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