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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 2017)
PAGE 4 | July 7, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS Work slows at Portland plant as Nabisco shifts production to Mexico Nabisco workers in Portland haven’t had their jobs out- sourced to Mexico, but Mexican imports are beginning to pinch their paychecks anyway. The Bakery Confectionery Tobacco and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union has been wag- ing a national boycott campaign against Mexican-made Nabisco products ever since parent com- pany Mondelēz closed several Chicago baked good production lines in early 2016 and reopened them in Salinas, Mexico. Now, work is slowing down at the Portland bakery that pro- duces Oreos and Chips Ahoy, while Mexican-made versions of those cookies fill Portland store shelves. Local 364 Business Repre- sentative Cameron Taylor said the Portland bakery shut down entirely the week after Memo- rial Day. Because unemploy- ment insurance doesn’t kick in until the second week, the shut- down meant a week’s lost wages for the plant’s 200 union members. Then the last week of June, the company ran the plant at half capacity, with just three of its six ovens going. The first week of July, just two ovens were in production. Nabisco asked for volunteers to take a second week of unpaid time off, and some of the remaining pro- duction workers were reas- signed to sanitation duty. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D- Ore.) mentioned the Portland slowdown in a June 15 letter to Mondelēz CEO Irene Rosen- feld. “While my constituents are now back at work, I know they fear future disruptions,” Wyden wrote. Wyden asked Rosenfeld BCTGM Local 364 President Jason Lind and his coworkers at the Portland Nabisco bakery suffered a week-long layoff in June — even as products made by their employer’s Mexican bakeries filled Portland grocery shelves. to share with him the company’s long-term vision for Oregon production. Wyden’s letter came after a similar letter from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that was signed by 16 other Democratic U.S. senators, including Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon. The letter expressed “deep concern” over Mondelēz’s on- going corporate practice of shifting production from the company's U.S. bakeries to its bakeries in Mexico. “Mondelēz’ actions … put short-term profits ahead of in- vesting in America and the American worker,” the senators wrote. “It is long past time for all corporations, including Mon- delēz, to end offshoring prac- tices that foster an economic race to the bottom and put short- term profits ahead or American workers and their families.” ployees. No cost, no negotiating a rate, no managing the paper- work, etc. Presently, individual states are working on plans to supply healthcare to its citizens. Why give tax breaks if we can incen- tivize by helping our own citi- zens? California is planning a 2.3 percent sales tax to fund statewide health insurance. Ne- vada is planning on having Medicare as an option in the health exchange. Both of these plans are very basic, with rela- tively high deductibles, but indi- viduals can buy supplemental insurance at a much more rea- sonable rate, or not, if they wish. Once these go into effect, how many companies will then choose to stay in, or move to, these states? Robin Zimmerman Bakers Local 114 Lafayette, OR OPEN FORUM To The Editor: Two of our largest issues weak- ening our country today are is- sues with healthcare and the loss of manufacturing to foreign countries. It is not unusual to see state or federal tax breaks offered to in- centivize a company to keep a plant local. G.E. recently de- cided to move a plant to Canada. One major incentive was that they do not have to supply health insurance to their em- PEOPLE Machinists rep Joe Kear retires Joe Kear, 65, retired June 19 after Latin American solidarity. more than three decades in the He also came out as a gay union movement. Kear joined man at the dawn of the modern Machinists Local 1005 as an em- gay rights movement. He helped ployee of Freightliner in 1984, organize Cleveland’s first march and became a full-time union rep for lesbian and gay rights in for District Lodge 24 in 2005. 1973. In 1976, he moved to Mi- There, he helped negotiate and ami, where he later fought enforce contracts for against a campaign about 1,000 workers, led by singer Anita including mechanics at Bryant to repeal a lo- UPS, machinists at cal gay civil rights or- ConMet, and assembly dinance. line workers at Freight- After moving to liner, which became Portland in 1979, he Daimler Trucks North joined AFSCME Lo- America in 2008. cal 189 while work- When wave after ing at the Portland Joe Kear wave of layoffs reduced Water Bureau. the Portland truck plant work- When Kear joined Freight- force by more than two-thirds, liner in 1984, Local 1005 meet- Kear helped win trade-related ings were Thursday nights. As a benefits for laid-off workers. swing shift worker, he was un- Daimler workers struck twice able to attend, so he helped while Kear was their representa- amend local bylaws to change tive, in 2007 and 2013. The meetings to Saturdays so work- strikes might have seemed in- ers on all shifts could attend. In conclusive at the time, but Kear 1989 he won election as shop thinks both ended up working to steward. He was later appointed members’ advantage: A provi- to the office of educator, and the sion on severance pay in the Executive Board. He was 2007 contract helped keep the elected secretary-treasurer, and plant open, and the fact that later vice president for District workers demonstrated a willing- Lodge 24. At that time, union ness to strike in 2013 may have business reps were appointed by resulted in a more generous con- the district lodge president. Kear tract offer from Daimler in 2016. helped win a bylaws change to In fact, it might be fair to have reps directly elected by credit Kear for keeping the Port- members. He then joined a slate land plant open altogether. In led by Bob Petroff and won 2009 Daimler announced plans election as a business rep in to close the plant, but reversed 2005. Kear won re-election, and that decision after Kear brought then stayed on as an appointed some unforeseen consequences business rep after Lodge 24 to their attention: Under a quirk merged with the Woodworkers of federal pension law, closing District Lodge W1 in 2011, be- the plant would have obligated coming District Lodge W24. the company to pay a mammoth As a labor union officer, he “withdrawal liability” to the helped start Oregon’s chapter of union-sponsored multi-em- Pride at Work, the AFL-CIO ployer pension plan. constituency group for gay and Kear grew up in Chillicothe, lesbian union members, in the Ohio, south of Columbus, and early 2000s. He also was a long- got interested in politics early. time advocate of the Labor His first strike was as a student, Party, an effort to get unions to when he helped organize a cam- form their own political party. pus walkout at Miami Univer- Kear attended that movement’s sity in Oxford, Ohio. Kear founding convention in Cleve- dropped out of college, after two land in 1996. years, to work full time for the District Lodge W24 rep Cleveland office of the Student Dwayne Panian will take re- Mobilization Committee, which sponsibility for the units Kear organized nationwide demon- represented. strations against the Vietnam In retirement, Kear plans to War. stay active in the local and in a A committed socialist, he union retiree organization. He’ll worked for many causes, in- also serve as a Democratic cluding the United Farm Work- precinct committee officer for ers grape boycott, public school Skamania County, where he desegregation, abortion rights, lives on 30 acres of timberland equal rights for women, and near Washougal.
