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-