Northwest labor press., April 21, 2017, Page 13, Image 13

NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | April 21, 2017 | PAGE 13
...Revolt of the Managers
From Page 2
And notably for a document
based on the CBA, CEIP strips
every mention of strikes and
lockouts, removes unions from
any advisory role, and removes
the requirement that unions rep-
resent workers on the projects.
Willy Myers, head of the Co-
lumbia-Pacific Building Trades
Council, said it seemed like the
CEIP’s authors “conspired to-
gether to create a low-road ap-
proach that discounts the value
of union labor to the point
where it’s offensive.”
“Dr. King recognized the
value of union labor and knew
labor had to be a piece of the
puzzle of equity and inclusion,”
Myers told the Labor Press. “It’s
very unfortunate that the City of
Portland’s Office of Equity
doesn’t recognize that.”
The CEIP does have some
new innovations: It requires
contractors to provide cultural
competency training to man-
agers; clean, lock-able, graffiti-
free toilet facilities for construc-
tion workers who identify as
women; and separate lactation
facilities, as needed.
Several parts of the CEIP are
notably specific: General con-
tractors have to utilize the City’s
Prime Contractor Development
Program as “first source” for
subcontracts, and once subcon-
tractors are selected, they can’t
be fired or replaced without the
approval of the City’s chief pro-
curement officer (Christine
Moody).
But when it comes to steps
taken to achieve the actual nu-
meric diversity goals, the CEIP
is full of weasel language like
“may” “when possible” “if
deemed necessary,” — and
most often it’s not spelled out
who is responsible for the
“deeming.”
The diversity goals, at least,
are specific: apprentices are sup-
posed to make up 20 percent of
labor hours, and 22 percent of
apprentices are supposed to be
minorities, and 9 percent
women. Meanwhile, 22 percent
of journey-level hours are sup-
posed to be minorities and 6
percent women. And disadvan-
taged or minority-owned busi-
nesses are supposed to get con-
tracts equal to 12 percent of hard
construction costs, women-
owned businesses are supposed
to get 5 percent, and another 5
percent could go to any combi-
nation of women-owned, mi-
nority-owned or emerging small
businesses. Contractors and
workers that are both minority
and women can be tracked as
both but only counted once to-
ward diversity goals.
But almost any of the diver-
sity goals can be lowered or
eliminated for any given project
— after negotiations between
the general contractor and the
City project manager and City
chief procurement officer: “Ex-
emptions to the percentage
goals … shall be assessed …
through the Contractor’s and
Owner’s assessments of the
scopes of work for each trade
implicated in the Project, cur-
rent marketplace availability for
such trades, and historical dis-
parity data and other assessment
as reviewed by the CEIC.”
Translation: City construction
projects will meet City diversity
goals, except when they won’t.
When a first draft of the CEIP
was released in October, it
alarmed most of the organiza-
tions that had worked with the
City on the CBA. The Metro-
politan Alliance for Workforce
Equity (MAWE) outlined con-
cerns in a letter to Dante James
signed by 15 organizations.
By contrast, no one seems to
want to take direct responsibility
for the CEIP. The April 3 “letter
to stakeholder groups” an-
nouncing CEIP’s final draft was
signed simply “the work group”
without even a list of the work
group’s participants by name.
TURNING THE HOSE ON THEMSELVES: Not a fire hose, but a regular hose
can be the first step in getting carcinogens off gear.
...Long after flames, firefighters
at risk from cancer chemicals
From Page 1
protective gear, known as
“turnouts” are handled, says
Vancouver, Wash., IAFF Local
452 member Bob Carroll, a
captain and paramedic who
worked on Healthy In, Healthy
Out.
“These are not just dirty work
clothes,” Carroll says. “This is a
contaminated, almost haz-
ardous, material. You need to
treat it as such, contain the con-
taminant, and take a shower as
quickly as possible.”
After Carroll approached
management at the Vancouver
Fire Department, they agreed to
implement a set of best practices
to protect fire fighters from car-
cinogens:
■ The department issued extra hoods and a
second set of turnout clothes that fire
fighters can wear while their
contaminated ones are being
professionally cleaned.
■ Fire fighters now wait one hour before
begining overhaul, allowing most toxic
gases to evaborate.
■ Once overhaul is complete, fire fighters
hose off, brush off, pull off and place their
turnouts in a heavy-duty plastic bag.
■ Dirty turnouts are banned from entering
the fire station.
■ Back at the station, the first thing they do
is scrub equipment clean.
ONLINE EXTRA
You can watch the Healthy In, Healthy
Out video at http://bit.ly/2i9jBP2
And you can view and download the
printed guide at the Washington State
Council of Fire Fighters site:
wscff.org/HealthyInHealthyOut/
CORRECTION
The Northwest Labor Press incorrectly reported on two en-
dorsements for Portland Public School Board in the April 7,
2017 edition. The Northwest Oregon Labor Council Executive
Board has recommended that candidate Scott Bailey be en-
dorsed, but the motion must be approved by delegates, which
don’t meet until April 24.
Candidate Trisha Parks is recovering from a medical issue
and is still in the interview process with the labor council.