SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 118, NUMBER 2
IN THIS ISSUE
LABOR’S COMMUNITY SERVICE AGENCY Executive
Director Vickie Burns retires | Page 2
SEA OF RED Corporate conservatives plot their course in
many of the nation’s state capitals. | Page 5
ObamaCare defense rally p. 3
Meeting Notices p. 4
PORTLAND, OREGON
JANUARY 20, 2017
Staples boycott ends with union win
THE
OBAMA
YEARS
Obama ignored labor on trade
and healthcare, and pro-worker
reforms came mostly too late
Photo by Jamie Partridge
Postal unions declared victory
this month when the United
States Post Office notified the
American Postal Workers
Union (APWU) that the “Ap-
proved Shipper” program at
roughly 500 Staples stores will
be shut down by the end of
February 2017. Late in 2013,
USPS set up post offices
staffed by Staples employees in
82 Staples stores — a move
postal unions called a first step
in privatizing the Post Office.
APWU launched a Stop Sta-
ples campaign, staging protests
at Staples stores throughout the
country. The demonstrations
were followed by a national
Staples boycott. That pressure
resulted in USPS ending the
mini post office idea, but it did-
n’t stop it from expanding
postal services with Staples
through the already existing
“Approved Shipper” program.
The union filed unfair labor
practice complaints with the
National Labor Relations
Postal workers and supporters demonstrate against postal privatization
at a Staples store in Northeast Portland June 20, 2014.
Board (NLRB) arguing USPS
was improperly subcontracting
bargaining unit work to Sta-
ples. The NLRB agreed, and on
Jan. 4 it ordered the Postal
Service to discontinue its retail
relationship with Staples.
By Don McIntosh
As Donald Trump takes office,
some union true believers may
be tempted to look back with
rose-colored glasses on the
Obama years. Unfortunately, the
real record of his administration
shows that Barack Obama was
no great friend to labor.
American unions lost half a
million members while Obama
occupied the White House, even
as America’s workforce grew by
more than 9 million workers.
At a rally in 2007, Obama
said if American workers were
being denied their right to or-
ganize and collectively bargain,
as president he’d put on com-
fortable shoes and walk the
picket line with them. That
never happened. Obama did and
said nothing when Wisconsin
stripped 175,000 public em-
ployees of collective bargaining
rights, when Michigan and three
other states passed anti-union
right-to-work laws, or when
30,000 teachers went on strike
— against Chicago mayor
Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s for-
mer chief of staff.
Obama fought tooth and nail
for his NAFTA-style Trans-Pa-
cific trade pact (it failed), but
kept his powder dry when it
came to raising the federal min-
imum wage, still at $7.25 after
eight years of his presidency. He
never lifted a finger to help with
labor’s top priority, the game-
changing labor legislation
known as the Employee Free
Choice Act, which would have
made it easier for workers to
unionize and get a first contract.
In fact, Obama aides told labor
to cool its heels on the bill until
after Congress passed health
care legislation. By the time that
was done, Democrats had lost
their filibuster-proof Senate su-
permajority.
Turn to Page 8
Instafab hires union-buster Bob Tiernan Anti-union ‘right-to-work’
Vancouver steel fabricator In-
stafab, the target of a 23-month
strike by ironworkers, is now
paying the former head of the
Oregon Republican Party for
labor rela-
tions advice.
The adviser is
attorney Bob
Tiernan, a
former GOP
legislator
from Lake
Oswego who
now repre-
Bob Tiernan
sents compa-
nies in labor disputes.
Tiernan is a familiar name to
many union members. As a leg-
islator, he worked to cut public
employee retirement benefits in
the 1990s, and he was chief pe-
titioner on a 1994 ballot meas-
ure that would have diverted 6
percent of public employee
salaries to the pension system.
(It passed narrowly but was
struck down in court.) He
chaired the Oregon Republican
Party from 2009 to 2011.
In 2011, he was hired by
Dosha, a chain of Aveda-
branded salons, after workers
voted to unionize. Tiernan told
workers the company would act
as if the union wasn’t there, and
16 months later, the union was
no more: Communications
Workers of America Local
7901, unable to get a first union
contract, walked away.
Federally-required disclo-
sures also show that Tiernan
was paid $65,000 for advising
a successful 2011 effort to de-
certify United Food and Com-
mercial Workers Local 5 at
Berkeley Bowl, a natural foods
market in Berkeley, California.
And UFCW Local 8 blames
Tiernan for a 10-day strike in
2012 at Raley’s, a West Sacra-
mento grocery chain.
Instafab is a nonunion steel
fabrication and erection com-
pany. A handful of workers
there walked out Feb. 27, 2015,
and were later joined by others.
Strikers learned of the Tiernan
hire in a Dec. 23 text message
from company owner Bruce
Perkins in which he says the
company won’t be attempting
any further negotiations with
the strikers:
“Your group has never
shown any real interest in set-
tling anything,” Perkins wrote.
“What you seem to value is
conflict, misinformation and
negativity. We have come to re-
alize that any harm you and
your ‘backers’ can do to In-
stafab has, for the most part, al-
ready been done. We know we
can withstand whatever you
send our way. Our workforce is
unified, and we intend to keep
it that way. Our customers and
suppliers have grown numb to
your attacks and threats … We
are looking forward to a busy,
prosperous and profitable 2017,
and we wish you the same. If
you have any questions, feel
free to email myself or my Gen-
eral Counsel, Bob Tiernan …
with questions. Happy Holi-
days!”
— Don McIntosh
laws spreading quickly
Less than a week after Republi-
cans took control of the Kentucky
state House, Senate, and gover-
nor’s office, Kentucky became
the nation’s 27th right-to-work
state. Missouri is up next: right-
to-work legislation is expected to
pass there within weeks. Right-
to-work also has a chance in New
Hampshire this year.
Right-to-work is the rather
misleading term for a law that
prohibits any union contract that
requires union-represented
workers to pay union dues or
fees. It’s intended to keep unions
weak and poorly funded.
And it’s on the march. Michi-
gan and Indiana went right-to-
work in 2012, followed by Wis-
consin in 2015 and West Virginia
in 2016.
That’s not all: On Nov. 18,
2016, the Sixth Circuit Court of
Appeals issued a ruling that
could allow county govern-
ments in Ohio to pass local
right-to-work ordinances. And
several dozen test cases are now
in federal courts that challenge
the Supreme Court’s 1977
Abood ruling, which allows
public employee union contracts
to require represented workers
to pay, if not union dues, then at
least their “fair share” of the
costs of representation. If and
when a Trump nominee makes
it to the U.S. Supreme Court, the
court would likely have a 5-4
majority to overturn Abood,
making America right-to-work
nationwide for all public em-
ployees.
UNDERSTANDING RIGHT TO WORK
In coming issues of the Northwest La-
bor Press, we’ll take a look at what it
means when right-to-work takes ef-
fect – and how that changes unions.