Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 2017)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 118, NUMBER 5 IN THIS ISSUE TRIMET CASE HEADS TO OREGON SUPREME COURT Union wants contract negotiations open to public. | Page 3 LABOR GETS BUSY AT THE OREGON LEGISLATURE On the agenda: taxes, PERS, maternity leave | Page 10 S. Carolina Boeing rejects IAM p.4 Meeting notices p.6 PORTLAND, OREGON MARCH 3, 2017 Puzder withdraws; Acosta up next Vigor shipyard workers vote to extend contract to Sept. 1 Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee: A victory for working people: That’s what union leaders called the news Feb. 15 that An- drew Puzder was dropping out as Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Labor, after weeks of national union pressure against his con- firmation. Labor Secretary is in charge of enforcing federal minimum wage, overtime, child labor and occupational safety and health laws. But Puzder, CEO of the company that owns the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. fast food chains, has been a vocal critic of efforts to increase the federal minimum wage and update overtime rules. Yet other factors sank his nomination, including revela- tions that he employed an un- documented housekeeper, and that his ex-wife shared stories of spousal abuse on the Oprah show in the 1980s. As many as a dozen Republican senators were reportedly considering voting against him. The day after Puzder gave notice of his withdrawal, the White House announced that the new nominee would be Alexander Acosta — dean of the Florida International Uni- versity School of Law and Members of the Oregon Education Association, Service Employees, and AFSCME were among the several hundred who turned up on the Oregon Capitol steps in Salem for a Presidents Day rally organized by unions and allied groups. Rallies also took place in Portland, Bend, and Eugene. House press statement, he’s “eager to work tirelessly on be- half of the American worker.” Under President George W. Bush, Acosta served briefly on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), then led the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. After Puzder, Acosta comes OUT: IN: Andy Puzder Alexander Acosta as a relief to labor. “Acosta’s chairman of a South Florida nomination deserves serious bank. A Harvard Law grad, consideration,” said AFL-CIO Acosta began his career repre- president Rich Trumka. senting employers in employ- “We’ve gone from a fast-food ment and labor issues at the CEO who routinely violates la- bor law to a public servant with Kirkland & Ellis law firm. Now, according to the White experience enforcing it.” Shipyard workers at Vigor In- dustrial LLC subsidiaries in Oregon and Washington voted overwhelmingly Feb. 13 to ex- tend their collective bargaining agreements to Sept. 1, 2017. In return, workers received a 90- cent-an-hour raise, retroactive to Dec. 5, 2016. Metal trades craft unions rep- resent approximately 700 work- ers at Vigor Marine Portland, Cascade General Portland, Washington Marine Repair Seat- tle, Vigor Marine Seattle, and Vigor Shipyard Seattle. Vigor Marine Portland and Vigor Ma- rine Seattle operate as a single company. All are subsidiaries of Vigor Industrial LLC. Union contracts at the Vigor properties are bargained by the Metal Trades Council of Port- land and Vicinity, the Puget Sound Metal Trades Council, and Boilermakers Local 104. A master agreement that covers all locations is under the direction of the national Metal Trades De- partment, AFL-CIO. Local area collective bargain- ing agreements at all of the properties expired Nov. 30, 2016. The master agreement at those properties was set to ex- pire June 1, 2017, but it, too, was extended to Sept. 1. The extension agreement will give the sides more time to ad- dress ongoing problems with the funding status of some of the multi-employer pension plans that cover some Vigor employ- ees, said Pat Christensen, presi- dent of the Portland Metal Trades Council. Christensen, a union rep for Plumbers and Fitters Local 290, said a labor-management sub- committee has been created, and will meet with pension trusts from the Machinists, Interna- tional Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and Boilermakers to determine what solutions might be available. Those pension plans are currently underfunded and in a federally-mandated re- habilitation plan. The sides also will continue to bargain contract language and economics, Christensen said. Nearly a dozen craft unions are affiliated with the respective metal trades councils in Oregon and Washington. They include Plumbers and Fitters, Machin- ists, Electricians, Laborers, Painters, Operating Engineers, Teamsters, Sheet Metal Work- ers, Insulators, and Boilermak- ers. OPEIU pension seeks to cut retiree benefits Unions facing fierce attack in GOP-led state legislatures The proposed benefit cuts of 29 percent are supposed to save a pension plan that would other- wise run out of money in 2035. By Don McIntosh Imagine: You’re a 67-year-old retiree collecting a $1,685-a- month union pension, and you get a letter in the mail. It says that to prevent your pension plan from running out of money in 18 years, your bene- fits are about to be cut by $489 a month, to $1,196. More than 5,000 current and future union retirees in the Pa- cific Northwest got a letter like that in February. Under a pro- posal submitted Feb. 15 by trustees of the Western States Office and Professional Em- ployees Pension Fund, they would have their pension ben- efits permanently reduced by up to 29 percent. Those af- fected are current or former members of Office and Profes- sional Employees International Union (OPEIU) in Oregon, Washington, and several other Western states. Until 2014, union-sponsored multiemployer trusts like the Western States OPEIU Pension Fund weren’t legally allowed to cut pension benefits once they were earned, and espe- cially not for current retirees. But under legislation Congress passed with little debate in De- cember 2014, multiemployer pension plans that are headed for collapse can reduce benefits — if that prevents insolvency. Under the law, known as the Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014, plans can’t reduce benefits for retirees who are over 80 years old, and cuts for those who are 75 to 80 must be smaller than for those under 75. The Western States OPEIU Turn to Page 12 Iowa strips public worker collec- tive bargaining rights, but right- to-work fails in New Hampshire By Don McIntosh Is Iowa the next Wisconsin? Un- der Gov. Scott Walker, Wiscon- sin famously stripped public employees of all meaningful union rights in a draconian piece of 2010 legislation. Now Iowa has passed a very similar law. House File 291 ends for all in- tents and purposes, the collec- tive bargaining rights of 184,000 public employees. Under the new law, public employee unions will only be allowed to negotiate base wages, nothing else, and they can never bargain increases that are more than inflation. Health insurance, vacation time, evalu- ation procedures, seniority-re- lated benefits … none of those things can be part of union con- tracts going forward. And pub- lic-employee unions would be barred from automatically de- ducting union dues and political contributions from members’ Turn to Page 9
