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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2018)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS IN THIS ISSUE INFRASTRUCTURE BAIT AND SWITCH How Trump’s $1.5 trillion plan shrank to just $200 billion. | Page 2 TEACHER CONTRACT BREAKTHROUGH For first time, deal at Portland Public Schools limits class size | Page 5 Meeting Notices p. 4 Building Trades endorsements p. 5 VOLUME 119, NUMBER 4 PORTLAND, OREGON FEBRUARY 16, 2018 WORKERS’ RIGHTS Right-to-work nation? Getting ready for Janus v AFSCME By Don McIntosh Ten days from now — Feb. 26 — the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the most significant labor law case in decades. In Janus v. AFSCME, a lawyer for an anti-union group will argue that requiring union- represented public employees to pay anything at all to the union would be an unconstitutional vi- olation of their First Amend- ment free speech rights — be- cause that would be like making them pay for political speech they might disagree with. The Court addressed that same argument over 40 years ago in a 1977 case called Abood v. Detroit Board of Education and came up with a compro- mise: Union-represented work- ers who choose not to join the union don’t have to pay union dues, which pay for political ex- penses like lobbying, but they can, if state law allows it, be re- quired to pay a lesser amount known as “fair share” fees — fees that cover just the union’s costs of negotiating contracts and representing members. Now, plaintiffs in the Janus case want the Court to overturn the Abood decision based on the argument that everything a union does — even grievance handling — is political when the employer is a government. If a majority of the Court agrees, it would result in an im- mediate financial hit to public sector unions in 23 states, in- cluding Oregon, Washington, and California. In effect, the Court would be imposing the so-called “right to work” policy on state and local governments nationwide. The Janus case began with Bruce Rauner, a private equity fund manager with a net worth estimated at close to a billion dollars. Rauner, a Republican, won the November 2014 elec- tion for governor of Illinois. Turn to Page 8 JOBS UO’s new $1 billion Knight Science Campus will be built under a PLA The Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council (OSBCTC) has signed a project labor agreement (PLA) with Hoffman Construction and the University of Oregon for the new Knight Campus for Accelerated Scientific Impact. The $1 billion facility will be constructed in four phases over the next 10 years. The Knight Campus will sup- port more than 1,300 construc- tion jobs during peak construc- tion, and directly contribute nearly $100 million in annual economic activity to Oregon’s economy, UO officials said in a press release. When fully operational, the Knight Campus will support more than 750 permanent jobs. “The building trades has never had a PLA with the Oregon Uni- versity System,” said Tim Frew, executive secretary of the OS- BCTC. “This is a great opportu- nity to show what we’re about, and that we can be good partners ... and it will improve our market share in Lane County.” The Knight Campus will con- sist of three new 70,000-square- foot buildings immediately adja- cent to UO’s current science complex in Eugene. The campus Turn to Page 5 Workers at the Convention Center Burgerville gather outside the store on day one of a three-day walkout. Burgerville union calls for boycott Amid firings of union support- ers, House Speaker Tina Kotek and 11 unions back the boycott By Don McIntosh Twenty-one months after launching a union campaign at Burgerville, the Burgerville Workers Union has announced a major escalation: A call for consumers to boycott the re- gional fast food chain until the company negotiates with the union. The announcement came amid a three-day strike that began Feb. 1 at the restau- rant on MLK Blvd. in North- east Portland, and spread to restaurants at 25th and Powell and 96th and Powell in South- east Portland, and in Glad- stone. “We’re striking to protest il- legal union busting, and be- cause we want our union to be recognized,” said Michelle Ce- ballos, a night shift crew mem- ber at the MLK Blvd. store. “Without recognition, we’re not going to get our demands met.” No law prevents Burgerville from agreeing to meet with the union (or obligates it to do so). The company has opposed the union effort and said it won’t parley with the union unless the union proves it has major- ity support in a government- administered election. The company has 44 locations and about 1,300 employees in Ore- gon and Washington. Turn to Page 7 SHAME ON BOEING. Operating Engineers Local 701 reports that Boe- ing’s Gresham plant is using a nonunion contractor to move heavy ma- chinery. In the early morning of Feb. 13, the union hoisted a banner out- side the plant entrance with the message: “Shame on Boeing for hiring a rat contractor.” The contractor is Integrity Machinery Moving of Portland — founded in 2016 by Jeff Morgan, a former executive at union-signa- tory Omega Morgan. Local 701 Business Manager Jim Anderson says In- tegrity now is underbidding union contractors while employing nonunion workers and paying them below area-standard wages and benefits. Pictured above are organizers Scott Anderson and Tim Boyette.
