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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2017)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | February 17, 2017 | PAGE 5 Construction union leaders cheer Trump’s pro-pipeline executive orders HANDS OFF OUR HEALTH CARE!: Shannon Walker (right), executive sec- retary of the Southwest Washington Labor Council, Judy Kuschel, (left) vice president of the Washington Federation of State Employees/AF- SCME Council 28, and Elizabeth Uelmen, a former member of the Wash- ington Education Association, joined with a hundred others Feb. 7 at the Vancouver office of U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler for a rally to pro- tect the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. The healt care sys- tem is on shaky ground following the election of Donald Trump as pres- ident, and the middle-of-the-night confirmation of U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia) as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Price was con- firmed at 2:11 a.m. Feb. 10 on a party line vote. Republicans now are looking to Price to carry out their plans to repeal and replace the Afford- able Care Act (ACA or Obamacare), and to gut Medicare. Price is an ar- chitect of Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisconsin) plan that calls for raising Medicare’s eligibility age to 67 and replacing guaranteed benefits with a voucher program. Raising the eligibility age will deny 5 million seniors insurance beginning in 2020. Vouchers will put the healthcare of the nation’s retirees at great risk by leaving them to profit-driven insurance companies and healthcare providers. Congress is expected to move on Medicare cuts by mid-year 2017, and the clock is ticking on repeal of the ACA. Airline pilots, carriers, complain to Trump about Norwegian Air WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — The nation’s largest airlines and their unionized pilots want Pres- ident Donald Trump to reverse an Obama Administration ruling and ban low-cost, low-standard “flag-of-convenience” Norwe- gian Air International (NAI) from flying in U.S. airspace. They took that argument to a White House meeting with Trump on Feb. 9. The Air Line Pilots Associa- tion (ALPA) and other airline unions have waged a long cam- paign to keep NAI from flying in the United States. They say NAI evades U.S. and European air transport treaties and labor standards by hiring low-paid workers from Singapore and Thailand, and allow them to fly under lax labor laws and inspec- tion rules from other nations. Over time, ALPA says, more “flag of convenience” carriers will destroy the industry, similar to what happened in the mar- itime industry. Overturning NAI’s flying per- mit and actions to stop Middle Eastern countries from subsidiz- ing their airlines would send a strong signal to U.S. aviation workers that the Trump Admin- istration is committed to putting America first, said ALPA Presi- dent Tim Canoll, a captain at Delta Airlines. Besides the White House meeting, ALPA has launched an online campaign to get Trump to reverse the Obama Administra- tion ruling that allows NAI to fly in the United States. It’s also lobbying Transporta- tion Secretary Elaine Chao to overturn it. Specifically, the union wants Chao “to uphold the Trump Administration’s ‘Amer- ica First’ governing philosophy,” and immediately examine NAI’s flying permit “in order to revoke or suspend” it, Canoll said. AFL-CIO Transportation President Edward Wytkind told Business Insider magazine that the “low-road air carriers’ oper- ating plan will destroy fair com- petition and extinguish middle- class airline jobs here (U.S.) and in Europe.” By Mark Gruenberg Press Associates Inc. WASHINGTON, D.C.—Con- struction union leaders praised President Donald Trump’s two executive orders giving “go” signals to completion of the con- troversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines. Trump issued the orders on Jan. 24, the day after he met four building trades leaders at the White House. The meeting took place 11 days after a pre-inauguration talk between Trump and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka at Trump Tower in New York on Jan. 13. Trumka tweeted they had “a very honest and produc- tive conversation,” but did not elaborate. As for the Jan. 24 meeting, Paul Pimentel, spokesman for the Sheet Metal Workers Inter- national Union, said, “We’re cautiously optimistic about what happened.” Pimentel said the meeting, which included Sheet Metal Workers President Joe Sellers, North America’s Building Trades President Sean McGar- vey, Laborers President Terry