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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2017)
nORTHWEST LABOR pRESS | May 5, 2017 | pAgE 9 unIOn DEMOCRACy State Letter Carriers gear up to AFT-Oregon holds convention in portland defend door-to-door delivery The statewide convention of American Federation of Teach- ers (AFT)-Oregon drew 150 delegates from 17 locals to the Portland Hilton April 21-23. AFT-Oregon has grown in re- cent years and now counts over 9,000 members. But the union is working to shore up support among repre- sented workers, in anticipation of a U.S. Supreme Court rul- ing. About 4,000 workers rep- resented by AFT-Oregon aren’t members and pay only partial “fair share” dues to cover the Convention delegates — including members of AFT Local 4671 (Hillsboro costs of bargaining. Those pay- Classified United) above — took a recess April 22 in order to participate in ments could become illegal na- the March for Science. tionwide if the Supreme Court ing up new members in the last Rives to a fifth two-year term rules as expected in a case year, including Local 111 as AFT-Oregon president. Ow- called Janus vs. AFSCME. (Portland Federation of School ing to term-limits in the union Last year, the court deadlocked Professionals), which gained constitution, it will be his final over a very similar case, but 224 members; Local 3209 term. Also elected to terms be- last month’s confirmation of (United Academics of the Uni- ginning July 1 were: Neil Gorsuch means that an versity of Oregon), which ■ Belinda Reagan, executive VP anti-union decision in Janus added 129 new members; and could be only 12 to 18 months Local 4671 (Hillsboro Classi- ■ Jaime Rodriguez,VP for political action away. fied United) which added 108. ■ Devin Hunter, secretary Several locals were singled Delegates reelected David ■ Jeff Grider, treasurer out for praise for success sign- About 150 delegates represent- ing two dozen locals came to- gether in Bend April 21-23 for a convention of the Oregon State Association of Letter Carriers. They heard from national of- ficers, took part in workshops on stress management and on how to contend with automation and a new “performance enhance- ment tool” (speed-up) being im- plemented by postal manage- ment. But more than anything else, they focused on national legislation pending in Congress. “As federal employees, we’re pretty vulnerable,” said state as- sociation vice president Willie Groshell. “Everything we’ve got can be taken away with a stroke of the pen by Congress.” House Resolution 756, the Postal Service Reform Act of 2017, passed the House Over- sight and Government Reform Committee on March 16. The bill includes a number of union- supported measures to shore up the finances of the Postal Serv- ice, but it also phases out door- to-door mail delivery, replacing it with centralized or cluster mailbox delivery. That could eliminate 80,000 letter carrier jobs, and make the mail much less convenient for the public. Postal unions are rallying be- hind a non-binding counter- measure, House Resolution 28, which urges the Postal Service to take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of door delivery for all business and residential customers. That bill has 223 co-sponsors — more than half of the 435 mem- bers of the U.S. House of Rep- resentatives; sponsors include all four Oregon Democrats, and Southwest Washington Repub- lican Jaime Herrera-Beutler, but not Oregon Republican Greg Walden. Convention delegates ap- proved a resolution calling on each local to appeal to city councils and other local govern- ments to pass resolutions calling for preservation of door to door delivery. Delegates also elected offi- cers, including: ■ Ricky Horton, president ■ Willie Groshell, vice president ■ Richard Strahm, secretary-treasurer ■ Kollin Luman, assistant secretary-treasurer ■ Mary Hackbart, director of retirees unIOnIzATIOn ] MAR-ApR 2017 BuILDIng COMMunITy Sewer pipe scuttles Oregon AFL-CIO plan to turn HQ into worker housing The Oregon AFL-CIO is pulling the plug on plans to redevelop its Portland head- quarters as a mixed-use af- fordable housing project. The plan, conceived last spring, was for union pension funds to finance a four- or five-story union-built project combining office space with underground parking and up to 120 units of affordable housing — helped by a public subsidy in the form of a Low- Income Housing Tax Credit. The development was to re- place the current headquarters on its 0.78-acre property just south of Powell Boulevard. The statewide labor federa- tion formed a committee last June to explore the plan. And it might have worked, except for one obstacle: The discovery of a 50-inch sewer Photo by Andrew Gorry, courtesy of AFT-Oregon As another anti-union case heads to the U.S. Supreme Court, priority will be shoring up sup- port from represented workers pipe running diagonally across the property. That meant the development would have to consist of two smaller buildings instead of one large building, and at that point, maintaining enough parking to meet the needs of the Oregon AFL-CIO would have greatly increased project costs. The Oregon AFL-CIO headquarters, known as the Oregon Labor Center, is a busy hub of activity, fre- quently used by union and community groups for meet- ings and events, and the park- ing made available by its 20,000-square-foot parking lot is vital to those uses. With help from the Hous- ing Development Center, a Portland nonprofit, the com- mittee then explored the fea- sibility of partnering with the Portland Housing Bureau to bring in additional funding. But the Bureau is already de- veloping a lot two blocks away where the Safari strip club now sits. The Bureau of- fered that the Oregon AFL- CIO could share space and ownership in that develop- ment, but it still would have fallen short of the labor feder- ation’s parking needs. And it would have left the state fed- eration in the position of jun- ior partner in the develop- ment. As Oregon AFL-CIO president Tom Chamberlain put it: “We wouldn’t be mas- ters of our own destiny.” For all those reasons, the Oregon AFL-CIO Executive Committee resolved April 21 to put the plan on ice. The following are Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces where workers have decided whether to be represented by a union. The thumbs-up symbol means workers will be union- represented. The information comes from the National Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board. union election results Employer (Location) Union Yes-No = koontz Machine & Welding (Coos Bay) Machinists District Lodge W24 2-0 ^ ■ 2 dry dock workers Immigration Counseling Service (Portland) NOLSW (UAW Local 2320) 13-0 ^ ■ 13 staff attorneys, paralegals, legal assistants, and other non-professional employees peaceHealth Laboratories (Springfield and Eugene) SEIU Local 49 73-21 ^ ■ 120 lab assistants and data entry specialists THIS NEWSPAPER BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LABOR MOVEMENT. BUY UNION. AND AMERICAN-MADE.
