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May 6, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Get your disability
Jordan Vaandering and Luis Brennan are part of a group of Burgerville em-
ployees who want a union.
Burgers, fries, and a union?
On April 26, about 100 union
supporters marched to the Burg-
erville at SE 26th and Powell in
Portland. Simultaneously, a del-
egation of five Burgerville work-
ers — accompanied by union or-
ganizers from the Painters Union
and UNITE HERE — entered
Burgerville’s corporate head-
quarters in Vancouver to present
a letter announcing the forma-
tion of the Burgerville Workers
Union. The 41-store regional
chain, privately held by The
Holland Inc., has so far failed to
respond.
The union is affiliated with
the Portland chapter of Industrial
Workers of the World. It seeks a
Oregon Shakespeare
Festival drags out
union bargaining
A group of 65 stagehands at Ore-
gon Shakespeare Festival (OSF)
in Ashland voted to join
the International Alliance of The-
atrical Stage Employees
(IATSE) last June, but 11 months
later, they still don’t have a first
contract. Union and manage-
ment bargaining teams have
been negotiating since Septem-
ber 2015 and have yet to agree
on any economic terms.
OSF has hired former Na-
tional Labor Relations Board
agent Bill Leopardi, now a Cali-
fornia union-busting consultant,
to help communicate with its
workers. But they can make up
their own minds: Bargaining is
open to all employees. As a re-
sult, says IATSE Rep David
Bateman, more stagehands sup-
port the union now than when
the 37-to-25 vote took place.
OSF is represented at the bar-
gaining table by attorney Rick
Liebman, while IATSE is as-
sisted by attorney Liz Joffe.
They’ve been assisted by a fed-
eral mediator since April 11, and
they next meet May 9.
$5 an hour raise for workers in
all 41 stores.
“They promote themselves as
a good employer, and I would
say it’s better than McDonald’s,”
says Luis Brennan, cashier at
Burgerville’s airport location.
“But that doesn’t mean it’s
enough for us to build a life on.”
Currently wages are at or near
minimum wage. Full-time em-
ployees get health insurance, but
it comes with a high deductible.
FIND OUT MORE
At BurgervilleWorkersUnion.org, you
can find out how to help, and watch a
video of workers explaining in their
own words why they want a union.
application done
right, right from
the beginning.
We help folks
from the start.
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