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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 2016)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST IN THIS ISSUE LABOR PRESS VOLUME 117, NUMBER 24 HIGH-STAKES LEGISLATIVE SESSION AHEAD Oregon labor gears up for big battles in 2017. | Page 6 BOEING TERMINATES UNION PAINT CONTRACTOR The group of 147 voted to join Machinists in July. | Page 7 Proud to fly union p.2 Meeting notices p.12 PORTLAND, OREGON DECEMBER 16, 2016 Bait and switch: Trump’s Carrier deal The man who put his byline on the Art of the Deal pulls a fast one in Indiana as tough talk turns to tax giveaways By Don McIntosh “You’re going to pay a damn tax when you leave this coun- try.” That’s what presidential candidate Donald Trump said about the Carrier firm at an April 2016 rally — after Car- rier announced plans to close its Indianapolis factory and move production to Mexico. Union manufacturing work- ers have waited a very long time to hear those words from a presidential candidate. More than 5 million U.S. manufac- turing jobs have been lost since At the Standing Rock protest encampment: Isaiah Barnes of the Sioux nation, and Jamison Roberts and Steve Hunt of Vancouver ILWU Local 4. Unions stand at Standing Rock The standoff at North Dakota’s cause it’s a big source of union NAFTA’s passage. The 1,400 Carrier workers, members of United Steelworkers Local 1999, were to be next. Trump, like most other Americans, learned of the planned closure after Carrier employee LaKeisha Austin posted a video of a Feb. 10 Turn to Page 9 Standing Rock Sioux Reserva- tion — with Indian tribes and supporters on one side, and po- lice and private security for the Dakota Access Pipeline on the other – also finds labor union members on both sides. North America’s Building Trades Unions and the AFL- CIO have come out in favor of the project moving forward, be- jobs. But other labor organiza- tions have declared support for pipeline protesters, and in Ore- gon and Washington, a number of union members have traveled to Standing Rock to take part in the massive protest encamp- ment — a nonviolent uprising that has united Indian tribes na- Turn to Page 5 WORKERS RIGHTS Instafab settles charges, offers strikers backpay/reinstatement Despite that, the strike by a minority of workers continues. Making spirits bright Norman Sylvester and Friends entertained several hundred chil- dren, parents, and grandparents Dec. 3 at a holiday party hosted by the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Counties Labor Chapter. The event, funded by local unions and unionized businesses, is in its 76th year. The party is held at the historic Elsinore Theatre in down- town Salem. This year, children sang holiday songs with Sylvester, a member of Musicians Local 99, watched a movie, and met Mr. and Mrs. Claus (played by Jack Rusen of Albany Steelworkers Local 6163 and his wife, right). After, everyone re- ceived a bag filled with union-made products purchased at unionized Fred Meyer. Above, program emcee Jeff Anderson of UFCW Local 555 greets families outside the theatre . By Don McIntosh A strike by a group of ironwork- ers at nonunion Instafab is still under way 21 months after it be- gan. Instafab, based in Vancou- ver, Washington, fabricates and installs structural and architec- tural steel. The strike began Feb. 27, 2015, after company manage- ment refused to consider a list of demands five installation work- ers presented, including water and dry shacks on every job, safety training, company-paid medical and retirement benefits, and area standard wages. Instafab responded by termi- nating the strikers, which is ille- gal under U.S. labor law. Other installers and fabrication shop employers later joined the strike, eventually bringing the number of strikers to about 20 in a work- Instafab striker Will Russell holds up a check for backpay, part of a settle- ment approved Nov. 4 by the Na- tional Labor Relations Board. force of about 75. The group also sought guidance from Iron Workers Local 29 and Iron Workers Shopmen’s Local 516. On Nov. 4, 2016, the National Labor Relations Board approved a voluntary settlement of charges that Instafab violated federal la- bor law when it fired the initial Turn to Page 20
