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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 2016)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | December 16 , 2016 | PAGE 5 How to buy union ...Union stand at Standing Rock this holiday season From Page 1 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. tionwide. Roben White — a retired union painter and former presi- dent of Painters Local 10 — is one of them. White is of mixed Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne an- cestry on his father’s side, and he’s an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota tribe at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He’s also a staunch unionist who says he was pained to see unions take a stand he disagrees with. The Standing Rock Sioux ob- ject to the pipeline chiefly be- cause of the potential risk to their water supply. When com- plete, the Dakota Access Pipeline would pump 470,000 barrels a day of light crude oil through a 30-inch-wide, 1,172- mile-long pipeline from the Bakken Oil Fields of northwest- ern North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to refining fa- cilities in Illinois. The pipeline’s route was originally supposed to cross the Missouri River just up- stream from Bismarck, North Dakota, but because of concerns that an oil spill could wreck the city’s water supply, the route was changed to cross just up- stream from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The pipeline would cross half a mile north of Roben White, a retired union painter and for- mer president of Port- land-headquartered Painters Local 10, is also a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe. “These are peaceful, prayerful peo- ple,” he said of the Standing Rock protest. the reservation, 92 feet under- neath the Standing Rock Sioux water supply — Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a Missouri River dam. To protest that course, in April, members of the tribe es- tablished a “spiritual camp” on Army Corps of Engineers land along the banks of the Missouri river. By August, it had become the largest gathering of Native American tribes in more than a century. With protesters attempt- ing to stop construction, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple declared a state of emergency Aug. 19. Private security con- tractors, joined by police rein- forcements from six states, de- ployed in armored personnel carriers, and used rubber bullets, tear gas grenades, pepper spray, and sound cannons against un- armed protesters. On Sept. 3, se- Local 14, Spokane, WA. curity guards attacked nonvio- lent protesters with pepper mace and dogs. Then on Sept. 9, Department of Justice, Department of the In- terior and Department of the Army asked that the pipeline company voluntarily halt con- struction within 20 miles of Lake Oahe, after a federal judge denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request for a temporary injunction. Shortly after that, national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka weighed in with an of- ficial statement on the pipeline: “The AFL-CIO supports pipeline construction as part of a comprehensive energy pol- icy,” he declared Sept. 15. “Pipeline construction and maintenance provides quality Turn to Page 10 Local 751, Anchorage, AK. Local 29, Portland, OR. Local 506, Seattle, WA. Local 86 Seattle, WA. Local 516, Portland, OR. We Wish All The Working Men, Women and Their Families Joy and Happiness This Holiday Season and a Very Special New Year The Pacific Northwest Iron Workers District Council and its Affiliated Local Unions
