NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | April 21, 2017 | PAGE 11
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Plumbers & Fitters #290
ratifies six-year contract
Bargaining takes less than 3
hours, and the result is an in-
crease of $16.03 over six years.
Annual contest challenges Bricklayer apprentices
Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 held its annual
apprenticeship contest April 1 at its training center in
Northeast Portland. Seven apprentices participated for the
chance to advance to the Western States regional finals
May 20 in Tracy, California. Representing Local 1 at region-
als in bricklaying will be Ben Wall (photo above), a 90 per-
cent apprentice who took first place, and Micah Edwards
(below right), an 80 per-
cent apprentice, who fin-
ished second. Zach Welch
finished third and will be
an alternate. Josh Graham,
a 90 percent apprentice,
will represent Local 1 in the
marble competition. He
was the lone competitor
and advanced automati-
cally. Apprenticeship Coor-
dinator Shawn Lenczowksi
said the competition re-
quires apprentices to build
60 percent
a project from a blueprint
apprentice
in five hours. The project is
Kirstie
then judged for quality.
Reeves.
HAPPENINGS
Labor recognition night May 20
The Northwest Oregon Labor
Council’s 20th annual Labor Ap-
preciation and Recognition Night
will be held Saturday, May 20, at
the IBEW Local 48 hall, 15937
NE Airport Way, Portland.
The dinner and awards cere-
mony serve as a fundraiser for La-
bor’s Community Service Agency.
This year is a Hawaii theme —
“Lei’d Back Luau.” Dinner tickets
are $25 per person. Raffle tickets
also will be sold. The labor council
is currently accepting cash and
prize donations for the raffle.
The labor council also is ac-
cepting nominations for persons to
be recognized for their service to
and with the labor community.
The top award is the Del Ricks
Community Service Award, recog-
nizing one individual for their ex-
emplary service.
Nominations should be sent to:
Northwest Oregon Labor Council,
9955 SE Washington St., Suite
305, Portland, OR 97216. The
deadline is April 28. For more in-
formation or to order tickets, call
503-235-9444.
garet Hallock Program for
Women’s Rights. It is being
cosponsored by the Labor Edu-
cation and Research Center at
the University of Oregon, the
World Affairs Council, and
AFT-Oregon.
■ Time: Tuesday, April 25, 5:30 p.m.
■ Place: First Congregational Church, 1126
SW Park Ave., Portland
■ Cost: Free and open to the public
AFT’s Weingarten at Portland
forum on future of education
Letter Carriers prepare for May
13 food drive
Randi Weingarten, international
president of the American Fed-
eration of Teachers (AFT), will
be the featured speaker at a fo-
rum April 25 in Portland to talk
about the future of public educa-
tion. The free event is part of the
Wayne Morse Center’s Mar-
Letter carriers in the Portland met-
ropolitan area and in Clark County,
Wash. will help “Stamp Out
Hunger” on Saturday, May 13, part
of the 25th annual National Asso-
ciation of Letter Carriers and U.S.
Postal Service Food Drive.
According to the Oregon Food
Bank, an estimated 240,000 peo-
Members of United Association
of Plumbers and Steamfitters
Local 290 ratified a new six-year
collective bargaining agreement
March 18 with 80 percent ap-
proval. The deal with the Oregon
chapter of the Plumbing and
Mechanical Contractors Associ-
ation (PMCA) provides for an-
nual increases of 3.5 percent —
for a total increase of $16.03
over the life of the agreement.
The contract took effect April
1.
As is typical in construction
bargaining, members decide
how to divvy up the new money
— whether it be in wages, pen-
sion contributions, or for health
insurance. The increase on April
1 was $2.45. Members decided
to put 99 cents on the check—
bumping their hourly wage to
$43.82. The full package of
wages and fringe benefits in-
creased to $72.40 an hour. Union
members will meet every Febru-
ary through 2023 to decide
where to apply that year’s raise.
Remarkably, bargaining the
contract lasted just 2 hours, 23
minutes, said Local 290 Busi-
ness Agent Travis Argue. A
union committee had met with
PMCA officials a few times
prior to official bargaining, but
when the sides sat down for the
first time on March 4, Local
290’s first proposal was ac-
ple get meals from emergency
food boxes in an average month.
To help, letter carriers will deliver
plastic bags to every household a
few days before the Food Drive.
All you have to do is fill the bag
with nonperishable food items,
and leave it at your mailbox on the
morning of May 13. Letter Carri-
ers will collect the bags and deliver
them to drop points, where volun-
teers will sort the donations and
forward them to the Oregon Food
Bank. Food collected in Clark
County will benefit Clark County
hunger-relief agencies.
The Food Drive raises more
than 1.5 million pounds of food
each year for the Oregon Food
Bank. It is the largest one-day food
collection of the year in Oregon —
and in the nation.
cepted.
“It didn’t take very long, but
honestly, this contract is the prod-
uct of labor-management rela-
tionship building that we’ve been
working on for the last three
years,” said Local 290 Business
Manager Al Shropshire.
Historically, bargaining has
mostly been adversarial, with
contracts running well past their
expiration dates and customers
worried about work stoppages.
When a deal finally was reached,
the sides were barely speaking to
each other.
“We decided as a union and as
contractors that there had to be a
better way to do this,” Shrop-
shire said. “Our goal was to pres-
ent something that we believed
was fair and reasonable for
everyone.”
With bargaining behind them,
the focus now, Shropshire said,
is to increase market share. “This
contract provides a lot of stabil-
ity for the industry,” he said.
UA Local 290 is a multi-craft
union with more than 4,300 ac-
tive and retired members spe-
cializing in the fabrication, in-
stallation and servicing of piping
systems throughout Oregon,
Southwest Washington, and
Northern California. Its training
center is currently working with
400 apprentices, with a new
batch ready to enter.
PMCA is a coalition of more
than 250 plumbing and mechan-
ical contractors within the juris-
diction.
Shropshire expects the local
will be at full employment
within the next month or two —
and lasting for at least two years.
In Oregon, Nike is in the
midst of a 3.2 million square
foot expansion at its world head-
quarters. New high rises are pop-
ping up in the Pearl District and
in South Waterfront. Hospitals
are embarking on extensive ex-
pansions projects. Google is
adding another data center in
The Dalles, and Intel is ready to
ramp up again. School districts
are passing bonds to construct
new buildings and remodel old
ones. Portland airport is prepar-
ing for a billion-dollar expan-
sion. A new convention center
headquarters hotel is about to
break ground. Multnomah
County is going to build a new
courthouse. And the United
States Post Office broke ground
for a new main post office.