SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 118, NUMBER 19
IN THIS ISSUE
TRUMP NOMINEE FUNDRAISES FOR ANTIUNION
GROUP: Laborers 483 is one of those targeted. | Page 2
WHAT IF LABOR AND GREENS ALLY: Labor and
environmental leaders hold a summit in Olympia | Page 8
Meeting notices p. 6
Football union speaks out p.11
PORTLAND, OREGON
NATIONAL
OCTOBER 6, 2017
UNION ORGANIZING
Supreme Court to hear case Precision Castparts welders unionize
A “micro-unit” wins at a com-
challenging union dues
pany where four previous union
The U.S. Supreme Court an-
nounced Sept. 28 that it will hear
Janus v. AFSCME, a case chal-
lenging the constitutionality of
any requirement that public em-
ployees pay dues or fees to the
unions that represent them.
The case gets its name from
Mark Janus, an Illinois state
worker represented by American
Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees (AF-
SCME). Like Oregon, Washing-
ton, and 19 other states that rec-
ognize public employees’ right
to collective bargaining, Illinois
doesn’t require represented
workers to join the union, but it
requires non-members to pay
“fair share” fees to the union to
cover the costs of negotiating
and enforcing the union contract.
Janus objects to that require-
ment. With attorneys from the
anti-union National Right to
Work Foundation, he filed a fed-
eral lawsuit arguing that the fair
share requirement violates his
First Amendment rights.
Forty years ago, the Supreme
Court settled that question in a
case called Abood vs. Detroit
Board of Education, ruling
unanimously that such fees were
reasonable and constitutional.
But today’s Supreme Court is
expected to reverse the Abood
decision, most likely in a 5-4
vote. The court split 4-4 last year
on a similar case, Friedrichs v.
California Teachers Association,
after conservative judge Antonin
Scalia died. The case is likely to
be argued early next year.
Reversing Abood would be
like passing a “right to work”
law for all public employees na-
tionwide: It would be a severe
blow to public sector unions and
the labor movement as a whole.
U.S. Senate confirms Trump
nominees to the NLRB
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren
The federal agency that’s sup-
posed to protect workers’ right (D-Mass.) calls the NLRB “one
to form a union may now be on of the most important independ-
ent federal agencies
track to reverse years’
that you’ve never
worth of progress on
heard of.” The NLRB
workers’ rights. In a
is responsible for in-
49-to-47 party-line
terpreting and admin-
vote on Sept. 25, Re-
istering the National
publicans in the U.S.
Labor Relations Act,
Senate confirmed
the federal law that
William Emanuel,
protects workers’ right
president Trump’s sec-
to join a union, take
ond nominee to the
William Emanuel
collective action, and
five-member National
strike.
Labor Relations Board
The agency consists
(NLRB). He follows
of two parts. The Office
Trump nominee Mar-
of the General Counsel
vin Kaplan, who was
employs 1,500 agents
confirmed Aug. 2 —
also on a party-line
at 26 regional offices
around the country.
vote. Together with
They oversee elections
Philip Miscimarra,
in which workers vote
who was named
NLRB chairman by Marvin Kaplan whether or not to union-
Trump in April, they make up ize, and they investigate and
the first Republican majority on
the Board in nine years.
Turn to Page 10
campaigns failed.
Welders at Precision Castparts
Corp. manufacturing sites in
the Portland area voted 54 to
38 on Sept. 22 to join Interna-
tional Association of Machin-
ists District Lodge W24.
Precision Castparts makes
cast parts like jet engine com-
ponents for aerospace and
other industries. It has collec-
tive bargaining agreements at
some unionized subsidiaries in
other locations, and since 2015
it has been owned by Berkshire
Hathaway, which owns other
unionized companies. But in
the Portland area, Precision
Castparts is a major nonunion
industrial employer, and the
company brought in antiunion
consultants in an effort to stay
that way.
Machinists District Lodge
W24 organizer Will Lukens
said Precision Castparts’ cam-
paign followed the standard an-
tiunion playbook.
“They tried everything they
could to scare them,” Lukens
said.
In the weeks before the
union vote, Lukens said, the
company also brought in con-
tract welders for the first time
— and asked the existing
welders to train them.
Brett Clevidence, a 16-year
Precision Castparts employee,
told the Labor Press that he and
his coworkers voted for a union
because they want greater job
security and more say over
compensation and working
conditions. Clevidence stressed
that the vote for the union was-
n’t a vote against the company.
“We’re all here to feed our
families,” Clevidence said.
“It’s very important that the
company and our customers
know that we are 100 percent
committed to our customer
needs.”
The union vote came after
some legal wrangling over
whether workers in a single de-
Turn to Page 9
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
DCTU declares impasse at City of Portland
The District Council of Trade
Unions (DCTU), representing
over 1,000 employees at the
City of Portland, declared im-
passe in contract negotiations
Sept. 27. Five members of the
union coalition’s bargaining
team made the announcement
sitting before the full City
Council during their morning
session.
Bargaining has been going
on since Jan. 5 without success.
The City called for the assis-
tance of a mediator on July 31,
which occurred over two meet-
ings on Sept. 6 and 25 — also
with little success. The contract
expired June 30.
Having made very little
progress with the mediator, the
DCTU declared impasse as re-
quired under Oregon’s Public
Employee Collective Bargain-
ing Act. The action initiated a
seven-day period to exchange
final offers, followed by a 30-
day cooling off period. Once
the 30-day cooling off period
has been exhausted (Nov. 8) the
unions may engage in a work
stoppage and the City may im-
plement its final offer, with a
10-day notice to the other party.
Members of the District Council of Trade Unions bargaining team from left
— Tony Bush, Machinists Lodge 63; Chris Montgomery, Operating Engi-
neers Local 701; Mary Prottsman, AFSCME Local 189 Police Bureau; Rich
Thallheimer, AFSCME Local 189, and Mark Hinckle, IBEW Local 48 — de-
clared impasse in bargaining at the Sept. 27 session of the Portland City
Council. “I’m sorry to hear that,” Mayor Ted Wheeler responded, before
moving on to the Council’s next agenda item.
At the Sept. 27 City Council
meeting, DCTU bargaining
team members accused the
City’s bargaining team of ne-
gotiating in bad faith. DCTU
submitted its financial package
early on in bargaining, yet it
took the City 70 days to re-
spond with a financial “sup-
posal” that was good only for
that day, said Tony Bush, a
member of Machinists Lodge
63 who works in the City fleet.
The union representatives
believe it was a calculated
move to draw out bargaining
while the City negotiated sepa-
rate contracts with Laborers
483 and Professional and Tech-
Turn to Page 9