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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 2016)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 117, NUMBER 21 IN THIS ISSUE UNION BALLOT GUIDE In Oregon and Washington, union members can make the difference. | Page 9 HOW TO FLY UNION Seven airlines account for 80% of miles flown. Know which ones respect workers? | Page 3 Meeting notices p.6 Burgerville union? p.10 PORTLAND, OREGON NOVEMBER 4, 2016 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING Big night Daimler unions ratify new contract at Portland truck plant Photo courtesy of Yes on 97 campaign. In the Northwest and around the country, working people have a lot at stake on Election Night Raising or lowering taxes on the rich, boosting or busting unions, increasing the minimum wage — it’s all on the ballot Nov. 8 in the Northwest and around the country. In Oregon, the game-changer is Measure 97, a union-spon- sored initiative that would raise BALLOT MEASURE 97: If it passes, $3 billion a year will go to schools, health $3 billion a year for schools, care and senior services. If it fails, Oregon will continue to have the lowest health care and senior services corporate tax rates in the nation, and budget cuts will loom in 2017-18. with a 2.5 percent corporate tax touched. Big business has now ELECTION NIGHT COVERAGE on in-state gross receipts of over contributed $25 million to defeat For worker-focused results as they $25 million. The tax would af- it, while labor has spent $13 mil- come in, follow us on Election Night at fect only the top quarter percent lion to pass it, making it the most nwlaborpress.org/2016Election or on of corporations, and leave small expensive ballot fight in Oregon Twitter or Facebook at @nwlaborpress business and consumers un- Turn to Page 4 BATTLE FOR DISTRICT 17 Tim Probst, left, heads out to knock on doors Oct. 29 with union volunteers from Laborers Local 335 in Vancouver — member Wayne Dotson and local President Shannon Stull. The Tim Probst–Lynda Wilson race for the open Senate District 17 (Vancouver east of I-205) seat is one of the hardest-fought races in Washington this year. Probst is a former two-term state rep who earned an 84 percent rating from the state AFL-CIO. Wilson is co- owner of a nonunion cabinet fac- tory and a two-term state rep with a 14 percent AFL-CIO rating. She has close ties to the anti- union Freedom Foundation. La- bor is all in: Probst lost Senate VOTE! District 17 by 78 votes in 2012 to incumbent Don Benton. Benton is not seeking re-election. A win this year could return the state Senate to Democratic control, breaking a four-year-long logjam on pro-worker legislation. The five-year deal raises wages $3.25 an hour for 500 workers. By Don McIntosh Workers at Daimler’s Portland truck plant ratified new five- year union contracts Oct. 29 by overwhelming margins, with some union members calling it the best company contract offer in many years. “Members were looking for job security, a general wage in- crease, and containment of health care costs, and we got all those things,” said lead negotia- tor Joe Kear of Machinists Dis- trict Lodge W24. Machinists Lodge 1005 is the largest of four unions at the plant, and bargains jointly with Teamsters Local 305, Sign Painters & Paint Mak- ers Local 1094, and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 49. With all four contracts expir- ing Oct. 29, the two sides bar- gained late the night before at the Riverplace Residence Inn in downtown Portland, and reached agreement at 1:30 in the morning. Daimler negotiators initially wanted to increase mandatory overtime and elimi- nate double time pay for Satur- day work. But in the end they backed off those and other con- cessionary demands, and reached agreement on what Kear described as a very good offer. The new contracts provide across-the-board hourly wage increases that total $3.25 an hour, starting with a 90-cent in- crease on Nov. 20, followed by annual increases taking place each Oct. 29: 50 cents in 2017 and 2018; 65 cents in 2019; and 70 cents in 2010. OREGON: Ballots may be returned by mail or at any official drop site, but must be received by 8 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 8. Postmarks do not count. Union-made Western Star trucks are made by Daimler Trucks North America in Portland, Oregon, and Cleveland, North Carolina. The West- ern Star brand includes heavy-duty vehicles like dump trucks, cement mixers and tow trucks; specialized off-road vehicles for mining and other applications; and high-end ex- tra-durable over-the-road trucks. That means for a production assembly worker with five years of experience — the most com- mon Machinist union classifica- tion — wages will rise from $24.80 an hour currently to $28.05 by the end of the con- tract. The new contracts run through Oct. 29, 2021. The new contracts contain a modest increase to employees’ monthly contribution toward health insurance premiums, but then holds the line on that amount for the duration of the contracts, regardless of how much overall premiums rise dur- ing that time. Employees will pay $65 for employee-only cov- erage (up from $50 currently), $130 for employee plus one de- pendent (up from $110), and $195 a month for employee plus two or more dependents (up from $175.) Employees choose between company-sponsored Kaiser Permanente and Blue Cross plans (except for Team- sters members, who get equiva- lent health insurance through a Turn to Page 8 WASHINGTON: Ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday, Nov. 8, or dropped in a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8.
