NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | December 2, 2016 | PAGE 3
How to buy union UNION-SHIPPED
this holiday season
Sending cards and packages? Ship it union with USPS and UPS, and don’t patronize antiunion FedEx
Plan to buy any gifts this year? If you buy union, you’re helping
keep good jobs in the community, and voting with your dollars
for enterprises that pay your fellow workers a living wage with
benefits. Of course, union-made can be hard to find these days.
Here are some ideas to make it easier.
UNION-MADE
Blankets: Give the gift of warmth with a
blanket from Pendleton Woolen
Mills. Pendleton blankets (but not
apparel) are made in Washougal,
Washington, and Pendleton, Oregon. You
can see how they’re made with free tours
at both locations, where members of the
Workers United union earn wages of
$15.42 to $17.73 an hour, plus overtime
after eight hours, and health and pension
benefits.
Boots: Danner today is a subsidiary of
Japanese shoe company ABC-Mart, but
still makes about half of its products at its
Northeast Portland factory, where workers
are represented by UFCW Local 555.
Check the label: If the boots are U.S.-
made, they were made here with union
labor.
Kitchenware: Foreign imports may fill
the shelves, but union-made in America is
still a mark of quality for several brands.
U.S.-made Pyrex glassware and All-
Clad Stainless Steel Cookware are made
by United Steelworkers members in
Pennsylvania. Cutco cutlery is made by
union Steelworkers in New York. And U.S.-
made Fiesta brand dinnerware is made
in West Virginia by members of the Glass,
Molders, Pottery, Plastic and Allied
Workers union.
Culture: Oregon Ballet Theater, the
Portland Opera, the Oregon
Symphony: All of them employ
members of American Federation of
Musicians Local 99, IATSE Local 28 crews,
and IATSE Local B-20 members, who
work as ushers, ticket takers and elevator
operators. The biggest employer of union
musicians is the Oregon Symphony, with
76 full-timers. Session players earn $200
per two-hour appearance, plus pension
and healthcare contributions.
Chocolate: Ghirardelli chocolates and
See’s Candies gift boxes are made in
California by members of Bakery,
Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers.
Wine: Unions are rare in the wine
industry, but Washington’s award-
winning Chateau Ste. Michelle is an
exception. It employs members of United
Farm Workers in its vineyards, and
members of Teamsters Local 117 in the
barrel room, warehouse, production,
shipping and maintenance departments
at its Woodinville facility. Company labels
include Columbia Crest, Chateau
Ste. Michelle wines, Domaine Ste.
Michelle, and Snoqualmie, and
others.
UNION-SOLD
Shop Fred Meyer and Powell’s, not Walmart, Target and Amazon
NO, THANK YOU: Out of 5,300 Walmart stores in the United States, guess how many
are unionized? Not one. That’s no accident. Walmart is one of the most ferociously anti-
union companies in the world. When Walmart workers in Jonquiere, Quebec, voted in
2004 to unionize, the company closed the store. It also closed a store in Pico Rivera,
California, in 2015 after many workers there took part in a strike. Target is hardly better:
None of its 1,800 U.S. stores is union either, though nine pharmacy workers at a Brooklyn,
NY store did unionize in 2015. At least Walmart and Target have stores; Amazon has
only warehouses, and its 270,000 employees toil nonunion in conditions that have
shocked the public in several widely shared exposés.
YES, PLEASE: When you buy at Fred Meyer, Portland’s only unionized general retailer,
the money you spend will employ members of UFCW Local 555 (and Bakers Local 114,
at Fred Meyer bakery departments). Or keep it simple and get a Fred Meyer gift card. And
why shop at Amazon when you could buy books and gifts at Powell’s Books and
support about 450 Portland-area members of ILWU Local 5, from cashiers to truck drivers
to computer programmers. Powells pays wages that average over $14 an hour, and
provides health benefits for full-time employees. And if you shop online through
ilwulocal5.com, 7.5% of your purchase goes to the union strike fund.
U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is a
publicly-owned employer that provides
nearly half a million career union jobs with
benefits in every community in America.
UPS is the single largest employer in the
Teamsters Union, with about 250,000
union-represented employees.
Not FedEx. FedEx has a history of resisting
unionization. It didn’t even recognize most
of its workers as employees until a few
years ago. Since 2015, it has agreed to pay
$468 million to settle federal class action
lawsuits covering 14,000 FedEx Ground
drivers in 21 states. The suits, dating back
as far as 2000, were filed because FedEx
illegally misclassified its drivers as
independent contractors to avoid paying
payroll taxes, benefits, meal and rest
breaks, and overtime, and to shift the costs
of fuel, maintenance, insurance, and FedEx
branded trucks, uniforms, and scanners to
workers. In 2011 it ended that practice;
now it contracts with other businesses to
employ its drivers. FedEx Freight began its
first-ever union bargaining this year with
two small groups of workers in
Philadelphia and Charlotte, after the
company exhausted all its legal appeals in
the courts and was ordered to sit down
with the union.