SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 118, NUMBER 11
IN THIS ISSUE
ELECTRICAL WORK? GET IT DONE UNION! IBEW 48
will pay $200 for your home electrical project | Page 3
REMEMBERING LOIS STRANAHAN: The tireless
fighter for trade unionism died at age 97 | Page 5
Meeting notices p.6
May 16 election results p. 9
PORTLAND, OREGON
JUNE 2, 2017
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
AT&T workers wage three-day strike OHSU nurses reach deal on
For workers in the company’s
wireless division, it was the
first-ever walkout.
By Don McIntosh
AT&T workers in 36 states and
D.C. walked off the job Friday,
May 19, beginning a weekend-
long strike to protest a lack of
progress in contract negotia-
tions. Taking part in the strike
were AT&T Mobility nation-
wide, plus land line workers in
California, Nevada, and Con-
necticut, and DIRECTV techni-
cians in California and Nevada.
It was the first time workers in
AT&T’s wireless division have
struck.
The strikers are members of
Communications Workers of
America (CWA), which repre-
sents about 40,000 workers in
the striking bargaining units.
AT&T is pulling in $1 billion
a month in profits, and paid its
new three-year contract
DAY ONE OF THE STRIKE: Strikers from several locations assemble out-
side the AT&T store at Mall 205.
CEO $28.4 million last year.
But CWA says the company is-
n’t making fair proposals on
wages, benefits, and job secu-
rity. The previous union con-
tracts expired in February.
The union wants an end to
what it calls the pervasive out-
sourcing of jobs to low-wage
contractors. AT&T has elimi-
nated 12,000 U.S. call center
jobs since 2011, and now em-
ploys 38 third-party call centers
in eight countries, CWA said.
Turn to Page 5
BUY UNION
Mexican-made Nabisco boycott
continues, and so does union standoff
Laid-off workers tour college
campuses and protest at the
annual shareholders meeting
A U.S. union boycott of Mexi-
can-made Nabisco products is
now in its second year. The
68,000-member Bakery, Con-
fectionery, Tobacco and Grain
Millers (BCTGM) union called
the boycott in March 2016 to
protest the closure of Oreo pro-
duction lines in Chicago. Parent
company Mondelēz laid off
over 400 Chicago workers who
were making about $26 an hour,
and shifted production to the
Nabisco plant in Salinas, Mex-
ico, where workers work six
days a week and are paid the
equivalent of less than $2 an
hour. The boycott has the en-
dorsement of the national AFL-
CIO.
For all Nabisco products —
including such iconic brands as
Oregon Nurses Association
reached tentative agreement
with Oregon Health and Science
University (OHSU) on a new
union contract for over 2,300
nurses. The agreement was
reached May 18 after a
marathon 22-hour bargaining
session facilitated by a state me-
diator. A vote to ratify the con-
tract is set for May 31 and June
1 (after this issue went to press),
and the union bargaining team is
recommending approval.
If OHSU nurses ratify as ex-
pected, the new contract will
raise wages more than 9 percent
and preserve current health ben-
efits with no increase to the
amount members pay. The con-
tract would run three years and
three months, expiring June 30,
2020. It would also codify
OHSU’s practices on safe nurse
staffing levels: In each unit,
committees composed equally
of direct care nurses and nursing
managers will decide what the
minimum staffing needs are for
that unit.
Over several months of bar-
gaining, the union negotiating
At Rudy’s Barbershop and elsewhere
along Southeast Division Street and
around the city, businesses dis-
played signs bearing the union logo
and the message: “We support
nurses at OHSU”
team was supported by an active
contract action team. Hundreds
of nurses took part in a rally
April 26, the first day the two
sides began mediation. Mem-
bers also approached dozens of
local businesses asking that they
post signs saying “We Support
Nurses At OHSU.” The signs
popped up in business windows
in South Waterfront and around
Portland.
— Don McIntosh
Women in the Trades
Lindsey Disler, a member of United Students Against Sweatshops, protests
outside the Mondelēz shareholders meeting. (Photo by Nate Zeff)
Oreos, Triscuits, Fig Newtons,
Chips Ahoy, and Ritz Crackers
— BCTGM is asking con-
sumers to read the label, and if
it says Made in Mexico, don’t
buy it.
BCTGM continues to repre-
sent about 2,000 workers at six
Nabisco plants and two distribu-
tion centers in the U.S., includ-
ing about 200 at an industrial
bakery at 100 NE Columbia
Boulevard in Portland. They’ve
all been working without a new
Turn to Page 5
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. director Connie Ashbrook, right, embraces her
successor, Kelly Kupcak, at the 25th Annual Women In Trades Fair May 20.
Ashbrook, Oregon’s first female journeyman elevator mechanic, helped
found the group in 1989 to help other women get into the trades.
What it’s like to be a woman in an overwhelmingly male occupation?
Three tradeswomen share their stories on PAGE 10.