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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 17, 2016)
PAGE 2 | June 17, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Cheri Rice Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $13.75 per year for union members, $20 a year for all others. Send a check for that amount, indicating mailing address and union affilia- tion, to P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213. For 25 or more subscriptions, group rates of $9.60 a year per person are available to trade union organizations. Call 503-288-3311 for de- tails. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When or- dering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 UNION ORGANIZING PEOPLE At McMinnville recycled rubber factory, workers unionize South Florida labor leader Sher- man Henry will join the faculty of the Labor Education and Research C e n t e r (LERC) at the Univer- sity of Ore- gon this September. Formerly a c u s t o d i a n Sherman Henry and rank- and-file union activist at Miami- Dade Public Schools, Henry be- came president of AFSCME Local 1184 in 1995. Local 1184 represents 9,000 school district support workers, including bus drivers, maintenance and food service, at the nation’s fourth- largest school system. Henry led the union for 21 years as full- time executive director, negoti- ating and administering con- tracts. Henry was also treasurer and later co-chair of South Florida Jobs with Justice. He has a bachelor’s degree from the AFL-CIO-affiliated National Labor College, and a master’s in adult education from Florida In- ternational University, where he also taught in the Center for La- bor Research and Studies from 2011 to 2015. He is currently A group of 61 workers at a rub- ber recycling factory in McMinnville has voted to join the United Steelworkers (USW). Ultimate RB, a sub- sidiary of St. Louis-based Ac- cella Performance Materials, turns recycled rubber into prod- ucts like high-density rubber mats used in truck beds and horse stalls, rubber flooring for athletic facilities and play- grounds, and ballistic tiles used in shooting ranges. Hourly wages there are low by union standards, says USW staff representative Jim Kilborn — around $12.50 for produc- tion workers, and about $22 for experienced machine mainte- nance workers. Workers would like better wages and benefits, Kilborn said, but a bigger factor in the decision to unionize was just having a voice in work- place — to be able to impact decisions that affect them, like whether they have to work on Saturdays, or a fair process for determining who works over- time. The campaign began with a phone call to the union by one of the workers. Soon a commit- tee formed, and they gathered signed union authorization cards. On April 24, the union asked the National Labor Rela- tions Board to hold an election, and one was scheduled for May 19. Kilborn says that appeared to take the company by sur- prise. It mounted a conventional anti-union campaign with workplace anti-union meetings led by managers. But Kilborn said by then workers had al- ready been inoculated against anti-union talking points: “The committee knew exactly what the employer was going to tell them.” The vote was 34 to 23 for the union. The bargaining unit will consist of production, mainte- nance, and shipping and receiv- ing employees, but 30 to 40 temp workers who work there won’t be in the union. Kilborn said members should be ready to begin contract negotiations in July, after selecting a committee of three workers who will be as- sisted by USW staff members. pursuing a doctorate from Grand Canyon University. He’ll work out of LERC’s Portland campus at the UO White Stag building. Longtime labor educator Helen Moss, 58, is retiring at the end of June. Moss has been with the Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) at the Univer- sity of Ore- gon since 1999 — mostly train- ing union stewards and officers in the nuts and bolts of con- tract negotia- tions and Helen Moss grievance handling, but also contributing to research about workplace safety. Prior to LERC, Moss spent two decades working for labor unions as a union rep, business manager, and organizer, starting in 1978 at the United Farm Workers in La Paz, California. She worked for the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local 86 in Reno; for SEIU at Local 706 (Texas), Local 790 (San Francisco), and Local 503 (Oregon); and finally at Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals. First Student Corvallis bus drivers stay union A group of 72 bus drivers at First Student Corvallis is stick- ing to the union. First Student runs both school bus and city bus service in Corvallis, and its drivers are represented by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757. Some drivers wanted to go nonunion, but in a June 6 election, the vote was 41 to 21 in favor of remaining union-rep- resented. “We were disappointed that there was a petition for decerti- fication,” said Local 757 Finan- cial Secretary-Treasurer Mary Longoria, “but we are proud of the people who stepped up and understand the importance of having a union.” Local 757 was in the middle of negotiating a new contract for the unit, but those talks paused in the lead-up to the vote. Lon- goria said she expects negotia- tions to resume now that it’s set- tled that workers want to remain union.
