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.