK-headquartered Bodycote is a multinational corporation specializing in heat treatment of aircraft and automotive compo- nents, with over 190 locations worldwide. Its Camas plant heat treats titanium aerospace parts for Precision Castparts. Lukens said union support dwindled as contract negotia- tions dragged on for 17 months, and union supporters quit or were terminated. The union picketed several times, but never struck. On Jan. 22, Tom Barwise, a former union sup- porter, filed a petition to decer- tify the union, and an election was scheduled for Feb. 12-13. Knowing it no longer had ma- jority support, District Lodge W24 withdrew to avoid the need for an election. “It’s very frustrating, it’s dis- appointing, but [working peo- ple] have to understand it’s a fight,” Lukens said. “If they don’t beat you in organizing campaign, they try to beat you at the table, stalling it out.” LABOR EDUCATION Capacity crowd at 20th Labor Law confab Another capacity crowd attended the 20th annual Labor Law Conference Jan. 29 in Northeast Portland. The event was founded in 1996 by Norm Malbin, now retired as general counsel for IBEW Local 48. It is co-sponsored by the Oregon AFL-CIO, Center for Worker Rights, Northwest Oregon Labor Council, the Labor Education and Research Center at the University of Ore- gon, and the Columbia Pacific and Oregon State building and construction trades councils. Each year it sells out, attracting nearly 300 union officers, staffers, stewards and others who par- ticipate in workshops, listen to experts, and learn new ways to better represent their members. Among the plenary speakers were Ronald Hooks (pictured right), regional director of the National Labor Relations Board; management attorney Rick Liebman; la- bor attorney John Bishop; Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain; and Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian.
