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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 2017)
nOrtHWESt laBOr PrESS | December 15 , 2017 | PaGE 7 uniOn OrGanizinG at Springfield’s PeaceHealth Sacred Heart hospital, medical techs unionize At PeaceHealth Sacred Heart hospital facilities in Springfield and Eugene, medical techni- cians unionized in a landslide 221-to-64 vote Nov. 28 and 29. The new 350-member bar- gaining unit will be part of Ore- gon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP), which is also known as Local 5017 of the American Federa- tion of Teachers (AFT). OFNHP president Adrienne Enghouse says the union cam- paign began with a supportive nudge from one hospital worker’s husband. Coming home upset, she would com- plain about conditions at Sacred Heart to her husband, a Eugene firefighter. As a member of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), he told her she needed a union. She took the ad- vice and found her way AFT, and the national union assigned Photo by AFT via Twitter The new 350-member bargain- ing unit will be part of OFNHP. At AFT offices, pro-union workers celebrate a major union election win at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart hospital. organizers to help. By Nov. 6, the union had enough support to ask the Na- tional Labor Relations Board to oversee a union election for 51 occupational classifications, in- cluding pharmacy and surgical techs; CT, EEG, MRI and ultra- sound technicians; licensed practical nurses; and respiratory therapists. Enghouse says PeaceHealth didn’t hire “union avoidance” consultants like many employ- ers do, but did hold one-sided “informational meetings” about Buy uniOn what it’s like to be in a union. The meetings failed to persuade. The addition of the new union of medical technicians means PeaceHealth Sacred Heart may now be one of Oregon’s most heavily unionized hospitals. Nurses at Sacred Heart are rep- resented by Oregon Nurses As- sociation, which is also an AFT affiliate. Hospital support work- ers belong to Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Lo- cal 49. Stationary engineers and skilled maintenance employees who maintain building systems and equipment are members of Operating Engineers Local 701. Even the doctors are union-rep- resented, part of AFT Local 6552. “We’re happy that these work- ers are going to have a voice in their workplace,” Enghouse said. “It makes me feel proud to work with people who are brave enough to stand up for their themselves and their patients.” AFT now represents more than 5,000 healthcare profes- sionals throughout the Peace- Health system in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Nationally, the AFT represents 130,000 healthcare professionals, mak- ing it the third-largest healthcare union in the country. BuilDinG cOMMunity interfaith Worker Justice releases report Senate Democrat wins on Mondelēz to shift production to Mexico Scrooge of the year award Faith group says owners of the iconic Oreo brand treat working people like a commodity. Nonprofit faith-labor group In- terfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) released a scathing report Dec. 12 about Mondelēz-Nabisco’s decision to shift production to Mexico and lay off hundreds of workers in Chicago and other U.S. cities. The report is entitled “Breaking Faith: Outsourcing and the Damage Done to our Communities.” To produce it, IWJ staff met and documented the stories of Nabisco bakery workers in Chicago; Fair Lawn, New Jersey; Portland, Oregon; Richmond, Virginia; and At- lanta, Georgia. They also trav- eled to a Nabisco plant in Mex- ico. In 2015, Mondelēz told the BCTGM union it would spend $130 million to install new pro- duction lines at its new bakery Mexico, and close nine of its 16 production lines in Chicago. Nabisco has been making some products at a plant in Monter- rey, Mexico, since 2003. In 2014, it opened a $350 million plant outside of Monterrey, while closing plants in Philadel- phia and Toronto. The immense new facility sits in an industrial park in the desert, an hour from Monterrey city limits and 120 miles from the U.S. Mexican border. IWJ said workers are bused to and from the bakery, which is sur- rounded by fencing, and earn just a little over a dollar an hour. “Mondelēz-Nabisco has come to treat its workers just the same way they would the other commodities that go into Oreos, such as cocoa, sugar, flour, and so on,” IWJ says in the report. “We found this to be one of the clearest demonstra- tions of how the company has broken faith with its workers, and by extension … with con- sumers.” Mondelēz-Nabisco also broke faith with the communi- ties that supported it, IWJ said: downsizing after taking in over $91 million in public subsidies going back as far as 1993. Why devastate workers and communities? To pay obscene compensation to those making the decisions, IWJ concluded. Former Mondelēz-Nabisco CEO Irene Rosenfeld made more than $185 million in the last nine years and is leaving the company with a $35 million personal pension, $50 million severance and over $70 million in additional stock options. In- coming CEO Dirk Van de Put stands to make $55 million in his first year. OnlinE EXtra Read the full report at http://www.iwj.org/resources/break ing-faith-outsourcing-and-the- damage-done-to-our-communities State Sen. Rod Monroe — a Portland Democrat — has earned the dubious distinction of being named “2017 Scrooge of the Year” by Portland Jobs with Justice. Each year the non-profit workers rights group confers the Scrooge award on a boss, politi- cian, or corporation that stood out for their hard-hearted atti- tude toward working people. The winner is the nominee who gets the most votes, one dollar per vote, at the group’s annual holiday party and fundraiser. This year’s party raised over $5,000 for Portland Jobs with Justice. Attendees at the Dec. 9 event chose Monroe because he’s a landlord who with the help of the landlord lobby helped kill renters’ rights legis- lation in the 2017 session of the Oregon Legislature, including a bill to allow cities to use rent control. Amid a crisis of housing affordability, Democratic House Speaker Tina Kotek declared that bill a priority, and it passed the Oregon House, only to fail in the Senate thanks to Monroe. The year’s other nominees: ■ AT&T Mobility, for stalling on contract bargaining, and negotiating with workers in bad faith for over a year. ■ Freedom Foundation, for pushing anti-worker legislation, and for attacking and harassing local union members. ■ Kay Toran, CEO of Volunteers of America, for paying workers minimum wage while earning over $200k per year, and refusing to negotiate with a newly formed union. ■ Mondeléz-Nabisco, for outsourcing factory jobs to countries with more lenient labor laws to avoid union labor and exploit workers for greater profits. ■ Tom Mears, chairman of Burgerville parent company The Holland Inc., for Burgerville's year-and-half-long anti- union campaign.
