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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 2017)
PAGE 2 | April 7, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST ...Portland managers want end to union-crafted CBA LABOR PRESS From Page 1 (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Cheri Rice Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $14 a year for union members, $22 a year for all others. Pay by credit card online at nwlaborpress.org/subscribe, or send a check to our mailing address (above) along with your name, address and union affiliation, if any. Group rates of $10.08 a year per person are available for 25 or more subscriptions; call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: If you move, let us know at nwlaborpress.org/subscriber-services or by mail at our mailing address (above). Be sure to provide your old and new addresses and the name/number of your local union. Please allow three weeks for the change to take effect. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 PLEASE SHOW OUR ADVERTISERS YOU APPRECIATE THEIR SUPPORT FOR THIS LABOR MOVEMENT NEWSPAPER! Paula the resulting disparity has per- sisted even after formal dis- crimination became illegal. Burch calls it the “FBI system” because people tend to find out about construction apprentice- ship opportunities from fathers, brothers, and inlaws. Mean- while, it can be very hard for contractors without experience, or pools of capital, to break into the construction industry. Advocates for years have pressed the City to take action in order to stop inadvertently perpetuating the disparity. That’s the purpose of the CBA, which was crafted in collabora- tion with city officials by the Metropolitan Alliance for Workforce Equity (MAWE), a coalition initiated by the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters and Operating En- gineers Local 701. The 23-page model CBA they developed, which was endorsed by the Co- lumbia Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council, was modeled to an extent on the project labor agreement that was used on the Edith Green Wendell Wyatt federal building With involvement and support from several union apprenticeship programs, Constructing Hope, a pre-apprenticeship training program, helps prepare ex-offenders for careers in the building trades, and a second chance in life. Above, the group’s board congratulates graduates at a March 23 ceremony at the Carpenters Training Center in Northeast Portland. retrofit project. In their 2012 resolution, the City Council committed to use some version of the model CBA on all proj- ects over $15 million. From a union perspective, the CBA worked for a number of reasons. It set specific nu- meric goals to increase partici- pation of women and minori- ties as apprentices and journey- workers in every craft specialty. Because unions were signatory to the agreement, they had legal grounds to dispatch women and minority workers to contractors so they could meet their work- force participation goals. Union representatives also took part in an oversight committee — along with representatives from labor, management, and com- munity groups — to make sure, in real time, that targets were being met. The CBA had real enforcement provisions as well: Contractors who failed to make good faith efforts to em- ploy women and minorities could be made to pay liqui- dated damages of $500 per day per occurrence. And a fund equal to 1 percent of hard con- struction costs paid for “techni- cal assistance” for women- and minority-owned contractors and grants to three state-regis- tered pre-apprenticeship train- ing programs (Oregon Trades- women, Constructing Hope, and Portland Youthbuilders) which recruit and prepare women and minorities for ca- reers in the building trades. The CBA was employed on two Water Bureau construction projects — construction of the Kelly Butte Reservoir and the new Interstate Maintenance Fa- cility. Both were completed us- ing union workers, under Turn to Page 9