O’Sullivan, and Carpenters Pres- ident Doug McCarron, revolved around infrastructure. “Infrastructure is important to all our members—pipelines, hos- pitals, schools, railroads, even bringing back coal jobs. There’s a lot out there. And Trump’s fa- miliar with the (construction) in- dustry” from his decades as a builder and developer, “so that helps,” Pimentel said. The construction union lead- ers were both optimistic about future infrastructure legislation under Trump, and cheered by the pro-pipeline announcements. Trump predicted the two proj- ects, combined, would generate 28,000 construction jobs. Trump’s Keystone order told its owner, TransCanada, to re- submit its construction permit application to the State Depart- ment to okay the Alberta-Okla- homa Keystone segment. He also said it should use U.S. steel, but all the steel for the pipe has been manufactured and currently sits in storage, TransCanada said. And Trump told the Army Corps of Engineers to drop its delay of construction of the last 1,100 feet of the Dakota-Illinois Dakota Access line. Native Americans, environ- mental groups and some unions and AFL-CIO constituency groups strongly oppose con- struction of the pipelines. The national AFL-CIO has endorsed the pipeline projects. Construction union leaders have been campaigning for Key- stone ever since six of their unions — including the Operat- ing Engineers, Laborers and Teamsters — signed a project la- bor agreement (PLA) for the multimillion-dollar project more than seven years ago. Union workers built Key- stone’s southern leg, from Guthrie, Okla., to Gulf Coast oil refineries, but former President Barack Obama blocked the northern leg. He said its “dirty oil” from Albertan tar sands and the fuel used to extract it would add to pollution that causes global warming. spired him to stand up for what he knew to be right. Following a stint in the U.S. Air Force, Lehrbach began his union career in 1959 in Mil- waukie, Wisconsin, with the United Auto Workers (UAW). In the eight years that he worked there, Lehrbach was a chief steward and a member of the Executive Board. He helped ne- gotiate contracts, sitting along- side UAW President Walter Reuther and across the table from American Motors Presi- dent George Romney. In 1961, Reuther assigned Lerhbach to the UAW’s Fair Employment Practice Committee. Following that, Ruther assigned Lehrbach to work as a UAW representa- tive to the civil rights move- ment. In that capacity Lehrbach assisted in the passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964. Dur- ing that time he met Dr. Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, and he worked closely with Ralph Abernathy. After moving to Portland, Lehrbach became a line driver for Crown Zellerbach and a member of Teamsters Local 162. He served as president of the local from 1983-86. From there he became a business rep- resentative for Local 582 in Spokane (now Local 690), and three years later he was hired by Local 58 in Vancouver, Wash- ington, as its business rep. In 1995, then-president Al Panek hired Lehrbach as a union rep for the Teamsters Joint Council No. 37. Lehrbach was appointed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski to the Tri- Met board of directors. He served one term, from 2011-15. In 2015 he was the lone “no” vote on the seven-member board when the transit agency ended Fareless Square in down- town Portland. Lehrbach was married three times. He is survived by seven children and numerous grand- children. A Celebration of Life will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Teamsters Joe Edgar Hall, 1870 NE 162nd Ave., Portland. IN MEMORIAM LYNN R. LEHRBACH Sept. 22, 1937 - Jan. 5, 2017 Lynn Lehrbach, a longtime rep- resentative of Teamsters Joint Council 37, died Jan. 5 from liver cancer. He was 79. Lehrbach served as political director for the Joint Council from 2005 until his retirement in November 2012. He also was the construction representative for the Teamsters international union. He held the seat of first vice president of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council for many years. After retiring, he served as president of the Teamsters Retirees Club. L YNN R OGER L EHRBACH was born on Sept. 22, 1937, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. His two brothers and sister grew up in a union family. As a young boy Lehrbach delivered sandwiches that his mother and other volun- teers made, to workers on strike at International Harvester. Lehrbach witnessed confronta- tions between thousands of striking workers and the police during the strike. It was a mo- ment in his life that he said in-
