NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | May 6, 2016 | PAGE 11
...Portland 10-cent gas tax measure gets some labor support
From Page 9
tive Secretary John Mohlis says law-
makers will try again next year.
“At the end of the day, if the roads
are crumbling and your car is getting
torn up, or kids can’t safely walk
down the street or cross the street,
you have to suck it up,” said Bob
Tackett, executive secretary-treasurer
of the Northwest Oregon Labor
Council (NOLC). “It’s got to be paid
for. It’s not going to magically hap-
pen.”
If passed by voters in May, the
new gas tax could not be imple-
mented until September 2016, and
would expire in four years.
Besides NOLC, the Portland gas
tax ballot measure is backed by Port-
land Fire Fighters Association, Pro-
fessional & Technical Employees
Local 17 (formerly COPPEA), AF-
SCME Local 189, Portland Associa-
tion of Teachers, and all five mem-
bers of Portland City Council.
Ironically, the union that would be
most directly affected is staying neu-
tral. Laborers Local 483 represents
PBOT workers who do the work of
repaving and filling potholes. The
union’s political action committee
contributed $500 to the measure, but
the union itself remained neutral. Lo-
cal 483 Business Manager Wesley
Bucholz said the measure does too
little to solve the problem, and union
members are still cooling off after
years of conflict with city managers.
ONE POTHOLE DOWN, AND
7,500 MORE TO GO At left, Steve
Novick, the City Commissioner in
charge of the Portland Bureau of
Transportation (PBOT), helps a
street maintenance crew fill a pot-
hole at NW 12th and Everett April
19. Behind him (from left) are Jeff
Peterson, Cory Long, Billy Spires,
and Mark Bartholomew, members
of Laborers Local 483 (and manager
Suzanne Kahn directly behind).
PBOT crews have filled over 7,500
potholes in the last year.
Verizon gives striking CWA-IBEW members ‘last, best, and final’ offer
Verizon has given 39,000 striking workers what the company
says is its final offer on a new labor contract. Workers — mem-
bers of Communications Workers of America and the Interna-
tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in nine Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic states, plus Washington, D.C. —struck on April 13
after 10 months of bargaining. The previous contract expired on
Aug. 1, 2015.
The highly profitable telecom is demanding cuts in health care
insurance and the unlimited right to offshore call center jobs, and
is offering only small raises over a five-year pact.
“Verizon is becoming the poster child for everything people
in this country are angry about,” said CWA District 2-13 Vice
President Edward Mooney. “This very profitable company wants
to push people down. And it wants to push communities down
by not fully repairing the (wire) network and by not building
out FiOS.”
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam was paid $18 million last year,
more than 200 times the compensation of the average Verizon
employee, the unions pointed out. The company’s top five exec-
utives made $233 million over the last five years. And last year
alone, Verizon paid out $13.5 billion in dividends and stock buy-
backs to shareholders. “But they claim they can’t afford a fair
contract,” Mooney said.
IBEW’s Myles Calvey told Workers Independent News that
Verizon barely moved from its hardline concessions position.
CWA said it plans to spread picketing to Verizon wireless
stores across the country.
(Editor’s Note: Press Associates Inc. contributed to this report.)
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