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.