SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 118, NUMBER 3
IN THIS ISSUE
LABOR’S COMMUNITY SERVICE AGENCY Eryn Byram
tapped as new executive director. | Page 2
AMUSEMENT TRADES Rose Etta Venetucci first
woman to be elected business rep at IATSE #28 | Page 5
Meeting notices p.4
Union membership declines p.6
PORTLAND, OREGON
FEBRUARY 3, 2017
Trump withdraws
U.S. from TPP, will
re-open NAFTA
Unity march
draws 500
The agenda being outlined by
newly-elected President Donald
Trump worries the ranks of
workers, women, unions, people
of color, and other minorities; so
much so that more than 500 peo-
ple gathered at Shemanski Park
in Portland Jan. 21 for the
“United Front Against the Trump
Agenda” rally and march.
Union members and labor or-
ganizations made up a large por-
tion of the crowd, but partici-
pants also included a wide range
of community and faith-based
groups such as Augustana
Lutheran Church and the Com-
munity Alliance of Tenants.
“Now is the time for a labor-
led mass mobilization to give our
members and other workers the
confidence and determination to
unite and fight back,” said rally
organizer Jamie Partridge.
Rallygoers marched eight
blocks to Waterfront Park, where
they joined nearly 100,000 peo-
ple at the Portland Women’s
March.
“Solidarity has never been
more important,” said Shannon
Walker, president of the SW
Washington Labor Council.
About 500 people at a union-
backed unity rally parade down
Salmon St. en route to Waterfront
Park to join the Portland Women’s
March. Participants included mem-
bers of construction trade unions
(below) and the Portland Associa-
tion of Teachers (right).
TriMet bargaining off to a rough start once again
TriMet and Amalgamated Tran-
sit Union (ATU) Local 757 be-
gan negotiations Jan. 9 over a
new contract that covers 2,400
employees and about 1,200 re-
tirees. If the past is any guide,
bargaining will be contentious.
Last May, TriMet proposed to
extend the existing contract for
two years, adding 3 percent an-
nual wage increases. After con-
ferring with members, Local
757 leaders declined the offer.
Members may have soured
on several contract concessions
they agreed to in 2014. Bruce
Hansen, who led those negotia-
tions, lost re-election as union
president the following year,
and Shirley Block, Local 757’s
new president, has said the
union gave away too much to
TriMet. Union health insurance
concessions were slated to save
TriMet $50 million over two
years. The contract increased
workers’ share of the insurance
premium, and ended the prom-
ise of fully-paid retiree health
insurance for new hires.
In bargaining, Local 757 is
proposing to rescind the in-
crease in the workers’ share of
the premium, and restore the
former retiree health insurance
benefits. TriMet meanwhile
wants further concessions, in-
cluding greater latitude to hire
from the outside. Right now,
part-time bus operators get dibs
when new full-time operator po-
sitions become available. Block
said most part-time operators
joined TriMet with the expecta-
tion and promise that they’d
later get an opportunity to be-
come full-time, so the idea that
TriMet would pass them over
and hire full-timers off the street
would be a betrayal.
“We’re not going to roll
over,” Block told the Labor
Press. “We’re going to fight
them all the way.”
Public transit workers are
barred from striking, under a
state law the union advocated
for in 2007. Instead, like fire-
fighters and police officers, pub-
lic transit workers enter binding
arbitration if union and manage-
ment can’t reach agreement af-
ter 150 days of bargaining. Be-
cause bargaining started on Jan.
9, the two sides will have to
continue until at least June 8, at
which point either side could
initiate binding arbitration.
The way it works in Oregon,
if the contract is decided by
binding arbitration, the arbitra-
tor can’t split the difference, but
must pick one side’s offer,
whichever he or she considers
most reasonable. That’s how the
2010-2014 contract was settled:
The arbitrator judged that exist-
ing union health benefits were
too generous, and picked
TriMet’s proposal in its entirety.
The current contract expired
Nov. 30, 2016, but its terms will
remain in force until a new con-
tract replaces it. The contract
covers bus and rail operators,
mechanics, trainers, mainte-
nance workers, dispatchers, and
customer service representa-
tives.
The two sides will next meet
to negotiate on Feb. 16.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI)—
Quickly carrying out two cam-
paign promises that brought him
key votes from unionists in the
industrial states around the Great
Lakes, President Donald Trump
formally withdrew the U.S. from
the labor-opposed Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) free trade
agreement, and said he will re-
open the 23-year-old North
American Free Trade Agree-
ment with Canada and Mexico.
The AFL-CIO cheered the
announcement. Member unions
had stitched together a wide
coalition of community, worker,
religious, civil rights, and civic
groups to oppose the trade pact
with 11 Pacific Rim nations. As
a result of their pressure, former
President Barack Obama said
following the Nov. 8 election
that he would not submit the
TPP to Congress.
But he still left its ultimate
fate up to Trump, who on Jan.
23 signed an executive order
ending U.S. participation in the
pact. Trump promised to nego-
tiate more pro-U.S. bilateral
trade pacts with the TPP nations.
“The U.S. withdrawing from
TPP and seeking a reopening of
NAFTA is an important first
step toward a trade policy that
works for working people,” said
national AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka. “While these
are necessary actions, they
aren’t enough. They are just the
first in a series of necessary pol-
icy changes required to build a
fair and just global economy.”
The AFL-CIO and its con-
gressional allies have introduced
principles that every future trade
pact must cover. They include
enforceable worker rights, pro-
tection of Buy American provi-
sions, bans on using trade pacts
to undercut new U.S. “green”
manufacturing, and making cur-
rency manipulation a violation
of trade law. They also include
abolition of a secret pro-corpo-
rate trade court — the Investor-
State Dispute System, which is
part of TPP and NAFTA.