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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2017)
PAGE 6 | July 21, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS UNION DEMOCRACY All-new group of officers elected at Painters Local 10 Painters and Drywall Finishers Local 10 has an all new roster of elected officers. Local10 is an affiliate of the Interna- tional Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IU- PAT) District Council 5. Local 10 officer elec- tions took place in per- son at the union’s June 21 general membership meeting. All positions were contested. Former president Michael Kee- baugh, vice president Wyatt McMinn, and all other in- cumbents were outpolled by challengers. The new officers are: ■ President David Gray Jr ■ Vice President Randy Johnson ■ Recording Secretary Patricia Gadd ■ Treasurer Daric Williams ■ Financial Secretary Shaun Martin ■ Warden Virgil Bradburry ■ Trustees Paul Buchholz, Mike Paxton, and Kerry Neill All the offices are unpaid volunteer posi- tions. The staff repre- sentatives who help negotiate and enforce union contracts work for District Council 5, which comprises 13 locals in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Alaska. Local 10 has 966 members in a jurisdiction that encompasses Southwest Washington and Ore- gon north of Salem. Local 10’s membership includes both painters and drywall tapers/fin- ishers. All the new officers are drywall tapers and finishers, whereas incumbent officers were painters. ...Health care bill cuts taxes for rich, but leaves ‘Cadillac’ tax From Page 1 them,” said Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden. Wyden organized the “It’s Not Over” rally with U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici. The Demo- cratic lawmakers are calling on citizens to keep the pressure on Congress to stop repeal of the ACA. They are gathering per- sonal stories from Oregonians so they can share them on the Senate floor. Merkley criticized Republi- can leadership for shoving the bill through the Senate with zero markups, zero amendments, and zero public testimony. “Are we going to accept in a ‘We the People’ democracy in the United States of America a zero, zero, zero proposal on health care that will affect mil- lions and millions of Americans all over this country? NO!,” he said to cheers. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the GOP health care bill — which would cut Medicaid by almost $800 billion —would strip health insurance coverage for 22 million people in the next decade. Fifteen million would lose coverage next year. The AFL-CIO and other op- ponents say the bill also would eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions, raise premiums for older work- ers, and potentially kill 1.45 mil- lion jobs over the next 10 years — all to provide $200 billion in tax breaks to the top 2 percent of Americans. “We hear a lot about how these tax breaks for the wealthy Oregonians rallied in Portland July 6 in opposition to GOP efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. Local 290 apprentices compete in regional contest PAVEL KOVALENKO AND MICHAEL KITT PLACE 2ND. Four apprentices from Plumber and Fitters Local 290 competed in the 2017 District 5 Regional Appren- tice Contest June 21-22 in Concord, California. Con- testants hailed from Alaska, Arizona, California, Col- orado, Hawaii, Idaho, Ne- vada, New Mexico, Utah, Washington and Oregon. The contest was held at the United Association of Plumbers and Fitters Local 342 Training Center. Local 290 apprentices Pavel Kovalenko (welder) and Michael Kitt (steamfitter, pictured below right) both finished second in their respective disciplines. Each re- ceived tools and other prizes. Kevin Kuborn (plumber) and Victor Nash (HVAC/R, pictured above right with tape measure) also competed, but did not place. The four apprentices qualified for the regional compe- tition after winning contests held at Local 290’s train- ing center in Tualatin in late April. Sixty-five appren- tices took part in that competition. Competition is held in four disciplines — plumbing, steamfitting/pipefitting/sprinkler fitting, welding, and heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration. The apprentices used their tools to complete projects from blueprints. Competition is timed, and judged for quality. Winners advanced to the national contest held Aug. 15-17 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. are going to create jobs,” Wyden said at the Portland rally. “Get this — they made the biggest (tax) break retroactive. So this bill isn’t going to create a job, but it’s going to create some tax windfalls, and that’s why we have to stop it!” The one tax that would re- main is the so-called “Cadillac tax” imposed on customers of so-called high-cost health care plans, many if not most of them collectively bargained union plans. Retaining the Cadillac tax means “about 42 percent of large employers will be im- pacted and it’ll result in them dropping coverage altogether,” predicted AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. The AFL-CIO said it is com- mitted to do everything in its power to kill any bill that tries to repeal the seven-year-old ACA. On July 13, Senate Republi- cans released a new draft of their health care bill. The new version looks a lot like the last one, Sens. Wyden and Merkley said in separate press releases. It still slashes Medicaid by more than $700 billion, it guts coverage for peo- ple with pre-existing conditions, cuts taxes for the wealthy, and raises costs for older Americans. The bill quickly stalled, with four Republican senators com- ing out against it. Republicans can only afford two defections to pass a bill. Without the needed votes, McConnell introduced a new plan supported by President Trump to repeal Obamacare with a delayed replacement of two years. At press time, three Republi- can senators said they would not support moving to the repeal- only bill. Stay tuned. Saltzman seeks early endorsement from NW Oregon Labor Council Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman came to the Northwest Oregon Labor Coun- cil Executive Board July 10 seeking an early endorsement for re-election. The five-term city commissioner says he will seek one last term next year. The primary is in May 2018. No one has filed to run against Saltzman, but he said he expects challengers. “Which is why I come before you today,” he said. Saltzman said he has always been receptive to labor’s ideas. “I’ve been a good ally of labor, now I would like to ask for a fa- vor in return — your early en- dorsement,” he said. The Executive Board didn’t take any action on the request.
