SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 118, NUMBER 4
IN THIS ISSUE
CEMENT MASONS LOCAL 555 Business Manager Brett
Hinsley called up by International Union | Page 3
TEAMSTERS MOURN LEHRBACH Longtime political
director Lynn Lehrbach dies at age 79. | Page 5
Meeting Notices p. 4
Who’s On Our Side? p. 6
PORTLAND, OREGON
FEBRUARY 17, 2017
Another ‘right-to-work’ state
Missouri follows close on the
heels of Kentucky, and a right-
to-work bill in Congress would
bar any requirement to pay
union dues nationwide
Repainting temporarily halted under Portland’s Ross Island Bridge after a 40’ fall put two workers in the hospital.
UNDER
THE
BRIDGE
Investigating a low-bid nonunion contractor, a union finds problems aplenty
By Don McIntosh
Under the Ross Island Bridge
on Feb. 8, a painter working for
nonunion Abhe & Svoboda
plummeted 40 feet and landed
on a co-worker, his own son,
putting both in the hospital with
serious injuries. Oregon-OSHA
is investigating the accident and
will produce a report in the next
six months. But co-worker
Omar Rubi says he has a pretty
good idea what happened.
Near an over-large ladder
hole on the highest level of
scaffolding, a loose metal plate
had become a trip hazard, Rubi
says — and Abhe & Svoboda
employees were routinely fail-
ing to use fall protection. Work-
ers at heights are supposed to
wear harnesses and tie them to
lines attached to scaffolding
supports, but Rubi says that of-
ten wasn’t happening.
In fact, the day before the ac-
cident, Rubi told co-workers
they have the right under fed-
eral law to speak up about
safety or other concerns. Soon
after, a company safety inspec-
tor said he’d be writing Rubi up
for not attaching his harness to
a line. Rubi felt he’d been sin-
gled out for speaking up, and
took pictures of his foremen
and third-party inspectors not
wearing harnesses. At the end
of his shift, he was told not to
come in the next day, despite
having worked on the project
five days a week since July 16,
2016.
An important thing to know
about Rubi: He’s a union “salt.”
With the stroke of a governor’s
pen on Feb. 6, Missouri became
the 28th “right-to-work” state.
Right-to-work legislation passed
in Missouri just weeks after
Kentucky passed a right-to-work
law.
Right-to-work is the rather
misleading term for a law in-
tended to keep unions weak and
poorly funded — by barring any
union contract that requires
workers to pay union dues or
fees.
New Hampshire might be the
next right-to-work state: The
state Senate passed a right-to-
work bill Jan. 19, and the state
House was scheduled to vote on
it on Feb. 16, (after this issue
Eric Greitens, the newly-elected Re-
publican governor of Missouri, cam-
paigned on right-to-work. On Feb. 6,
he signed the anti-union measure
into law, above.
went to press). A right-to-work
bill passed the New Hampshire
Legislature once before, in
Turn to Page 8
Turn to Page 2
Poll shows a surge in support, especially among
the young
According to a Jan. 4-9 poll, 60
percent of the American public
has a favorable opinion of labor
unions, while 35 percent have an
unfavorable opinion. That’s the
second highest level of support
ever found for unions in this par-
ticular survey, which has been
conducted off-and-on since 1985, sponsored by
the Pew Research Center. It’s also a big jump in
union support since March 2015, the last time
the survey was conducted, when 48 percent
were favorable toward unions and 39 percent
unfavorable.
The survey was conducted by telephone Jan.
4-9 among a national sample of 1,502 adults.
Results were also broken down by age, party af-
filiation, education, and income.
Young people were far more likely than older
adults to view labor unions favor-
ably: Three-quarters of those aged
18 to 29 say they have a favorable
opinion of labor unions, while
only 53 percent of those 50 and
older do.
The survey also found that 76
percent of Democrats hold a favor-
able view of unions, compared to
44 percent of Republicans. But even among Re-
publicans, the young were more likely to have a
favorable view of labor unions: 55 percent of un-
der-30 Republicans looked favorably on unions,
compared to 32 percent of those 50 and older.
Meanwhile, 49 percent Republicans without a
college degree favored unions, compared to 28
percent of college-educated Republicans.
Photo by David Groves
Are unions becoming more popular?
Nicole Grant, executive secretary of the M.L. King County Labor Council
in Seattle, leads a chant Feb. 9 at the State Capitol in Olympia protesting
a bill introduced by Republican lawmakers to make Washington a “right-
to-work” state. More than 1,000 union members and supporters swarmed
the Capitol to voice their objection to the anti-union legislation. A hearing
and overflow rooms set up to accommodate the crowd filled quickly, so hun-
dreds protested in different buildings and outside in the rain.